hatch covers on WW2 Liberty Ships

Liberty ships use the method described by Fred to secure the tarps. An interesting statistic courtesy of the WWII equipment inventory that starts to get across the amount of work involved: securing the hatch covers on a Liberty ship requires hammering down a total of 274 wooden wedges (these can splinter on occasion- 275 spares were to be supplied).

At least in the case of the Jeremiah O’Brien the hatch boards themselves were painted; the color appears to match the dark gray used on the hull. Boards that were unique to a hatch had a colored stripe (yellow for ‘tween deck, red for main deck) with the hatch number stenciled on top in black.

Hatch boards on the O’Brien are composed of three boards, with the middle one wider than the outer two. The handholds are half-round steel bar that run across a recess in the planking. The standard dimensions are 4'-11-3/4" x 2'-5-7/8" for the tween deck and 4'-11-3/4" x 2'-3-1/8" for the main deck. The reason for wider ‘tween deck boards is that the main deck has nine boards per row, while the ‘tween deck has eight. Some hatches have one or more rows of boards that are non-standard lengths.

Regards,

Chris Friedenbach
Crewmember, SS Jeremiah O’Brien

This is great information, and the kind of thing that gets "lost" as time goes on.

My Dad and I were fortunate enough to take the American Victory cruise in April, and they did use the wooden wedge system to secure the canvas covers. Dad said he remembered having to do that and what a pain it was for all five hatches - which is why those covers were put on and stayed on until they reached the final destination!

A good description Catskipper,
There must be thousands of coffee tables made from old hatch-boards. I saw one at a yard sale just a week or so ago.
The only thing I remember differently is the tarps, instead of the curtain-rod setup you describe, often were tucked behind a flat steel batten which secured each side of the tarp. Then the battens were tightened by driving wooden wedges which were positioned to push the batten against the side of the hatch and the canvas.
Three canvas tarps were put on each hatch, with the newest one on the top.
Fred

I just happen to have a hatch cover from a Liberty ship in my den as a table. Alot of the Victory and Liberty ships were broken up at the Busche terminal in Brooklyn. From the vast piles of hatch covers I saw, none of them were painted, grey, green or otherwise. They were raw, undressed planks, 6.5" by 2"5 inches, and 59 inches long. Four of these planks made up each hatch cover. There was a 2.5 inch band of wrapped steel on each end and dead center an auger was used to drill through all four planks. A 26 inch long threaded rod was run through the augered hole and bolted to keep the planks from warping. There were two simple handles, one on each opposite side of the finished hatch cover. Sometimes it was a simple U bent run of iron hammered into the planks. But I have seen some where a flat piece of quater inch thick steel stock was screwed across the depression carved out of the planks to form hand grips. Any color on these puppies was the result of grease, dirt or other fallout from their rough handling. But the prior submission was correct. After all the hatchcovers were replaced across the stringers, they were covered by canvas, forming a reasonably tight waterproof seal. These tarps, or canvas covers had iron rods on all four sides that were run through a pre-sewn loop, much like a curtain rod going through a curtain. The decks had simple eye-pads welded in place and the iron battons were simply adjusted forward or backwards to slide into both padeyes. I hope this information helps with your dad's present. Best regards: J. Stewart (USS SANTA ISABELLE)

It is a decent website, but actually being on the ship is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better, and I was lucky enough to be able to attend the April "cruise" in Tampa Bay!

Unfortunately, a lot of the "little wartime details" have been lost, which you have to expect after 60-plus years of mostly benign neglect, and the memories of the men who sailed on these magnificent vessels are also fading.

The current hatch covers on the American Victory are the ubiquitous "Walmart blue" tarp, painted gray, but hey, this is a group of very dedicated volunteers doing their absolute best to restore the old gal to her 1940s glory!

The Web Site:

http://www.americanvictory.org hase some photos that may be of interest.
Nice history too.
Bill

As I've progressed on my second 1/700 scale Victory ship, the hatch cover color became important, because I'd like it to be as accurate as I can make it (which is not saying a lot at this stage!)

I tried mixing colors, but I suck at it, quite frankly. Bought various shades of green from the local hobby shop; I now have an impressive collection.

But - for me at least, Model Master's RAF Interior Green enamel seems to fill the bill. It dries to a muted creamy green color that looks like the canvas of yesteryear. Now ... anyone want a really good deal on a half-dozen slightly used bottles of green paint?

Mfsob,
Just my 2 cents worth, but if the model is for your Dad, and he remembers the hatch covers being brown, then I'd leave them brown.

Liberty ships are slightly before my time, but I also recall canvas covered hatches as being green(ish). What with diferent tarps and fading etc, any color from dark green to olive would be close enough.
Fred

Thanks for the feedback, Chris. My Dad is puzzled by my sudden specific questions about Victory ships, because he doesn't know I'm building the model for him as a surprise! And all this stuff DID happen 60 years ago ... sometimes I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.

As an aside, he and I are taking a "cruise" on the American Victory in Tampa, FL, on April 16, 2005. I plan to be doing a LOT of research and picture taking, even though the model is already mostly built and painted, because I may try it again in hopes of getting better results the second time. This first 1/700 scale kit has been a learning experience (mild understatement!)

Note that I said green is A traditional color. I don’t have conclusive evidence to say that brown is wrong, but at this point green would be my best guess. All of the period documentation I have located so far simply says that they should be colored as directed, with no details.

Regards,

Chris Friedenbach
Crewmember, SS Jeremiah O’Brien

Oh, swell ... I just painted the covers on my 1/700 Victory ship flat brown, because that's what my dad remembered!

This is one area where I don’t have any original samples to look at, and I haven’t really spent a lot of time researching it. Green is a traditional color for these but the exact shade probably varied quite a bit, somewhere between a medium green and olive drab. Wartime Navy ships may have had the tarps a camouflage color, but I don’t have any info one way or the other on that.

Regards,

Chris Friedenbach
Crewmember, SS Jeremiah O’Brien