J.L.M. Currie, August 1942. In March 1943, the vessel was lost at sea due to structural failure |
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J.L.M. Currie, August 1942. In March 1943, the vessel was lost at sea due to structural failure |
| This ship had the fortunate distinction
of being MCE hull number 1, the first ship delivered by the Alabama
Drydock Company. It also had the unfortunate distinction of being one
of the few total losses due to fractures. On 7 March 1943, the deck, bulwarks
and shell plating fractured in heavy seas off northeast Iceland. The ship
was carrying ballast at the time. It was abandoned the following day as
it was breaking up and was sunk by Allied gunfire.
Source: Mitchell
and Sawyer (1985)
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| Report of the Structural Failure
of the J.L.M. Currie
Operator: Lykes Brothers
S.S. Co., Inc.
Ship's Location: Lat 70o-44'N.,
Long. 00o-24'E. -- Greenland Sea
Weather: heavy
Description of failure: The fractures apparently began from the corners of #3 and #4 hatches in the upper deck. The vessel came down a very high sea, and split, in four places. The upper deck plating, bulwark and side shell fractured on the starboard side at the after ends of the same hatches. The cracks extended down through the shell plating to below the tween decks. The cracks did not occur along the welds but were clean breaks in the plating, which opened and closed with the working of the ship. The vessel was abandoned on 8 March 1943 and sunk by shells from an allied vessel. Source: "Report
of Structural Failure of Inspected Vessel, US Coast Guard", form NAVCG-2752,
dated 1 October 1944.
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| Additional Published Sources:
Washington Post, 6 July 1943. Reports the loss of the J.L.M. Currie and the Thomas Hooker. New York Times, 3 July 1943. Through a misreading of the asterisks in a Maritime Commission report, a member of the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee mistakenly claimed that four ships that had cracked up at sea were built by Kaiser yards. The J.L.M. Currie was one of those four. Kaiser complained and a public retraction was issued. San Francisco Chronicle, 7 July 1943. An editorial defending Henry J. Kaiser. Milwaukee Journal, 7 July 1943. An editorial defending Kaiser's record. It reads in part: "Every so often some critic sounds off with a starlting indictment of this or that war activity. One favorite theme seems to be Henry J. Kaiser's ships or policies. . . . Millions of Americans are bewildered today about Kaiser's ships because of such irresponsibility. Do they crack up or don't they? If a person sees the charge and misses the retraction, he doesn't know what the truth is. The truth seems to be that Mr. Kaiser has smashed a lot of shipbuilding records, that he builds a tremendous number of ships, that he dramatizes the building of them and catches the public's fancy, and that he arouses the jealousy of some of his competitors who also build many and good ships, that his CIO yards annoy the AFL and his AFL yards annoy the CIO, that some of his ships have had minor faults, and that one ship, the tanker Schenectady, cracked up at its fitting dock. . . . There is no evidence, so far as we have been able to find, that the Liberty ships built by Mr. Kaiser or any other American builder are falling apart at sea. Thousands of mothers and fathers have been worried needlessly. Such displays of irresponsibility seem to go on endlessly, in and out of congress. There is a place for good, sane criticism. If well grounded it can be helpful. But the critic should be sure of his facts". |