The Liberty
ships built in the first year or so of the program were all very similar, but
as modifications to the original design were specified there began to be more
and more variations between yards. The ships
that were converted for Naval service underwent even more changes.
I don’t have any photos of Bootes, so I can’t say for sure
what the extension would have been for. The
area aft of the hatch does not need to be clear to handle cargo, so this would
not have interfered. The one item that
was frequently added in this area was a locker for storing helium for barrage balloons-
in the case of the O’Brien this is located under the forward edge of the gun
deck on the port side.
The deckhouse itself is set back something like six or eight
feet from the front of the gun deck- on a ship with no helium locker the only
large structure in this area would be an escape trunk about 3 foot square. This was located on the centerline about a
foot or so back from the forward edge of the gun deck, and extended all the way
from the main deck up to the gun deck.
It was standard for Liberty
ships to have a small area of open deck at the after end of the bridge
deck. This was pretty much dead space,
so some later ships had this area enclosed (typically adding two cabins and a
gyro room). This would have been a
desirable addition on a USN Liberty ship due to the larger crew they sailed
with (150 to 200 sailors vs. 42 civilians and 15 to 30 Navy gunners on a
merchant Liberty).
On other item to watch out for when modeling an early
Liberty ship is the cutout in the bulwark between #4 and 5 hatches- this
feature didn’t become standard until early 1943.
Regards,
Chris Friedenbach
Crewmember, SS Jeremiah O’Brien