Victory Ships

By late 1942, it was obvious that the Liberty Ships would soon be entering service in huge numbers, decisively winning the tonnage war with the U-boats and providing the cargo lift needed to support the Allies' global war effort. But the Maritime Commission had never been particularly happy with the design. The biggest drawback was that it was simply too slow, and as the supply of steel began to throttle the shipyards, the Commission asked if it wouldn't be possible to design a ship that balanced the speed of production of the Liberty with the greater value of the faster C2 cargo ship, both during the war and afterwards.

Lane Victory in San Pedro

This logic proved compelling, and work began on the design, with a target speed of 15 kts. In most other ways, it would be similar to the Liberty, with extensive use of welding and careful design for ease of production. Cargo capacity would remain around 10,000 tons, and the layout was quite similar, with five holds. Each hold would get an extra deck inside it to make it easier to load cargo, and the deck was strengthened to increase capacity there, even though that meant getting new steel shapes out of the recalcitrant steel companies. As the design progressed, some other quality of life features that had been deleted from the Libertys were restored, such as the gyrocompass and searchlights, so long as they wouldn't delay the planned program. Steam auxiliary equipment gave way to electric, and detail design was improved to deal with the threat of cracking.

But the biggest question was engines. When the Liberty had been designed in 1941, the overriding imperative was speed of production, limiting machinery to a reciprocating steam engine churning out only 2,500 hp. This was less than half the power required for the new type, and the Maritime Commission explored several options. In an ideal world, they would use steam turbines, as was common for fast cargo ships, but despite their best efforts to increase production of marine turbines, it seemed that the growing appetite of other shipbuilding programs had kept pace. Instead, they turned to the Lentz Engine, a steam engine that should be capable of higher powers than standard types. The only problem was that, while it was common in Germany, only one company in America had a license. That in and of itself wasn't a big deal, as German patents obviously weren't being enforced, but it did mean that various parties were rather wary of adopting technology that they didn't have experience with.

SS American Victory in Tampa Bay

It was at about this point in early 1943 that the Maritime Commission's plans came into conflict with the War Production Board. The WPB had appointed William Gibbs of Gibbs and Cox as its head of shipbuilding, and he quickly began to push for the curtailment of the Victory program in favor of more Libertys, which they argued would provide more tonnage without the disruption required to retool for the new design. The Commission argued that their production was primarily limited by steel, and that it made sense to spend extra labor to turn said steel into faster ships that could carry more cargo with less crew. Gibbs also pushed for cuts in the C series of ships, which the Commission took great pride in. Those, they fended off by pointing out that the yards were already tooled up and building them quickly, and any long-term benefits would be outweighed by the short-term costs.

The dispute raged for several months, as the delineation of responsibilities between the two organizations was less than clear, and the only one who could referee the fight was FDR, who encouraged clashes between the organizations responsible for the American war effort. The clashes delayed the switch to the Victory Ship, as the WPB refused to authorize needed plant additions for several months before Roosevelt finally sided with the Commission. But the issue reared again as the supply of turbines became an issue, with the WPB proving helpful in producing a new 6,000 shp turbine for the Victory Ship, and the Maritime Commission having to fight off plans to use the cheaper turbine on the C ships. At one point, things got so bad that the Commission had to send letters from its legal department countermanding orders by the WPB to cancel C series turbines. After a truly insane amount of bureaucratic wrangling, the matter was finally decided in the Commission's favor in August 1943 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Victory Ships lined up at Oregon Ship

But the result was that the new vessels would be powered by turbine instead of by the Lentz Engine, a mix of the new Victory turbines and turbines designed for the C3 type that were available because the turbine manufacturers were running ahead of the shipbuilding schedule. The new turbine was less efficient than the old one, but significantly easier to build. Among other things, the propeller speed was increased from 92 rpm to 100 rpm, which allowed the gears to be smaller, in turn allowing more gear-cutting machines to be put to use.

The first keel of the new type was laid on November 19th, 1943, at Oregon Ship, on a slip that had just seen a Liberty go down the ways. It took 102 days for SS United Victory to be delivered, a significant improvement over the 226 days it took for Oregon Ship's first Liberty. She was followed by 34 more ships, each bearing the name of an Allied nation, followed by "Victory". With those names exhausted, the US turned first to cities and towns, and then to colleges. As with the Libertys, building times plunged, with Oregon's 28th ship, Escanaba Victory, being laid down only 61 days before her delivery on June 29th. In total 413 of the basic cargo Victory ships would be delivered, plus three more completed to a modified design postwar, although many of them were too late to see much action.

USS Okanogan, a Haskell class attack transport

The speed of the Victory design opened up the possibility of its use as a naval auxiliary, and a total of 117 were built as attack transports of the Haskell class, named after American counties. Each was completed with facilities to carry 1,500 men and to unload them over a hostile beach, although they were quite cramped, as the designers had to cram in as many troops and almost as much cargo as had been carried by the larger C3 troopships the Navy preferred, and the barber, cobbler and tailor shops had to be discarded. To ferry them ashore, each ship carried 23 LCVPs, 2 LCMs, and three other LCVP-sized craft, and the interior was laid out to make it easy to move the troops into their landing craft, a distinct issue with point-to-point troopships when used for amphibious landings. Armament was 1 5"/38, 1 quad Bofors, 4 twin Bofors and 10 Oerlikons. Many of these ships were rushed into service for the later part of the Pacific War, and they made up the majority of the Navy's attack transport fleet into the 60s.

They were far from the only Victory Ships to see postwar service, although production stopped with the defeat of Japan, with the exception of 3 hulls completed for the Alcoa Steamship Company. 72 of the cargo version were sold to American shipowners, and another 100 or so overseas, many of which served on as cargo liners for decades, although their numbers were dwarfed by the Liberty Ship in postwar service. This left the government with about 200 vessels in the reserve fleet, which it used for a variety of purposes. 46 were used postwar by the seagoing cowboys, who carried over 200,000 animals to replenish Europe's war-ravaged herds. Many were reactivated to carry cargo for the wars in Korea and Vietnam. Some had more exciting lives, such as Pratt Victory, torpedoed off Okinawa in the closing days of the war and sailed as an expendable minesweeper to ensure that all the remnants of the American mining campaign against Japan had been removed. This was indeed the case, and she went on to have a long career first in government and then in merchant service.

USS Liberty in happier days

Other Victorys were converted into more conventional auxiliary ships, in roles including stores ships, cargo ships for the ballistic missile submarine force, missile tracking and telemetry ships, survey ships and "technical research ships" that researched radar and radio emissions. One of these, USS Liberty, became probably the most famous of the Victory Ships after she was mistakenly attacked by Israeli forces during the Six-Day War, with the loss of 34 of her crew.

Red Oak Victory

But on the whole, the Victory Ship proved an excellent design, if less prominent than its earlier sister. Three remain as museum ships today, American Victory in Tampa, Red Oak Victory in Richmond, California and Lane Victory in San Pedro, not far from the Iowa. All three used to regularly go to sea, although it appears that all three are now crippled by boiler problems. Still, they live on, a reminder of the "bridge of ships" that carried the supplies to fight WWII.