soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Geoffrey Sinclair wrote:

(snip excellent post)

> In one sense they had to last, as of 1945 the
> US merchant fleet was bigger than the rest of the world combined.

Another factor is that, just as the war put the UK back in its
transition away from industry and toward a services economy, in the US
some of the industries where the demand was highest were those in
economic sectors that had been declining prewar and were generally
considered obsolete.

There was a general shipping glut in the interwar years, with the
exception being liners (for which excess capacity had developped by
the late 1930's though the WWII need for troopships & auxiliary
cruisers obscured it) and especially the tanker fleet. Ditto with
specialized shipping like refrigerated freighters. So the bulk cargo
fleet was generally too large, worldwide, and constructions mostly
involved replacing steamers with oil-powered ships.

So about the last thing that the postward shipping market needed was a
large influx of steamships, particularly the bulk freighter kind. This
ensured that new construction remained uneconomical until most of that
stockpile had been retired.


LC