Get the latest tech news

How the US built 5k ships in WWII

Among the most impressive manufacturing achievements of the US during WWII was the number of ships it produced.

Its goal was “the creation of an adequate and well-balanced merchant fleet… readily and quickly convertible into transport and supply vessels in a time of national emergency.” The year after its formation, the commission funded the construction of the largest ocean liner ever built in the US, the SS America, and contracted with several shipbuilders to build a series of commission-designed “standard” cargo ships. Land was reluctant to build significant numbers of slow, outdated ships, but had no real choice, and ultimately the commission decided to use the Ocean-class as the basis for its emergency program, with several modifications (such as rearranging the location of the deckhouse and changing the type of boiler). In his doctoral thesis on US wartime shipbuilding, Chris Tassava notes that over the course of the war, the commission “became extraordinarily adept at channeling the cascade of information which flowed from its own divisions, other mobilization agencies, the bevy of big and small contractors, and non-governmental industry bodies”:

Get the Android app