4 ms·
IIRC, Liberty ships were of fairly poor quality due to their rushed construction and welding vs riveting, but that they only had to complete a single Atlantic c
by mLuby 5y ago
IIRC, Liberty ships were of fairly poor quality due to their rushed construction and welding vs riveting, but that they only had to complete a single Atlantic cargo crossing to be worth the construction cost. Sounds a bit like fast fashion in that regard.
Also because there were so many Liberty ships left over, many became privately owned, possibly tramp freighters? Easy to see parallels to the "space trucker" sci-fi trope of a (relatively) small, armed, independently owned and operated cargo vessel.
Good 7min video on Liberty ships: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qDxqBvK3NA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qDxqBvK3NA
- hef19898 5y agoBeing an industrial engineer, a suuply chain and logistics guy with a prdound interest in history, the Liberty ships are one of my favorite subjects. So many lessons to be learned from that! EDIT: I also have a special place in my heart for Star War's tramp feighters and their captains, legit or otherwise.
- sandworm101 5y agoThey were planned to be bad, but after a while they became rather good. The factory approach results in incremental improvements all around, including build quality. Many continued to work long after the war.
- gumby 5y ago> They were planned to be bad, but after a while they became rather good This is the very definition of the (misunderstood) learning curve.
- a9h74j 5y agoIn this half-fraught context, I'd like to raise the question of a potential new era of "liberty ships" -- i.e. proposal(s) to build modular nuclear plants using shipbuilding technology and scales. Presumably high standards of quality control could be maintained from the start.
- mLuby 5y agoOn the other end, one wonders how large freighters might become were the Panama and Suez canals not constraints.