Liberty Ship Nomenclature
This is a listing of the original and completion
names of the 2710 Liberty ships built between
September 27, 1941 and September 2, 1945.
Many of the pictures displayed are peacetime pictures
and show the ships with a different name and without
guns, but they are the ships we sailed.
The style of nomenclature adopted for the
emergency vessels the United States Maritime
Commission used broad guidelines. Initially,
the ships - with certain military exceptions and in
some of the variations to the basic type - were,
generally, named for eminent Americans from all
walks of life who had made notable contribution to
the history or to the culture of the United States of
America - some famous, some forgotten, yet others
heroic - or even mythical.
Then, as war progressed, 120 Liberties were named for
heroes of the American Merchant Marine; not only those
who had lost their lives by enemy action, but in other
disasters at sea. All ranks were among them, from master
to seaman, chief engineer to wiper, purser to cook, as well
as radio operators, utility men and a stewardess.
Altogether, more than one hundred Liberty ships were
named for women and another group honoured some of the
war correspondents killed on duty.
But the main guideline was that the name used had to be of
a deceased person, and during the term of the Liberty
shipbuilding programme the Maritime Commission
received many letters from American citizens suggesting
that certain of their ancestors or relatives 'qualified' for a
ship to be named for them.
Only one Liberty ship, the FRANCIS J. O'GARA, was
named for a living person - and this in error. Purser of the
JEAN NICOLET, sunk by a Japanese submarine, he was
thought to have perished, but returned home after the war
from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.
And there were also complaints received at the USMC
Public Relations Office, generally from persons who
objected to the names already allocated. It is said that one
prominent politician complained '. . . I understand my name
has been given to a Liberty ship. I am not dead, not in dry
dock and do not need my bottom scraped. Please cancel the
name.' He was advised that the ship had been named in
honour of another person of the same name who had been
dead for many years.
The first column is the USMC Hull Number.
The names in the second column are arranged in
alphabetical order by the entire name. That means that
"JOHN W. BROWN" is found under the "J" group, not the
"B" group.
Of all these ships,
there are only two left in
operating condition, the
SS JOHN W. BROWN
on the east coast, and
the SS JERIMIAH
O'BRIEN on the west
coast !!!