The Liberty Ships

In II World War, as in all the wars, it was a lot of loss about soldiers, vehicles as well as military and civilian ships. The involved nations always had have the necessity to cross the seas and even some oceans, to bring the necessary means sing to own Army or Allied. They generally used armed merchant ships, which sailed in convoy with the protection of military ships, trying to arrive to their final destination without to be sunk.
One of the more decisive cause in the loss of a lot of convoys were the unforgettable raid of German submarines, the U-boot, which during the “Atlantic Battle” sunk more of 13 millions of enemy fleet tonnage; 2.779 merchant ships overloaded with supplies for the army on the land.
It was surely the longer marine battle, 2.073 days in which it was invested a lot of resources; during this period Germany adopted tactical strategy to sunk more ships than the enemy could build up. Their elimination it was very important because not so much for the loading as for the reason that the ship didn’t arrive to destination.
Therefore, U-boot represented a real threat especially for ships coming from the United States and directed to Europe and North Africa.
These facts, together with the real lack of ships which were suitable for their maritime commerce, induce United States to conceive a project which foreseen the construction of a type of merchant ship adequate to their routes and seaports.
To these added the need of England, which had lose a lot of naval ships, to find substantial and, above all, quick alternatives to replace its lost fleet.
So, it was singled out in Henry J. Kaiser, well known American contractor, the right man to solve this problem and in the localities of Richmond, California e South Portland in Maine the suitable sites to settlement of new shipyards.