Henry Kaiser was a near genius and his techniques for pre-fabrication and mass production of ships was a radically new concept for the times. Shipbuilding just wasn't done that way and it took a while for other builders to catch on. It must also be understood that building warships is an entirely different process. They have to be built to much tighter tolerances and with much stricter controls, heavier structures, increased redundancy of systems, etc. They are less adaptable to mass production with the manufacturing technology of the 1940's. However, as CalBear did point out, we did produce an amazing number of warships, literally faster than the combined Axis forces could sink them.
The early run of Liberty ships had some unforeseen problems and were structurally unsound. They had the unfortunate tendency to break apart in the cold waters of the North Atlantic. Kaiser was forced to add structural reinforcements to the hulls. Once done they gave very good service and were instrumental in winning the war.
Dave
www.pigboats.com
Well, I dont know if he was that much of a genius, the idea had already been used at the end of WW1 with what became known as the Hog Islanders.
http://smmlonline.com/articles/hogislanders/hogislanders.html
and a surprisingly good wiki article - surprising as it is wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hog_Islander
Hog Islanders is the slang for ships built to
Emergency Fleet Corporation designs number 1022 and 1024. These vessels were cargo and transport ships, respectively, built under government direction and subsidy to address a shortage of ships in the
United States Merchant Marine during
World War I.
[1]
American International Shipbuilding, subsidized by the
United States Shipping Board, built an emergency shipyard on
Hog Island just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the site of present day Philadelphia International Airport.
Ironically, no ships were produced in time to participate in
World War I, but many ships were active in
World War II, with roughly half of those produced at Hog Island being sunk in that conflict.
Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) was formed by the US Shipping Board to acquire, design and build sufficient shipping for the US to conduct operations in World War I. The EFC found that US shipyards were too few and small to meet the needs; contracts were awarded to foreign yards in Japan and China. The EFC also contracted with private companies to form new yards, called "Agency Yards". These would be assembly yards, building prefabricated ships, rather than using traditional methods.
Hog Island in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the first shipyard ever built for mass production of ships from fabricated parts and sub-assemblies, produced at dozens of subcontractors. It had 50 shipways, seven wet docks and a holding basin.
Only two basic designs, EFC 1022 and EFC 1024, were to be fabricated at the yard, these became collectively known as "Hog Islanders". The Type A design (1022) was a cargo carrier and the Type B (1024) was designed to transport troops. Both were simple designs geared toward mass production and aesthetic considerations were ignored. These were very modern in design except for the aesthetics. The vessels were fueled by
oil rather than
coal, with modern geared turbines of 2500 shaft horsepower capable of producing up to 15
knots.
The design had an minimum of frills with no sheer (upward curve at the bow or stern), resulting in a squat, angular silhouette. The hulls were symmetrical from the sides. The combination produced an unconventional look and profile. These ships were considered ugly but well built and had good performance in terms of capacity and speed. The profile created a form of camouflage because the lack of sheer in the bow, high stern, and the evenly balanced superstructure, made it difficult for submarines to tell which direction the ships were going.
The Hog Island contract was for 180 ships, but only 122 were completed, and none were completed in time to be used before the war ended. The first ship, the SS
Quistonck, was launched on August 5, 1918, and the last of 122 ships on January, 29 1921.
Though not effective in World War I, these ships were used extensively by the military and Merchant Marine. Fifty eight, nearly half, of the Hog Islanders were sunk during
World War II. The
Liberty ships built during World War II used a similar concept of production, but a completely different design; in most ways the Hog Islanders were a more advanced design, despite their age.
[edit] Type B
Only 24 Type B troop transports were produced. Twelve of the Type B ships were built with 8,400-ton displacements, one of which became the US Navy
USS Argonne (AS-10). Another twelve were built with 13,400-ton displacements, an example of which was the US Navy hospital ship
USS Samaritan (AH-10), which was active in WWII.