rhys wrote:



My father, who turns 80 tomorrow, was in the British Merchant Marine
during WWII. He said that while the losses from U-Boats were
devastating, he found a lot of sailors feared the kind of storm that
could "bridge" a single-hulled, laden freighter between two wave
crests, causing it to fail and essentially snap in half.

He said the ships rushed out in the latter half of the war were worse
for this sort of thing, akin to the "Liberty ships" in the States.

R.

The Liberties were one of the first ships massed produced with all
welded construction.
Initially, from memory, there was a serious problem with breaking in half.
Much of this was corrected/lessened by adding a riveted plate (crack
arrestor) around the hull at the main deck level.
Again, from memory, this was considered a "stop gap" solution that
seemed to have good results and in fact you tended to see these "crack
arrestor" plates on much construction until well into the 60's.

otn