Shipbroker Notes : Liberty Ships

Following the major losses of ships during the Second World War, various ship types were mass-produced to reduce costs and increase production.
The advantages of mass production can apply equally to shipbuilding. However, although this is true, unlike other modes of transport there is very little series building of ships at the moment. The long life of the Liberty ship (there were over 2,800 built during the war and there were still 680 in service in 1967) showed that there was and still is a use for a cheap, universally known and understood workhorse class of tramp ship capable of carrying anything anywhere. As the last of the Liberties made their way to the scrapyard a number of ‘Liberty replacement’ types were launched, of which there are two particularly worthy of note.