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The most famous group of merchant ships of the Second World War are the mass produced Liberty ships, but they were largely inspired by the less familiar Ocean class. This was a group of sixty merchant ships mass produced in the United States to a British design, and built at new purpose built shipyards. The Liberty ships were built to a modified larger version of the Ocean design, with oil power instead of coal, but the basic idea was taken from the Oceans.
We start with a look at the reason these ships were ordered in the United States, which came down to a combination of heavy wartime losses and the deliberate reduction of shipyard capacity in Britain in the 1930s. Next is a look at the design process and the negotiations in America, two processes that ran alongside each other. At first the British met with resistance in the United States, where no need was seen for this sort of relatively low cost bulk carrier, but this quickly changed. New shipyards had to be built, again a precursor of the massive construction projects associated with the Liberty ships.
We then move onto the careers of these ships. Tragically several were lost on their delivery voyage, while passing along the poorly defended US East Coast after the American entry into the war. More were lost during the war, and we get detailed accounts of all of these losses. It wouldn’t be possible to give a detailed history of all of every ship’s movements, but we do get a good narrative covering their main activities, and very useful tables giving a snapshot of where they were at particular dates, so we get a very good idea of just how busy these ships were and how far they wandered.
We finish with a look at their post-war careers, which rather match the decline of the British merchant fleet. At first most of the survivors were sold to British shipping lines and operated in British colours, but over time more were sold to overseas operators, or moved to flags of convenience. Most of them survived for much longer than expected, and some underwent massive reconstructions, in one case turning the original bulk carrier into a luxury cruise liner!
This is a well research, well organised and well written history of an important group of wartime merchant ships that entered the fray at the darkest point of the Battle of the Atlantic, and then helped contribution to many major Allied campaigns, most notably the D-Day landings.
Chapters
1 – Genesis
2 – Mission to America
3 – Building the Oceans
4 – The Oceans at War
5 – Wartime Casualties
6 – The Oceans at Peace
7 – Evaluation and Conclusions
Appendices
1 – Ocean Class Vessel Specifications
2 – Ocean Class Vessel Histories
3 – Valour and Strength in the Firing Line: Two Oceans at War
4 – Manning the Oceans
5 – The Cost of War
Author: Malcolm Cooper
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 144
Publisher: Seaforth
Year: 2022