Liberty Ship Question (With pictures of my build!!)

Abram - the cargo holds are covered by the five large hatches, the flat rectangular structures on the deck - three forward of the superstructure and two aft. The hatches did not have doors, per se - the openings were covered with large planks, then topped with a canvas tarpaulin to waterproof it

To open one, all you would have to do would be to cut off the molded covering. This is where it gets tricky. Each hatch was basically a large, square hold that went to the bottom of the ship. Underneath the main deck were several levels of cargo decks. I believe (don't quote me) that the Liberty ships had two cargo decks. You could just leave the large hole there in the main deck, but if people are going to be looking down in it, I would think you would want to add at least the second deck with styrene sheet and strips. That way you could add some "cargo" around the edges for a busy, realistic look.

What scale are you doing this in? I'm puttering around on a 1/700 Liberty ship as we speak, and those hatch openings aren't very big!

I'm sure that Chris Friedenbach of the O'Brien crew will chime in here and fill in more or correct me if I'm too far off ...

The hatch covers are a set of  planks that extend across the hatch opening.   I believe the hatch planks go athwartships.   The vertical hatch openings on each of the lower decks are essentially the same configuration.

You need to invest in the Tom's Modelworks photo CD.  It has some WWII archive photos of Liberty ships, some receiving cargo such as this P-47 going down the hatch.

The Library of Virginia also has some excellent photos in their US Army Signal Corps at Hampton Roads collection

http://ajax.lva.lib.va.us/F/?func=file&file_name=find-b-clas72&local_base=CLAS72

Put Liberty Ship into the search function

mfsob wrote:

Abram - the cargo holds are covered by the five large hatches, the flat rectangular structures on the deck - three forward of the superstructure and two aft. The hatches did not have doors, per se - the openings were covered with large planks, then topped with a canvas tarpaulin to waterproof it To open one, all you would have to do would be to cut off the molded covering. This is where it gets tricky. Each hatch was basically a large, square hold that went to the bottom of the ship. Underneath the main deck were several levels of cargo decks. I believe (don't quote me) that the Liberty ships had two cargo decks. You could just leave the large hole there in the main deck, but if people are going to be looking down in it, I would think you would want to add at least the second deck with styrene sheet and strips. That way you could add some "cargo" around the edges for a busy, realistic look. What scale are you doing this in? I'm puttering around on a 1/700 Liberty ship as we speak, and those hatch openings aren't very big!

I'm using the Trumpeter 1/350 Liberty ship. I'll take a look at that, sounds easier than I first thought. come to think of it, it shouldn't be too hard, now that I'm remembering I took pictures when I was on the Jeremiah O'brien last year.

Something else to think about.... If a hatch is open, where do you put all the hatch boards and tarps? Most likely they would be stacked and piled alongside the open hatch, and probably on the offshore side of the ship where they'd be out of the way.

Fred

The hatch covers are boards that are laid between steel beams.  There were several types of beams that were used depending on where the ship was built- some used the lattice beams shown in the photo Ed posted, while others had beams that looked more like a typical I-beam.  The spacing between these beams is roughly five feet. 

The hatch boards consist of three wooden planks joined by steel bands on either end.  They have recessed handholds located at opposite corners.  These are all about 5 feet long (the length varies a little bit depending on the hatch) except for the forward most row of No. 1 hatch, which has boards that are 3’ 8-7/8” long.  The main deck has boards that are 2’ 3-1/8” wide, making for nine boards in each row.  The ‘tween deck boards are slightly wider at 2’ 5-7/8”, allowing for only eight boards per row.

As for the holds themselves, each hold on a Liberty ship has a second ‘tween deck that is located about a third of the way down into the hull.  The ‘tween decks are pretty much wide open spaces.  The lower holds have the addition of bulkheads that run along the centerline of the ship except for under the hatch openings.  Also, the holds aft of the deckhouse have the shaft tunnel running through the middle of them (basically an arch-shaped structure about 10 feet high).  No. 1 hold is slightly different, as it has three levels, the lower third of the hull consisting of four large storage tanks.  The result of this is that the lower hold is not as deep and has four large bolt-on steel hatch covers located on its deck. 

When opened the beams and boards would be put on the deck, although not necessarily on the offshore side.  The practice that was taught to me for removing boards is to start at the middle and work your way out, which results in having roughly half of the boards on either side of the ship.

Regards,

Chris Friedenbach
Crewmember, SS Jeremiah O’Brien

Well, I'm having problems with photobucket, but here are five of the nine pictures so far:

Scratchbuilt cargo hold
Scratchbuilt cargo hold1
Scratchbuilt cargo hold2
Scratchbuilt cargo hold3
Scratchbuilt cargo hold4

The cargo pallets and cargo are probably way over scale, but I like how they look (and those are two 16 inch shells on the pallet there, I had four, but two disappeared)

Alright, here are the rest of the pictures so far, enjoy!

Cut out deck opening
Cargo deck inside the ship
Cargo deck inside view 2
Cargo deck inside view 3

The cargo deck has yet to be glued inside the ship, as I'm waiting for an order from GHQ. I'll have one or two jeeps in the hold with another jeep being lifted onto the ship by the ship's crane. dockside I'll have cargo trucks a few more jeeps and perhaps some tanks. Along with more cargo pallets etc.

Looks good for the scale you're working in! Now it's got me wondering about doing the same thing to my 1/700 Liberty ship.

And from a construction standpoint, I can see why you would use solid sheet styrene, that's got to be easier than trying to use rod or strip to simulate the 'tween decks columns that helped attach the second deck to the main deck.

Looks like a good start.

You might consider extending the depth of the perimeter framing around the hatch with some Evergreen.  It is deeper than the thickness of the deck plastic.

You might also want to recheck the Library of Virginia website I recommended previously.  There are numerous photos of the loading process of WWII cargo ships.  These include the blocking and framing of cargo including bombs and shells.   The photos show trucks, tanks, even railroad locomotives being loaded

About the weirdest deck cargo on a Liberty ship I found was a photo that appeared to show two harbor tugs strapped down on the deck ... I have no idea what that was all about, the photo had no caption!

My Dad said it was very common to have anything and everything piled on the decks of the Victory ships he sailed on. Mostly by that time, near the end of the war, the deck cargo was large wooden crates holding God knows what, but they did haul Sherman tanks one time - on the deck, on the hatch covers, basically every place they could cram one. And of course, that was one of the times they plowed through a huge storm enroute to England; Dad said the crew was terrified the whole time that the deck cargo was going to cause them to roll completely over and turn turtle ... "storms" in the North Atlantic in the winter were NOT trivial affairs.