117-655: SS August Belmont was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II . She was named after August Belmont , a German-American politician, financier, foreign diplomat, and party chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 1860s. Belmont was an U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands and U.S. Consul-General to the Austrian Empire and later a horse-breeder and racehorse owner. He
234-749: A class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program . Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass-produced on an unprecedented scale, the Liberty ship came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. The class was developed to meet British orders for transports to replace ships that had been lost. Eighteen American shipyards built 2,710 Liberty ships between 1941 and 1945 (an average of three ships every two days), easily
351-510: A second FA Cup . Shipbuilding ended in 1988 and coal-mining in 1993 after a mid-1980s unemployment crisis with 20 per cent of the local workforce unemployed. Electronic, chemical, paper and motor manufacturing as well as the service sector expanded during the 1980s and 1990s to fill unemployment from heavy industry. In 1986 Japanese car manufacturer Nissan opened its Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK factory in Washington, which has since become
468-487: A watch , and improve the market. In 1832 a parliamentary borough (constitutency) of Sunderland was created, covering the parishes or townships of Sunderland, Bishopwearmouth, Bishopwearmouth Panns, Monkwearmouth, Monkwearmouth Shore and Southwick. In 1836 Sunderland was reformed to become a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 , which standardised how most boroughs operated across
585-490: A "new" liberty ship was constructed by Industriale Maritime SpA, Genoa , Italy by using the bow section of Bert Williams and the stern section of Nathaniel Bacon , both of which had been wrecked. The new ship was named SS Boccadasse , and served until scrapped in 1962. Several designs of mass-produced petroleum tanker were also produced, the most numerous being the T2 tanker series, with about 490 built between 1942 and
702-473: A General Electric gas turbine of 6,600 shp, connected to a reversible pitch propeller via reduction gearing. John Sergeant was considered overall to be a success, but problems with the reversible pitch propeller ended its trial after three years. GTS William Patterson had its bow extended and its steam engine replaced with 6 General Electric GE-14 free-piston gas generators, connected to two reversible turbines and capable of 6,000 shp total. William Patterson
819-437: A Liberty from 350 to 500. The increase in production of more suitable vessels did allow for returning the hastily converted Liberty ships to cargo-only operations by May 1944. Despite complaints, reservations, Navy requesting its personnel not travel aboard Liberty troopers and even Senate comment, the military necessities required use of the ships. The number of troops was increased to 550 on 200 Liberty ships for redeployment to
936-525: A cargo of 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. A fire broke out on board which eventually caused the entire ammonium nitrate cargo to explode. The massive explosion levelled Texas City and caused fires which detonated more ammonium nitrate in a nearby ship and warehouse. It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in US history. This incident is known as the Texas City disaster today. On December 21, 1952,
1053-456: A charter in 1179 under the name of 'Wearmouth'. The original borough covered a relatively small area in the north-east corner of the old Bishopwearmouth parish, lying on the south side of the mouth of the River Wear. The borough was granted a further charter in 1634 which gave it the right to appoint a mayor and incorporated the town under the name of Sunderland rather than Wearmouth. The area of
1170-520: A continuous sheet of steel, allowed small cracks to propagate unimpeded, unlike in a hull made of separate plates riveted together. One common type of crack nucleated at the square corner of a hatch which coincided with a welded seam, both the corner and the weld acting as stress concentrators . Furthermore, the ships were frequently grossly overloaded, greatly increasing stress, and some of the structural problems occurred during or after severe storms that would have further increased stress. Minor revisions to
1287-659: A habitat for many fish species. In 1953, the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), began storing surplus grain in Liberty ships located in the Hudson River , James River , Olympia, and Astoria National Defense Reserve Fleet 's. In 1955, 22 ships in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet were withdrawn to be loaded with grain and were then transferred to the Olympia Fleet. In 1956, four ships were withdrawn from
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#17328632334081404-571: A lack of medical facilities. After the Allied victory in North Africa, about 250 Liberty ships were engaged in transporting prisoners of war to the United States. By November 1943 the Army's Chief of Transportation, Maj. Gen. Charles P. Gross , and WSA, whose agents operated the ships, reached agreement on improvements, but operational requirements forced an increase of the maximum number of troops transported in
1521-448: A long career as a school ship and many internal modifications, while Jeremiah O'Brien remains largely in her original condition. Both are museum ships that still put out to sea regularly. In 1994, Jeremiah O'Brien steamed from San Francisco to England and France for the 50th anniversary of D-Day , the only large ship from the original Operation Overlord fleet to participate in the anniversary. In 2008, SS Arthur M. Huddell ,
1638-463: A mine a few miles from destination. All crew members, and six horses were saved. Nathaniel Bacon ran into a minefield off Civitavecchia , Italy in December 1945, caught fire, was beached, and broke in two; the larger section was welded onto another Liberty half hull to make a new ship 30 feet longer, named Boccadasse . As late as December 1947, Robert Dale Owen , renamed Kalliopi and sailing under
1755-498: A name. Most bore the names of deceased people. The only living namesake was Francis J. O'Gara, the purser of SS Jean Nicolet , who was thought to have been killed in a submarine attack , but in fact survived the war in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Not named after people were: SS Stage Door Canteen , named after the USO club in New York; and SS U.S.O. , named after
1872-650: A pair of gun batteries were built (in 1742 and 1745) on the shoreline to the south of the South Pier, to defend the river from attack (a further battery was built on the cliff top in Roker, ten years later). One of the pair was washed away by the sea in 1780, but the other was expanded during the French Revolutionary Wars and became known as the Black Cat Battery. In 1794 Sunderland Barracks were built, behind
1989-565: A passenger service from Sunderland to Seaham Harbour. In 1886–90 Sunderland Town Hall was built in Fawcett Street, just to the east of the railway station, to a design by Brightwen Binyon . By 1889 two million tons of coal per year was passing through Hudson Dock, while to the south of Hendon Dock, the Wear Fuel Works distilled coal tar to produce pitch, oil and other products. The 20th century saw Sunderland A.F.C. established as
2106-565: A passenger terminus there in 1836. In 1847 the line was bought by George Hudson 's York and Newcastle Railway . Hudson, nicknamed 'The Railway King', was Member of Parliament for Sunderland and was already involved in a scheme to build a dock in the area. In 1846 he had formed the Sunderland Dock Company , which received parliamentary approval for the construction of a dock between the South Pier and Hendon Bay. Increasing industrialisation had prompted residential expansion away from
2223-534: A physical link with Monkwearmouth following the construction of a bridge, the Wearmouth Bridge , which was the world's second iron bridge (after the famous span at Ironbridge ). It was built at the instigation of Rowland Burdon , the Member of Parliament (MP) for County Durham , and described by Nikolaus Pevsner as being 'a triumph of the new metallurgy and engineering ingenuity [...] of superb elegance'. Spanning
2340-403: A poor public image owing to their appearance. In a speech announcing the emergency shipbuilding program President Franklin D. Roosevelt had referred to the ship as "a dreadful looking object", and Time called it an "Ugly Duckling". 27 September 1941 was dubbed Liberty Fleet Day to try to assuage public opinion, since the first 14 "Emergency" vessels were launched that day. The first of these
2457-442: A ship between 400 and 450 feet (120 and 140 m) long (Load Waterline Length), 'S' for steam engines, and 'C1' for design C1. The new design replaced much riveting , which accounted for one-third of the labor costs, with welding , and had oil-fired boilers. It was adopted as a Merchant Marine Act design, and production awarded to a conglomerate of West Coast engineering and construction companies headed by Henry J. Kaiser known as
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#17328632334082574-453: A ship converted in 1944 into a pipe transport to support Operation Pluto , was transferred to Greece and converted to a floating museum dedicated to the history of the Greek merchant marine; although missing major components were restored this ship is no longer operational. Liberty ships continue to serve in a "less than whole" function many decades after their launching. In Portland , Oregon ,
2691-452: A significant centre of learning in the seventh and eighth centuries. Sunderland was a fishing settlement and later a port, being granted a town charter in 1179. The city traded in coal and salt , also developing shipbuilding industry in the fourteenth century and glassmaking industry in the seventeenth century. Following the decline of its traditional industries in the late 20th century, the area became an automotive building centre . In 1992,
2808-638: A small additional cost. The bridges of most of these were also enclosed in the mid-1960s in accordance with a design by naval architect Ion Livas. In the 1950s, the Maritime Administration instituted the Liberty Ship Conversion and Engine Improvement Program, which had a goal to increase the speed of Liberty ships to 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph), making them competitive with more modern designs, as well as gaining experience with alternate propulsion systems. Four ships were converted in
2925-547: A steam-powered hemp-spinning machine which had been devised by a local schoolmaster, Richard Fothergill, in 1793; the ropery building still stands, in the Deptford area of the city. Sunderland's shipbuilding industry continued to grow through most of the 19th century, becoming the town's dominant industry and a defining part of its identity. By 1815 it was 'the leading shipbuilding port for wooden trading vessels' with 600 ships constructed that year across 31 different yards. By 1840
3042-522: A tunnel connecting the main engine shaft to the propeller via a long aft extension. The first Ocean-class ship, SS Ocean Vanguard , was launched on 16 August 1941. The design was modified by the United States Maritime Commission , in part to increase conformity to American construction practices, but more importantly to make it even quicker and cheaper to build. The US version was designated 'EC2-S-C1': 'EC' for Emergency Cargo, '2' for
3159-664: A very small yield nuclear weapon should they ever go off. SS E. A. Bryan detonated with the energy of 2,000 tons of TNT (8,400 GJ ) in July 1944 as it was being loaded, killing 320 sailors and civilians in what was called the Port Chicago disaster . Another Liberty ship that exploded was the rechristened SS Grandcamp , which caused the Texas City Disaster on 16 April 1947, killing at least 581 people. Six Liberty ships were converted at Point Clear, Alabama , by
3276-423: Is a long-standing local legend that there was a Roman settlement on the south bank of the River Wear on what is the site of the former Vaux Brewery, although no archaeological investigation has taken place. Roman artefacts have been recovered in the River Wear at North Hylton , including four stone anchors, which may support the theory that there was a Roman dam or port on the River Wear. Recorded settlements at
3393-591: Is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea , approximately 10 miles (16 km) south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne . The built-up area had a population of 168,277 at the 2021 census, making it the second largest settlement in North East England after Newcastle. It is the administrative centre of the metropolitan borough of the same name . Sunderland was once known as 'the largest shipbuilding town in
3510-617: Is one of the oldest monasteries still standing in England. While at the monastery, Bede completed the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) in 731, a feat which earned him the title The father of English history . In the late 8th century the Vikings raided the coast, and by the middle of the 9th century the monastery had been abandoned. Lands on
3627-414: Is similar to the technique used by Palmer's at Jarrow , northeast England, but substituted welding for riveting . Riveted ships took several months to construct. The work force was newly trained as the yards responsible had not previously built welded ships. As America entered the war, the shipbuilding yards employed women, to replace men who were enlisting in the armed forces. The ships initially had
SS August Belmont - Misplaced Pages Continue
3744-622: The Battle of Anzio in Italy. It was under repeated bombardment from shore batteries and aircraft for eight days. It endured a prolonged barrage of shelling, machine-gun fire and bombs. The ship shot down five German planes. More than 2,400 Liberty ships survived the war. Of these, 835 made up the postwar cargo fleet. Greek entrepreneurs bought 526 ships and Italians bought 98. Shipping magnates including John Fredriksen , John Theodoracopoulos, Aristotle Onassis , Stavros Niarchos , Stavros George Livanos ,
3861-556: The Crimean War ; nonetheless, sailing ships continued to be built, including fast fully-rigged composite -built clippers , including the City of Adelaide in 1864 and Torrens (the last such vessel ever built), in 1875. By the middle of the century glassmaking was at its height on Wearside. James Hartley & Co. , established in Sunderland in 1836, grew to be the largest glassworks in
3978-513: The National Glass Centre a new University of Sunderland campus on the St Peter's site were also built. The former Vaux Breweries site on the north west fringe of the city centre was cleared for further development opportunities. After 99 years at the historic Roker Park stadium, the city’s football club, Sunderland AFC moved to the 42,000-seat Stadium of Light on the banks of
4095-734: The Naval Vessel Register in 1969 and 1970. From 1946 to 1963, the Pacific Ready Reserve Fleet – Columbia River Group, retained as many as 500 ships. In 1946, Liberty ships were mothballed in the Hudson River Reserve Fleet near Tarrytown, New York . At its peak in 1965, 189 hulls were stored there. The last two were sold for scrap to Spain in 1971 and the reserve permanently shut down. Only two operational Liberty ships, SS John W. Brown and SS Jeremiah O'Brien , remain. John W. Brown has had
4212-489: The Philippine Islands and Okinawa. The last new-build Liberty ship constructed was SS Albert M. Boe , launched on 26 September 1945 and delivered on 30 October 1945. She was named after the chief engineer of a United States Army freighter who had stayed below decks to shut down his engines after a 13 April 1945 explosion, an act that won him a posthumous Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal . In 1950,
4329-615: The Six Companies . Liberty ships were designed to carry 10,000 long tons (10,200 t) of cargo, usually one type per ship, but, during wartime, generally carried loads far exceeding this. On 27 March 1941, the number of lend-lease ships was increased to 200 by the Defense Aid Supplemental Appropriations Act and increased again in April to 306, of which 117 would be Liberty ships. The basic EC2-S-C1 cargo design
4446-547: The United Service Organizations (USO). Another notable Liberty ship was SS Stephen Hopkins , which sank the German commerce raider Stier in a ship-to-ship gun battle in 1942 and became the first American ship to sink a German surface combatant. The wreck of SS Richard Montgomery lies off the coast of Kent with 1,500 short tons (1,400 tonnes ) of explosives still on board, enough to match
4563-699: The United States Army Air Force , into floating aircraft repair depots, operated by the Army Transport Service , starting in April 1944. The secret project, dubbed "Project Ivory Soap", provided mobile depot support for B-29 Superfortress bombers and P-51 Mustang fighters based on Guam , Iwo Jima , and Okinawa beginning in December 1944. The six ARU(F)s (Aircraft Repair Unit, Floating), however, were also fitted with landing platforms to accommodate four Sikorsky R-4 helicopters, where they provided medical evacuation of combat casualties in both
4680-556: The United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp featuring the Liberty ship as part of a set on the U.S. Merchant Marine . Liberty ships were built at eighteen shipyards located along the U.S. Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts: There are four surviving Liberty Ships. Sunderland, Tyne and Wear Sunderland ( / ˈ s ʌ n d ər l ə n d / ) is a port city in Tyne and Wear , England . It
4797-665: The hull classification symbol AGTR (auxiliary, technical research) and used to gather electronic intelligence and for radar picket duties by the United States Navy. The Liberty ships SS Samuel R. Aitken became USS Oxford , SS Robert W. Hart became USS Georgetown , SS J. Howland Gardner became USS Jamestown with the Victory ships being SS Iran Victory which became USS Belmont and SS Simmons Victory becoming USS Liberty . All of these ships were decommissioned and struck from
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4914-593: The "Northeast Coast, Open Shelter Deck Steamer", were based on a simple ship originally produced in Sunderland by J.L. Thompson & Sons based on a 1939 design for a simple tramp steamer , which was cheap to build and cheap to run (see Silver Line ). Examples include SS Dorington Court built in 1939. The order specified an 18-inch (0.46 m) increase in draft to boost displacement by 800 long tons (810 t) to 10,100 long tons (10,300 t). The accommodation, bridge , and main engine were located amidships, with
5031-510: The $ 11 million program. SS Benjamin Chew had its existing condensers modified and a new superheater and geared turbine installed to give the ship 6,000 shp, up from 2,500. SS Thomas Nelson had its bow lengthened, diesel engines installed in place of the original steam engine, and movable cranes outfitted in place of the original cargo handling gear. The GTS (Gas Turbine Ship) John Sergeant had its bow extended, and its steam engine replaced with
5148-423: The 13th century, then salmon in the 14th and 15th centuries. From 1346 ships were being built at Wearmouth, by a merchant named Thomas Menville, and by 1396 a small amount of coal was being exported. Rapid growth of the port was prompted by the salt trade. Salt exports from Sunderland are recorded from as early as the 13th century, by 1589 salt pans were laid at Bishopwearmouth Panns (the modern-day name of
5265-460: The 17th century, with the coal trade growing significantly (2–3,000 tons of coal were exported from Sunderland in the year 1600; by 1680 this had increased to 180,000 tons). Difficulty for colliers trying to navigate the Wear’s shallow waters meant coal mined further inland was loaded onto keels (large, flat-bottomed boats) and taken downriver to the waiting colliers. A close-knit group of workers manned
5382-611: The Baltic and elsewhere which, together with locally available limestone (and coal to fire the furnaces) was a key ingredient in the glassmaking process. Other industries that developed alongside the river included lime burning and pottery making (the town's first commercial pottery manufactory, the Garrison Pottery, had opened in old Sunderland in 1750). By 1770 Sunderland had spread westwards along its High Street to join up with Bishopwearmouth. In 1796 Bishopwearmouth in turn gained
5499-501: The British government ordered 60 Ocean-class freighters from American yards to replace war losses and boost the merchant fleet. These were simple but fairly large (for the time) with a single 2,500 horsepower (1,900 kW) compound steam engine of outdated but reliable design. Britain specified coal-fired plants, because it then had extensive coal mines and no significant domestic oil production. The predecessor designs, which included
5616-674: The Caribbean. The problem of hull cracks caused concern with the United States Coast Guard , which recommended that Liberty ships be withdrawn from troop carrying in February 1944 although military commitments required their continued use. The more direct problem was the general unsuitability of the ships as troop transports, particularly with the hasty conversions in 1943, that generated considerable complaints regarding poor mess, food and water storage, sanitation, heating / ventilation and
5733-650: The Goulandris brothers, and the Andreadis, Tsavliris, Achille Lauro, Grimaldi and Bottiglieri families were known to have started their fleets by buying Liberty ships. Andrea Corrado , the dominant Italian shipping magnate at the time, and leader of the Italian shipping delegation, rebuilt his fleet under the programme. Weyerhaeuser operated a fleet of six Liberty Ships (which were later extensively refurbished and modernized) carrying lumber, newsprint, and general cargo for years after
5850-710: The Greek flag, broke in three and sank in the northern Adriatic Sea after hitting a mine. Other Liberty ships lost to mines after the end of the war include John Woolman , Calvin Coolidge , Cyrus Adler , and Lord Delaware . On April 16, 1947, a Liberty ship owned by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique called the Grandcamp (originally built as the SS Benjamin R. Curtis) docked in Texas City, Texas to load
5967-557: The Keels as ' keelmen '. In 1634 a market and yearly fair charter was granted by Bishop Thomas Morton . Morton's charter acknowledged that the borough had been called Wearmouth until then, but it incorporated the place under the name of Sunderland, by which it had become more generally known. Before the civil war and with the exception of Kingston upon Hull , the North declared for the King. In 1644
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#17328632334086084-472: The Liberty ships led to a new way of thinking about ship design and manufacturing. Ships today avoid the use of rectangular corners to avoid stress concentration . New types of steel were developed that have higher fracture toughness , especially at lower temperatures. In addition, more talented and educated welders can produce welds without, or at least with fewer, flaws. While the context and time in which Liberty ships were constructed resulted in many failures,
6201-644: The North was captured by the Roundheads (Parliamentarians), the area itself taken in March of that year. One artefact of the civil war in the area was the long trench; a tactic of later warfare. In the village of Offerton roughly three miles inland from the present city centre, skirmishes occurred. The Roundheads blockaded the River Tyne , crippling the Newcastle coal trade, which allowed a short period of flourishing coal trade on
6318-601: The Pacific. The need for the troopship conversions persisted into the immediate postwar period in order to return troops from overseas as quickly as possible. On 27 September 1942 the SS ; Stephen Hopkins was the only US merchant ship to sink a German surface combatant during the war. Ordered to stop, Stephen Hopkins refused to surrender, so the heavily armed German commerce raider Stier and her tender Tannenfels with one machine gun opened fire. Although greatly outgunned,
6435-453: The River Wear in 1997. At the time, it was the largest stadium built by an English football club since the 1920s, and has since been expanded to hold nearly 50,000 seated spectators. On 24 March 2004, the city adopted Benedict Biscop as its patron saint . In 2018 the city was ranked as the best to live and work in the UK by the finance firm OneFamily. In the same year, the city was ranked as one of
6552-581: The SS Quartette , a 422-foot-long (129 m) Liberty Ship of 7,198 gross register tons , struck the eastern reef of the Pearl and Hermes atoll at a speed of 10.5 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph). The ship was driven further onto the reef by rough waves and 35 mph (56 km/h) winds, which collapsed the forward bow and damaged two forward holds. The crew was evacuated by the SS Frontenac Victory
6669-541: The Southwest Pacific were turned into makeshift troop transports for New Guinea operations by installing field kitchens on deck, latrines aft between #4 and #5 hatches flushed by hoses attached to fire hydrants and about 900 troops sleeping on deck or in 'tween deck spaces. While most of the Liberty ships converted were intended to carry no more than 550 troops, thirty-three were converted to transport 1,600 on shorter voyages from mainland U.S. ports to Alaska, Hawaii and
6786-415: The Sunderland Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. (at Hudson Dock) both closed in the 1920s, and other yards were closed down by National Shipbuilders Securities in the 1930s. By 1936 Sunderland AFC had been league champions on six occasions. They won their first FA Cup in 1937 . With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Sunderland was a key target of the German Luftwaffe bombing. Luftwaffe raids resulted in
6903-430: The UK's largest car factory. Sunderland received city status in 1992. Like many cities, Sunderland comprises a number of areas with their own distinct histories, Fulwell , Monkwearmouth, Roker , and Southwick on the northern side of the Wear, and Bishopwearmouth and Hendon to the south. From 1990, the Wear’s riverbanks were regenerated with new housing, retail parks and business centres on former shipbuilding sites;
7020-420: The Wear Flint Glassworks (which had originally been established in 1697). In addition to the plate glass and pressed glass manufacturers there were 16 bottle works on the Wear in the 1850s, with the capacity to produce between 60 and 70,000 bottles a day. In 1848 George Hudson's York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway built a passenger terminus, Monkwearmouth Station , just north of Wearmouth Bridge; and south of
7137-418: The Wear. In 1669, after the Restoration , King Charles II granted letters patent to one Edward Andrew, Esq. to 'build a pier and erect a lighthouse or lighthouses and cleanse the harbour of Sunderland'. There was a tonnage duty levy on shipping in order to raise the necessary funds. There was a growing number of shipbuilders or boatbuilders active on the River Wear in the late 17th century. By
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#17328632334087254-489: The Wearside area's greatest claim to sporting fame. Founded in 1879 as Sunderland and District Teachers A.F.C. by schoolmaster James Allan , Sunderland joined The Football League for the 1890–91 season . From 1900 to 1919, an electric tram system was built and was gradually replaced by buses during the 1940s before being ended in 1954. In 1909 the Queen Alexandra Bridge was built, linking Deptford and Southwick . The First World War increased shipbuilding, leading to
7371-399: The Wilmington Fleet and transferred, loaded with grain, to the Hudson River Fleet. Between 1955 and 1959, 16 former Liberty ships were repurchased by the United States Navy and converted to the Guardian -class radar picket ships for the Atlantic and Pacific Barrier . In the 1960s, three Liberty ships and two Victory ships were reactivated and converted to technical research ships with
7488-467: The area the pans occupied is Pann's Bank, on the river bank between the city centre and the East End). Large vats of seawater were heated using coal; as the water evaporated, the salt remained. As coal was required to heat the salt pans, a coal mining community began to emerge. Only poor-quality coal was used in salt panning; better-quality coal was traded via the port, which subsequently began to grow. Both salt and coal continued to be exported through
7605-400: The battery, close to what was then the tip of the headland. The world's first steam dredger was built in Sunderland in 1796-7 and put to work on the river the following year. Designed by Stout's successor as Engineer, Jonathan Pickernell jr (in post from 1795 to 1804), it consisted of a set of 'bag and spoon' dredgers driven by a tailor-made 4-horsepower Boulton & Watt beam engine. It
7722-448: The borough of Sunderland was granted city status . Sunderland is historically part of County Durham , being incorporated to the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear in 1974. Locals are sometimes known as Mackems , a term which came into common use in the 1970s. Its use and acceptance by residents, particularly among the older generations, is not universal. The term is also applied to the Sunderland dialect, which shares similarities with
7839-399: The borough was made a separate parish from Bishopwearmouth by an act of parliament in 1719. The ancient borough's powers were relatively modest. Unlike most such boroughs, it did not hold its own courts, nor did it have any meaningful municipal functions. A separate body of improvement commissioners was established in 1810 with responsibilities to pave, light and clean the streets, provide
7956-406: The community was taken over by Ceolfrid , and Wearmouth–Jarrow became a major centre of learning and knowledge in Anglo-Saxon England with a library of around 300 volumes. The Codex Amiatinus , described by biblical scholar Henry Julian White (1859–1934) as the 'finest book in the world', was created at the monastery and was likely worked on by Bede , who was born at Wearmouth in 673. This
8073-443: The companies capable of producing them were already committed to the large construction program for warships . Therefore, a 140-short-ton (130 t) vertical triple expansion steam engine, of obsolete design, was selected to power Liberty ships because it was cheaper and easier to build in the numbers required for the Liberty ship program, and because more companies could manufacture it. Eighteen different companies eventually built
8190-431: The council was based at the Civic Centre on Burdon Road, which had been built in 1970. Sunderland has the motto of Nil Desperandum Auspice Deo or Under God's guidance we may never despair . The borough's population (at the 2021 Census) was 274,200. The original settlement of Sunderland was historically part of the ancient parish of Bishopwearmouth in County Durham. It was an ancient borough , having been granted
8307-413: The country and (having patented an innovative production technique for rolled plate glass ) produced much of the glass used in the construction of the Crystal Palace in 1851. A third of all UK-manufactured plate glass was produced at Hartley's by this time. Other manufacturers included the Cornhill Flint Glassworks (established at Southwick in 1865), which went on to specialise in pressed glass , as did
8424-475: The country. The municipal boundaries were enlarged at the same time to match the constituency, although later that year the municipal boundaries were reduced to remove Southwick and the parts of Bishopwearmouth and Bishopwearmouth Panns which fell more than one mile from the centre of Wearmouth Bridge. The improvement commissioners were wound up in 1851 and their functions transferred to the council. When elected county councils were established in 1889, Sunderland
8541-513: The crew of Stephen Hopkins fought back, replacing the Armed Guard crew of the ship's single 4-inch (100 mm) gun with volunteers as they fell. The fight was short, and both ships were wrecks. On 10 March 1943 SS Lawton B. Evans became the only ship to survive an attack by the German submarine U-221 . The following year from 22 to 30 January 1944, Lawton B. Evans was involved in
8658-468: The deaths of 267 people and destruction of local industry while 4,000 homes were also damaged or destroyed. Many old buildings remain despite the bombing that occurred during World War II. Religious buildings include Holy Trinity Church, built in 1719 for an independent Sunderland, St Michael's Church, built as Bishopwearmouth Parish Church and now known as Sunderland Minster and St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, part of which dates from 674 AD, and
8775-422: The end of 1945. Early Liberty ships suffered hull and deck cracks, and a few were lost due to such structural defects. During World War II there were nearly 1,500 instances of significant brittle fractures . Twelve ships, including three of the 2,710 Liberty ships built, broke in half without warning, including SS John P. Gaines , which sank on 24 November 1943 with the loss of 10 lives. Suspicion fell on
8892-408: The end of the century, by London's insatiable demand for coal during the French Revolutionary Wars . Until 1719 the borough of Sunderland formed part of the wider parish of Bishopwearmouth. Following the completion of Holy Trinity Church, Sunderland (today also known as Sunderland Old Parish Church) in 1719, the borough was made a separate parish called Sunderland. Later, in 1769, St John's Church
9009-589: The end of the war. Some Liberty ships were lost after the war to naval mines that were inadequately cleared. Pierre Gibault was scrapped after hitting a mine in a previously cleared area off the Greek island of Kythira in June 1945, and the same month saw Colin P. Kelly Jnr take mortal damage from a mine hit off the Belgian port of Ostend . In August 1945, William J. Palmer was carrying horses from New York to Trieste when she rolled over and sank 15 minutes after hitting
9126-520: The engine. It had the additional advantage of ruggedness, simplicity and familiarity to seamen. Parts manufactured by one company were interchangeable with those made by another, and the openness of its design made most of its moving parts easy to see, access, and oil. The engine—21 feet (6.4 m) long and 19 feet (5.8 m) tall—was designed to operate at 76 rpm and propel a Liberty ship at about 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph). The ships were constructed of sections that were welded together. This
9243-459: The fifth was modified to house the drivers and assistants. The modifications into troop transports also were not given special type designations. By 1941, the steam turbine was the preferred marine steam engine because of its greater efficiency compared to earlier reciprocating compound steam engines . Steam turbine engines however, required very precise manufacturing techniques to machine their complicated double helical reduction gears , and
9360-583: The final phase of the Stone Age, the Neolithic period ( c. 4000 – c. 2000 BC), Hastings Hill , on the western outskirts of Sunderland, was a focal point of activity and a place of burial and ritual significance. Evidence includes the former presence of a cursus monument. It is believed the Brythonic -speaking Brigantes inhabited the area around the River Wear in pre- Roman Britain . There
9477-524: The following day. The salvage tug Ono arrived on December 25 to attempt to tow the ship clear, but persistent stormy weather forced a delay of the rescue attempt. On January 3, before another rescue attempt could be made, the ship's anchors tore loose and the Quartette was blown onto the reef, and deemed a total loss . Several weeks later, it snapped in half at the keel and the two pieces sank. The wreck site now serves as an artificial reef which provides
9594-441: The hatches and various reinforcements were applied to the Liberty ships to arrest the cracking problem. These are some of the first structural tests that gave birth to the study of materials. The successor Victory ships used the same steel, also welded rather than riveted, but spacing between frames was widened from 30 inches (760 mm) to 36 inches (910 mm), making the ships less stiff and more able to flex. The sinking of
9711-516: The hulls of Richard Henry Dana and Jane Addams serve as the basis of floating docks. SS Albert M. Boe survives as the Star of Kodiak , a landlocked cannery , in Kodiak Harbor at 57°47′12″N 152°24′18″W / 57.78667°N 152.40500°W / 57.78667; -152.40500 . SS Charles H. Cugle was converted into MH-1A (otherwise known as USS Sturgis ). MH-1A
9828-420: The largest number of ships ever produced to a single design. Their production mirrored (albeit on a much larger scale) the manufacture of " Hog Islander " and similar standardized ship types during World War I. The immensity of the effort, the number of ships built, the role of female workers in their construction, and the survival of some far longer than their original five-year design life combine to make them
9945-482: The lessons learned led to new innovations that allow for more efficient and safer shipbuilding today. In September 1943 strategic plans and shortage of more suitable hulls required that Liberty ships be pressed into emergency use as troop transports with about 225 eventually converted for this purpose. The first general conversions were hastily undertaken by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) so that
10062-641: The mouth of the Wear date to c. 674 , when an Anglo-Saxon nobleman, Benedict Biscop, was granted land by King Ecgfrith, founded the Wearmouth–Jarrow ( St Peter's ) monastery on the north bank of the river—an area that became known as Monkwearmouth. Biscop's monastery was the first built of stone in Northumbria . He employed glaziers from France and in doing he re-established glass making in Britain. In 686
10179-515: The old port area in the suburban terraces of the Fawcett Estate and Mowbray Park . The area around Fawcett Street itself increasingly functioned as the civic and commercial town centre. Marine engineering works were established from the 1820s onwards, initially providing engines for paddle steamers ; in 1845 a ship named Experiment was the first of many to be converted to steam screw propulsion . Demand for steam-powered vessels increased during
10296-463: The other North East England dialects. In c. 674 , King Ecgfrith granted Benedict Biscop a "sunder-land". In 685 The Venerable Bede moved to the newly founded Jarrow monastery. He had started his monastic career at Monkwearmouth monastery and later wrote that he was "ácenned on sundorlande þæs ylcan mynstres" (born in a separate land of this same monastery). This can be taken as "sundorlande" (being Old English for "separate land") or
10413-468: The post war prices of Maritime Commission types the Liberty variants are noted as: In preparation for the Normandy landings and afterward to support the rapid expansion of logistical transport ashore a modification was made to make standard Liberty vessels more suitable for mass transport of vehicles and in records are seen as "MT" for Motor Transport vessels. As MTs four holds were loaded with vehicles while
10530-646: The river another passenger terminus, in Fawcett Street, in 1853. Later, Thomas Elliot Harrison (chief engineer to the North Eastern Railway ) made plans to carry the railway across the river; the Wearmouth Railway Bridge (reputedly 'the largest Hog-Back iron girder bridge in the world') opened in 1879. In 1854 the Londonderry, Seaham & Sunderland Railway opened linking collieries to a separate set of staiths at Hudson Dock South, it also provided
10647-464: The river in a single sweep of 236 feet (72 m), it was over twice the length of the earlier bridge at Ironbridge but only three-quarters the weight. At the time of building, it was the biggest single-span bridge in the world; and because Sunderland had developed on a plateau above the river, it never suffered from the problem of interrupting the passage of high-masted vessels. During the War of Jenkins' Ear
10764-503: The same steel did not have this problem. Tipper discovered that at a certain temperature, the steel the ships were made of changed from being ductile to brittle , allowing cracks to form and propagate. This temperature is known as the critical ductile-brittle transition temperature . Ships in the North Atlantic were exposed to temperatures that could fall below this critical point. The predominantly welded hull construction, effectively
10881-459: The settlement of Sunderland. The name may also be descriptive of the original settlement's location, being almost cut off (sundered) from the rest of the mainland by creeks and gullies from both the sea and the River Wear. The earliest inhabitants of the Sunderland area were Stone Age hunter-gatherers and artifacts from this era have been discovered, including microliths found during excavations at St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth . During
10998-611: The ships could join convoys on the way to North Africa for Operation Torch . Even earlier the Southwest Pacific Area command's U.S. Army Services of Supply had converted at least one, William Ellery Channing , in Australia into an assault troop carrier with landing craft ( LCIs and LCVs ) and troops with the ship being reconverted for cargo after the Navy was given exclusive responsibility for amphibious assault operations. Others in
11115-507: The shipyards, which had often used inexperienced workers and new welding techniques to produce large numbers of ships in great haste. The Ministry of War Transport borrowed the British-built Empire Duke for testing purposes. Constance Tipper of Cambridge University demonstrated that the fractures did not start in the welds, but were due to the embrittlement of the steel used. When used in riveted construction, however,
11232-456: The signatories of the Declaration of Independence . 17 of the Liberty ships were named in honor of outstanding African-Americans. The first, in honor of Booker T. Washington , was christened by Marian Anderson in 1942, and the SS Harriet Tubman , recognizing the only woman on the list, was christened on 3 June 1944. Any group that raised war bonds worth $ 2 million could propose
11349-527: The south side of the river were granted to the Bishop of Durham by Athelstan of England in 930; these became known as Bishopwearmouth and included settlements such as Ryhope which fall within the modern boundary of Sunderland. In 1100, Bishopwearmouth parish included a fishing village at the southern mouth of the river (now the East End) known as 'Soender-land' (which evolved into 'Sunderland'). This settlement
11466-400: The start of the 18th century the banks of the Wear were described as being studded with small shipyards, as far as the tide flowed. After 1717, measures having been taken to increase the depth of the river, Sunderland's shipbuilding trade grew substantially (in parallel with its coal exports). A number of warships were built, alongside many commercial sailing ships. By the middle of the century
11583-737: The subject of much continued interest. In 1936, the American Merchant Marine Act was passed to subsidize the annual construction of 50 commercial merchant vessels which could be used in wartime by the United States Navy as naval auxiliaries, crewed by U.S. Merchant Mariners . The number was doubled in 1939 and again in 1940 to 200 ships a year. Ship types included two tankers and three types of merchant vessel, all to be powered by steam turbines . Limited industrial capacity, especially for reduction gears, meant that relatively few of these designs of ships were built. However, in 1940,
11700-442: The success of the port of Sunderland, salt panning and shipbuilding along the banks of the river. Around this time, Sunderland was known as 'Sunderland-near-the-Sea'. Sunderland's third-biggest export, after coal and salt, was glass. The town's first modern glassworks were established in the 1690s and the industry grew through the 17th century. Its flourishing was aided by trading ships bringing good-quality sand (as ballast ) from
11817-488: The top 10 safest in the UK. There is one main tier of local government covering Sunderland, at metropolitan borough level: Sunderland City Council . Most of the built-up area is an unparished area , although on its southern edge part of the built-up area falls within the parish of Burdon . The city council is based at City Hall on Plater Way (formerly the site of the Vaux Brewery), which opened in 2021. Prior to that
11934-460: The town being a target in a 1916 Zeppelin raid. Monkwearmouth was struck on 1 April 1916 and 22 people died. Over 25,000 men from a population of 151,000 served in the armed forces during the war. Through the Great Depression of the 1930s, shipbuilding dramatically declined: shipyards on the Wear went from 15 in 1921 to six in 1937. The small yards of J. Blumer & Son (at North Dock) and
12051-513: The town had 76 shipyards and between 1820 and 1850 the number of ships being built on the Wear increased fivefold. From 1846 to 1854 almost a third of the UK's ships were built in Sunderland, and in 1850 the Sunderland Herald proclaimed the town to be the greatest shipbuilding port in the world. The Durham & Sunderland Railway Co. built a railway line across the Town Moor and established
12168-403: The town was probably the premier shipbuilding centre in Britain. Ships built in Sunderland were known as 'Jamies'. By 1788 Sunderland was Britain's fourth largest port (by measure of tonnage) after London, Newcastle and Liverpool; among these it was the leading coal exporter (though it did not rival Newcastle in terms of home coal trade). Still further growth was driven across the region, towards
12285-509: The world' and once made a quarter of all of the world's ships from its famous yards, which date back to 1346 on the River Wear. The centre of the modern city is an amalgamation of three settlements founded in the Anglo-Saxon era : Monkwearmouth , on the north bank of the Wear, and Sunderland and Bishopwearmouth on the south bank. Monkwearmouth contains St Peter's Church , which was founded in 674 and formed part of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey ,
12402-469: Was SS Patrick Henry , launched by President Roosevelt. In remarks at the launch ceremony FDR cited Patrick Henry 's 1775 speech that finished " Give me liberty or give me death ". Roosevelt said that this new class of ship would bring liberty to Europe, which gave rise to the name Liberty ship. The first ships required about 230 days to build ( Patrick Henry took 244 days), but the median production time per ship dropped to 39 days by 1943. The record
12519-621: Was a floating nuclear power plant and the first ever built. MH-1A was used to generate electricity at the Panama Canal Zone from 1968 to 1975. She was also used as a fresh water generating plant. She is anchored in the James River Reserve Fleet . The ship was dismantled in 2019 in Brownsville, Texas. Fifty-eight Liberty ships were lengthened by 70 feet (21 m) starting in 1958, giving them additional carrying capacity at
12636-596: Was allocated to the South Atlantic Steamship Lines , on 30 April 1944. On 30 May 1948, she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet , Wilmington , North Carolina. On 20 February 1958, she was laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet , Lee Hall , Virginia. She was sold for scrapping, 24 July 1970, to I.C.E. Chemicals, Inc. , for $ 113,099. She was removed from the fleet on 19 August 1970. Liberty ship Liberty ships were
12753-664: Was built as a chapel of ease within Holy Trinity parish; built by a local coal fitter, John Thornhill, it stood in Prospect Row to the north-east of the parish church. (St John's was demolished in 1972.) By 1720 the port area was completely built up, with large houses and gardens facing the Town Moor and the sea, and labourers' dwellings vying with manufactories alongside the river. The three original settlements Bishopwearmouth, Monkwearmouth and Sunderland had started to combine, driven by
12870-471: Was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it was made a county borough , independent from the new Durham County Council . The borough boundaries were enlarged on several occasions, notably in 1867, 1928 (when it gained areas including Fulwell , Southwick and the remainder of the old Bishopwearmouth parish), 1936, 1951, and 1967 (when it gained North Hylton , South Hylton , Ryhope , Silksworth , and Tunstall ). In 1974
12987-404: Was considered to be a failure as reliability was poor and the scalability of the design was poor. All four vessels were fueled with Bunker C fuel oil, though John Sergeant required a quality of fuel available at limited ports and also required further treatment to reduce contaminants. Three were scrapped in 1971 or 1972 and the diesel-equipped Thomas Nelson was scrapped in 1981. In 2011,
13104-399: Was designed to dredge to a maximum depth of 10 ft (3.0 m) below the waterline and remained in operation until 1804, when its constituent parts were sold as separate lots. Onshore, numerous small industries supported the business of the burgeoning port. In 1797 the world's first patent ropery (producing machine-made rope , rather than using a ropewalk ) was built in Sunderland, using
13221-481: Was granted a charter in 1179 under the name of the borough of Wearmouth by Hugh Pudsey , then the Bishop of Durham (who had quasi- monarchical power within the County Palatine of Durham ). The charter gave its merchants the same rights as those of Newcastle-upon-Tyne , but it nevertheless took time for Sunderland to develop as a port . Fishing was the main commercial activity at the time: mainly herring in
13338-427: Was modified during construction into three major variants with the same basic dimensions and slight variance in tonnage. One variant, with basically the same features but different type numbers, had four rather than five holds served by large hatches and kingpost with large capacity booms. Those four hold ships were designated for transport of tanks and boxed aircraft. In the detailed Federal Register publication of
13455-496: Was set by SS Robert E. Peary , which was launched 4 days and 15 1 ⁄ 2 hours after the keel had been laid, although this publicity stunt was not repeated: in fact much fitting-out and other work remained to be done after the Peary was launched. The ships were made assembly-line style, from prefabricated sections. In 1943 three Liberty ships were completed daily. They were usually named after famous Americans, starting with
13572-519: Was the founder and namesake of the Belmont Stakes . August Belmont was laid down on 1 March 1944, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MC hull 2474, by the St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company , Jacksonville , Florida; she was sponsored by Mrs. W.H. Slappey, the sister of Max and Kenneth Merrill , the president and vice president of St. John's River SB, and was launched on 20 April 1944. She
13689-594: Was the original monastery. St Andrew's Church, Roker , known as the "Cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement ", contains work by William Morris , Ernest Gimson and Eric Gill . St Mary's Catholic Church is the earliest surviving Gothic revival church in the city. After the war, more housing was built and the town's boundaries expanded in 1967 when neighbouring Ryhope , Silksworth , Herrington , South Hylton and Castletown were incorporated. Sunderland AFC won their only post- World War II major honour in 1973 when they won
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