soc.history.war.world-war-ii

SolomonW wrote:
> The Maritime Museum of Tasmania, in Hobart has a model of what it claims
> is an Australian-made liberty ship. It claims it was one of 13 such
> liberty ships produced by Australia in WW2.
>
> I studied the model and noticed that it seems slightly different to a US
> liberty ship. When I tried to question the museum attendance who are
> supposed to be experts, I discovered that they useless for any
> information on any of the subjects in the museum.
>
> However although it may be an Australian copy of a US design modified by
> local manufacturing conditions I suspect it is a merchant ship produced
> in Australia and called a liberty ship as a generic name afterwards.
>
> Any thoughts on this?
>

These were the so-called "River" class ships. They were 9,000 ton
vessels 447 feet by 56 feet in dimension with a top speed of 12 knots.
They were based on the British "Scottish Monarch" design rather than
that of the Liberty ship.

(The Liberty ships were also based on a British design, with welding
being substituted for riveting, as was also the case with the River class.)

Some 13 were built in 1943-46 (out of 60 originally ordered) by Cockatoo
Docks in Sydney(2); Evans Deakin at Rocklea, QLD (4); The Melbourne
Harbour Trust at Williamstown, VIC (2); and BHP at Wyalla, NSW (5).