FACT SHEET ISSUED ON NATIONAL MARITIME DAY, MAY 22, 1945

Prepared by Division of Public Relations of the UNITED STATES MARITIME COMMISSION and WAR SHIPPING ADMINISTRATION

The following facts concerning the United States Maritime Commission and War Shipping Administration are for the use of magazines, newspapers, writers, cartoonists, speakers, and editors. Though prepared in connection with the 1945 observance of Maritime Day, they may be used at any time.

The oceangoing ships built by the Maritime Commission since 1937 are 30 to 40 percent larger than those built during the previous war.

Ten to twelve months were required in 1917-18 to build an oceangoing ship. Liberty ships, though a third larger, were built in 1943 in as little as 16 days in regular production in one of the most efficient yards. America's wartime shipbuilding capacity for oceangoing vessels is 2,000 or more annually, provided manpower and materials are available.

A Liberty ship can carry an amount of cargo equal to four trains of 75 cars each.

Twenty-eight oceangoing cargo ships were the total of construction by the Maritime Commission in 1939. Sixty-four times that many were built in 1943, in addition to more than 100 military vessels and numerous small craft.

More than 78 million long tons of cargo left United States ports in 1944. About 50 per cent was for the Army, 10 percent for the Navy, 30 percent for lend-lease goods and the remainder was essential civilian cargo.

Twelve of every 100 American ships taking supplies to Russia in 1943 were sunk by enemy action. In March, 1944, the rate of loss fell to one in every hundred.

All-concrete refrigerated barges built by the Maritime Commission for the Army, each capable of holding a thousand tons of fresh meat, fruit, ice, and ice cream are used as food depots in the South Pacific.

Fast vessels built by the Maritime Commission and converted to hospital ships have around a dozen completely equipped wards, diet pantry, recreation room, library, sun decks and other facilities of a first-class hospital.

Despite generally higher average pay scales in Maritime Commission shipyards over those of the previous war, the average cost per deadweight ton in recent years has been $160 compared to $210 in 1918-1919.

Though several ships of the American Merchant Marine in service are older, 20 years is considered the usual service period of an oceangoing vessel.

Propulsion machinery aggregating more than seven million horsepower was installed in seagoing merchant ships in 1944. This was almost twice the total power of the pre-Pearl Harbor merchant fleet of the United States.

The United States Merchant Marine Cadet Corps was established in 1938, to train young men for ships' Officers. The Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, Long Island, N.Y.

Five state academies, in New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts, and California train young men for Officer berths in the Merchant Marine. For the duration, they are partly supported by the War Shipping Administration.

A shipyard with 50 ways built 69 riveted ships aggregating 517,000 deadweight tons in 1919. In 1943 a 12- way Maritime Commission yard turned out 205 welded ships totaling 2,150,000 tons.

United States shipyards, responding to a Presidential directive to build 16 million deadweight tons of shipping in 1943, exceeded the goal by 20 percent, building a total of 19.2 million tons. Only 1.1 million tons were built in 1941, and 8.0 million in 1942.

Strategic control of Allied shipping is vested in the American-British Combined Shipping Adjustment Board, which directs operations from Washington and London.

Control of United Nations ocean shipping after VE-day will remain with the United Maritime Authority, composed of representatives of the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Greece, Norway, Canada, The Netherlands and Poland. Its authority extends to six months after the fall of Japan.

The SS AMERICA, largest passenger vessel ever built in the United States, was put in service in July, 1940, and is now a Navy transport under the name USS WEST POINT.

The first Liberty ship, the PATRICK HENRY, was launched in September, 1941, at Baltimore, Md. She is still in war service. The sponsor was Mrs. Henry A. Wallace, wife of the then Vice President.

The War Shipping Administration was created by Executive Order in February, 1942. It has complete control over United States ocean shipping for the duration of the war.

The Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal, awarded for outstanding acts of heroism by merchant seamen, has been presented to more than one hundred men for actions after September 3, 1939.

The Liberty ship ROBERT E. PEARY, built in a West Coast shipyard in the world's record time of one week flat, is now in her third year of war service.

The speed and efficiency of the Maritime Commission's C-type cargo vessels is exemplified by the performance of the SS CRAILENGE, a C-2 type, which left New York for the Orient 30 days after the CROWN CITY, an older ship. The ships followed the same itinerary and arrived back in New York on the same day.

Thirty-six thousand dwelling units have been built in congested shipbuilding centers by the Maritime Commission, at a cost of $40,000,000. They have been turned over to the control of the National Housing Agency.

Services of more than 40 skilled trades are required to build a Liberty ship.

Every Liberty ship has its own distillation system to make sea water drinkable.

More than 6,000 American merchant seamen have been war casualties; 5492 were dead or missing and 537 were prisoners of war as of March, 1945.

There are more than 4,000 merchant vessels under control of the War Shipping Administration for the duration of the war.

Thirty thousand men experienced in sailing oceangoing ships returned to sea in 1944, recruited by the Recruitment and Manning Organization of the War Shipping Administration.

The Merchant Marine Cadet Corps Academy at Kings Point, Long Island, N.Y. is on the former estate of the late Walter Chrysler, automobile tycoon.

The Victory ship, designed by the Maritime Commission, like its predecessor, the Liberty ship, can be built more rapidly than most vessels and is 50 per cent faster.

Expenditures of the Maritime Commission since 1936 for ships and shipbuilding facilities will reach about 18 billion dollars by July 1, 1945.

Forty-one percent of all of the oceangoing shipbuilding in United States merchant shipyards in the last 30 years was done in the single year of 1943, when 1,896 vessels were built.

The Maritime Commission in 1937 embarked on a ten-year program to build 500 cargo ships. The cargo ships built between that time and March 1, 1945 include more than 2,500 Liberty ships, about 450 C-type cargo vessels, 550 oceangoing tankers, 175 Victory cargo ships and a variety of military, coastal, and smaller craft.

In 1939 the British Empire controlled about one-third of the world's ocean shipping and the United States about one-seventh. The United States now has more than the rest of the world combined.

Maritime Day, May 22, was created by Congress in 1933 to commemorate annually the departure of the SS SAVANNAH from Savannah, Georgia in 1819 on the first transocean crossing using steam propulsion.

Trained personnel of the American Merchant Marine has increased from about 55,000 at Pearl Harbor to 215,000 in March, 1945.

The Department of Commerce estimates that United States foreign trade after the war may reach to six or seven billion dollars in each direction, in terms of 1942 prices.

Two-thirds of the world's merchant fleet now flies the American flag.

The Maritime Commission is now devoting a considerable part of its shipbuilding facilities to special types of combat vessels for use in the Pacific theater of war.

The Liberty ship construction program of the Maritime Commission, after producing more than 2,500 ships in 3.5 years, will end in 1945. Faster and more Modern vessels are now being built in Commission yards.

Women workers were 13 per cent of the 700,000 merchant shipyard employees in 1943, and 18 per cent of the 585,000 in October, 1944.

Despite the tremendous wartime merchant shipping losses suffered by the United Nations, they had been replaced in the aggregate before the end of 1943 by production in American shipyards.

To effect delivery of three badly needed cargo vessels that were ice-bound in Maritime Commission yards on the Great Lakes in January, a new $10,000,000 ice breaker was given a successful trial. A 70-foot path was cut through heavy ice in the Soo Canal and St. Marys river districts. The three vessels made the trip from Duluth to Chicago with ease, opening the definite possibility of all-winter traffic on that route.

The Nation's wartime merchant shipbuilding capacity has been increased considerably by building ocean vessels on the Great Lakes. The only way of getting these large vessels to salt water is via the Chicago drainage canal and Illinois-Mississippi river system to New Orleans. Superstructures are removed to get under Chicago bridges, and steel pontoons are attached to the sterns for the river trip, to lift them out of shallow water.

Some yards building Liberty ships have delivered these 441-foot vessels in 16 days in regular production.

The first Liberty ship required 244 days to build. By the end of 1945, the average building time for all Liberty shipyards was under 40 days.

The first Liberty ship was named after Patrick Henry. The last 100 have been named for merchant seamen who died in wartime service.

The first 35 of the Maritime Commission's Victory ships were named for the United Nations.

One hundred and fourteen Liberty ships carry the names of women, eighteen Liberty ships have been named for Negroes.

The American merchant seaman is a civilian, serving voluntarily, and though often under enemy action has no military status.

There are 121,000 board feet of lumber in a Liberty ship and 72,000 square feet of plywood. Merchant seamen are insured by the government in amounts up to $5,000 for death, and up to $7,000 for disability from war or marine risks. Coverage within these limits is without charge and additional life insurance may be purchased up to $15,000 at low rates.

The United States Maritime Service was established in 1938, to provide basic training for merchant seamen and for their upgrading.

More than 7,500 manufacturers have processed and shipped vessel parts to Maritime Commission shipyards.

Electric power for Maritime Commission shipyards cost $15,000,000 per year.

Edwin O'Hara, a United States Merchant Marine Cadet aboard a vessel under enemy attack, rushed to a gun emplacement where a gun crew had been killed and single handedly fired the last five available shells into an Axis surface raider before he was killed. He was posthumously awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal and a building at the Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point, L.I., N.Y. is named for him.

New construction accounts for more than 75 per cent of the ships under control of the War Shipping Administration. Almost 20 per cent were requisitioned from shipping companies and the rest were acquired from foreign nations.

When control of the Mediterranean was regained by the Allies, the round-about ship routings by which essential materials from some areas were brought to America were cut in point of time by about 50 per cent.

The Victory cargo vessel has two and a half times the refrigeration capacity of the Liberty Ship.

About half of the fast dry cargo vessels built in the last half of 1944 and the first part of 1945 are for ultimate use of the armed services, as special combat vessels, troop transports, hospital ships and other types.

Propulsion machinery of the geared turbine Victory ships range from, 6,000 to 8,500 horsepower and will provide speeds up to 17.5 knots, compared to the Liberty's 11 knots.

One of the breath-taking innovations of the war was creation of artificial harbors on the Normandy coast to permit unloading of troops and supplies for the invasion of France. Thirty-two obsolete or badly damaged vessels were sunk to form breakwaters, buttressed by concrete piers constructed especially for the purpose in England and towed across the Channel by tugs. One thousand merchant seamen volunteered for the task. The artificial harbors replaced some of the advantages of the natural facilities destroyed by the Germans and gave the Allies the choice of landing beaches.

Tonnage production in United States merchant shipyards in 1943 was 67 times that of 1938, 52 times that of 1939, 28 times that of 1940, 17 times that of 1941 and 2.3 times that of 1942.

Giant oceangoing tankers, which in pre-war days required 10 to 12 months for completion, are now built for the Maritime Commission in three months.

A Liberty or Victory ship can carry to battle fronts 440 light tanks, or 2,840 Jeeps. A standard tanker built by the Maritime Commission carries enough gasoline on one voyage to supply the holder of an "A" ration book with gas for 35,000 years. Some lifeboats are now equipped with radio equipment permitting inter-boat conversation. It is operable by a hand-powered generator and requires no special skill.

In one month of 1944, dry cargo carried to war zones on decks of out-bound tankers equalled the capacity of 55 ships.

Improved loading methods and speedup of turn-around added the equivalent of about 125 ships to the East Coast merchant fleet in each of the three months before D-day in France.

In the last half of 1942, construction of dry cargo ship tonnage in United States shipyards was three times that lost by sinkings. In the first half of 1943, construction outstripped sinkings 5 to 1 and in the last half of the year the ratio was 10 to 1

Kings Point -- the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy and the nation's newest Federal service academy -- has graduated more than 6,000 young men as officers for the United States Merchant Marine. Kings Point, now in its seventh year of operation, is a permanent institution.

More than 110,000 unlicensed seamen for our immense wartime merchant fleet have been recruited and trained since 1938 by the U. S. Maritime Service, a unit of the Training Organization of the War Shipping Administration.

The United States Merchant Marine has been a participant in every major, invasion and operation of this war. About 700 merchant ships were in the invasions of France.

Since its establishment in 1938, all branches of the Training Organization of the War Shipping Administration have trained more than 160,000 Americans as Officers and seamen to man our wartime merchant fleet.

Three to five new ships are added each day to America's Merchant Marine, calling for 150 to 250 new men daily. Officers and seamen to man these ships are trained, for the most part, by the Training Organization of War Shipping Administration which has three large stations for training unlicensed personnel and facilities for their upgrading.

An average of 32.6 lost time accidents per million man-hours in Maritime Commission shipyards in 1943 was reduced to 24.7 in 1944,

One hundred and sixty-three names of towns and cities of the United States have been assigned to Victory-ships being built by the Maritime Commission.

Some of the Victory Ships being built by the Maritime Commission are named for colleges and universities of the United States.

Sixty-three thousand experienced seamen and ships officers have been recruited from shore employment since the United States entered the war by the recruitment and Manning Organization of the War Shipping Administration.

Seven Rest Centers for merchant seamen and officers are maintained in the United States by the Recruitment and Manning Organization of the War Shipping Administration, in cooperation with the United Seamen's Service.

Seventy-four hundred men have convalesced or rested from prolonged duty in the centers at Sands Point, and Oyster Bay, L. I,, N. Y.; Pacific Palisades and Millbrae, California; Gladstone, N. J.; Pass Christian, Mississippi; and Bay Ridge, Md.

Two hundred thousand merchant seamen and officers were examined by the Medical Division of the War Shipping Administration in 1944. Despite raised physical qualifications in recent years, 99 per cent of the men were passed.

American merchant seamen and officers who lose their vessels, are injured or become sick are repatriated by the Recruitment and Manning Organization of the War Shipping Administration. Almost 23,000 American seamen have been returned to the United States by ship or plane since we entered the war.

The three to four hundred ships under control of the War Shipping Administration in 1944 began 10,600 voyages from the United States necessitating the signing on of some 528,000 seamen and officers.