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The Maritime Commission designed this coastal cargo ship to be used by the British Ministry of War Transport and all 36 built were transferred to that country as part of the Lend-Lease program. The vessels were among the smallest self-propelled cargo ships produced by the U.S. Maritime...
U.S. Maritime Commission design type C1-S-D1
Thirty six of these concrete-hull ships were built for the U.S. Maritime Commission. Originally designed to carry sugar, the U.S. Army converted many into floating warehouses and intentionally sank several to form beachheads following the...
U.S. Maritime Commission design type C3-S-DX1
The only vessel of the C3-S-DX1 design, SS Schuyler Otis Bland was the final vessel ordered by the U.S. Maritime Commission, and the first vessel launched by the newly-created Maritime Administration. The vessel’s name honored the...
Although the early focus of the U.S. Maritime Commission’s shipbuilding efforts had been dry cargo ships, by early winter in 1941, German U-boats and commerce raiders were exacting a heavy toll on Allied tankers. These mounting losses lead the agency to commission a tanker, based on a standard...
U.S. Maritime Commission type EC2-S-C1 “Liberty Ship”
The driving force behind the Liberty ship design was speed of construction. The U.S. Maritime Commission initially designed and contracted its standardized “C” cargo ships at a relatively leisurely pace, but by the beginning of 1941...
Maritime Administration design type C4-S-1A
The final ships designed by the U.S. Maritime Commission, the Mariner-class, did not go into production until after the U.S. government had reorganized the agency as the Maritime Administration under the Department of Commerce....
After World War II, the surplus of cargo ships produced by the Emergency Shipbuilding Program meant that the U.S. Maritime Commission had several years to develop a successor to the Victory ship and Long Range Shipbuilding Program-era designs. The final two vessels designed and ordered by...
As a part of the Emergency Shipbuilding Program, the U.S. Maritime Commission, in addition to the construction of cargo ships and tankers, also built many commissioned U.S. Navy vessels. Between 1939 and 1945, the commission oversaw the delivery of 682 “military” type vessels.
The navy...
Even as the U.S. Maritime Commission’s Liberty shipbuilding program got into full swing, the agency was also designing and building more types of ships as part of the emergency program. Many of these ships were built for wartime use, designed with materials shortages in mind. The...
By late 1940, even before the United States entered World War II, the U.S was engaging in “defense preparations” with an eye toward the war raging in Europe. The Neutrality Act of 1939 forbade U.S.-flag ships from entering the war zone, which included British waters; however, with Britain the...