Misplaced Pages

#477522

122-551: During World War I, the company was a critical source of sulfur for the U.S. war effort. During World War II, the company operated at least twenty-seven Liberty Ships and was awarded a War Service Flag. In 1960, the company merged with the Texas Natural Gas Corporation to form the Union Texas Natural Gas Corporation. In 1962, Union Texas was acquired by Allied Chemical Corporation . Through

244-490: 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

366-678: A 50-acre hill rising out of a bayou in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana . The swamp water surrounding the hill contained traces of oil, leading prospectors to believe they could drill productive oil wells. In 1867, the Louisiana Petroleum Company began exploratory drilling at the site. Drilling revealed that beneath 400 feet of clay and gravel was a layer of quicksand , followed by a 100-foot thick bed of limestone containing pure sulfur deposits, underlain by gypsum . The exploratory drilling continued down to 1,230 feet, still within

488-473: 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

610-437: 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

732-660: A Norwegian concern. She was a 5,000 gross ton bulk carrier. She was purchased by the Union Sulphur Co. in 1917 and renamed Severance , after company investor Louis Severance . She served as the USS Severance (ID No. 2063) during the First World War, from August 19, 1918 to March 3, 1919. She was sold in 1927 and renamed Yankee Sword . She was scrapped in Philadelphia in 1949. Built in 1912 by Newburgh Shipyards, Inc. for

854-734: A War Service Flag by the War Service Administration. Liberty Ships operated by the Union Sulphur Co. include: Ben Holladay , Benjamin H. Brewster , Benjamin F. Coston , Carter Braxton , Casper S. Yost , Chilton Seam , Cornelius Ford , Edward G. Acheson , Frederick C. Hicks , Fred C. Stebbins , F. Southall Farrar , Henry Ward Beecher , James W. Grimes , John Ball , John Randolph , Joseph A. Holmes , Moses Cleaveland , Robert Newell , Russell A. Alger , Samuel Colt , St. Olaf , Telfair Stockton , Thomas F. Hunt , Thomas Johnson , William Leroy Gable , William W. McKee , William Wolfskill . The Union Sulphur Co. also operated

976-525: 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,

1098-520: 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

1220-628: A descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt , founded the investing firm William A. M. Burden & Company. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium and as president of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The company utilized ships to transport sulfur from its wharf at the Sabine River . The company first chartered ships, including the Cora F. Cressey in 1907. In 1899 the company purchased its first ship,

1342-709: 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

SECTION 10

#1732855798478

1464-627: 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

1586-448: 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 ,

1708-463: 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

1830-475: 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 the subject of much continued interest. In 1936, the American Merchant Marine Act

1952-498: 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

2074-611: A new coal pier at Sewell's Point on Hampton Roads . It was renamed the Virginian Railway . In 1890 Hewitt partnered with Edward Cooper and Hamilton McKown Twombly in forming the American Sulphur Company, which then entered into a 50/50 agreement with Herman Frasch and his partners to form the Union Sulphur Company . As philanthropist Hewitt was interested in education. Columbia University gave him

2196-403: 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

2318-663: A series of transactions, the Union Texas division eventually became part of multinational energy company BP . Herman Frasch was a German immigrant to America who eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a chemist and engineer who devised a number of inventions. In 1885, he founded the Empire Oil Company and began perfecting a method for removing sulfur from sour crude oil . The presence of sulfur in oil causes it to smell noxious and release excessive soot as it burns, making

2440-442: 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

2562-453: 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 ,

SECTION 20

#1732855798478

2684-638: 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

2806-522: 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

2928-664: 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

3050-468: A water plant in Philadelphia . Hewitt earned a scholarship to attend Columbia College . After graduating from the college in 1842, he taught mathematics there, and became a lawyer several years later. From 1843 to 1844, Hewitt traveled to Europe with his student, Edward Cooper , the son of industrialist entrepreneur Peter Cooper , and another future New York City mayor. During their return voyage,

3172-588: Is shown as owned by Beebe after the donation until the ship was sold to Portugal and later broken up in 1932. Built in 1910 by Fore River Shipyard for the Union Sulphur Co. She was a 3,800 gross ton bulk carrier. She served as the USS Herman Frasch (ID No. 1617) during World War I, beginning in September 1918. On the night of October 4, 1918, she and the USS ; George G. Henry accidentally collided, causing

3294-414: 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

3416-622: 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 ,

3538-590: The Democratic National Committee in 1876, when Tilden ran unsuccessfully for President . After defeating James O'Brien , his successor in Congress who was a staunch opponent of Tammany Hall, for the Democratic nomination in the 10th district during the 1880 elections , Hewitt regained his old seat and once again served in the U.S. House from 4 March 1881 to 30 December 1886. Hewitt's most famous speech

3660-462: The Democratic Party in New York, which Tweed controlled for years through his political machine . Hewitt first ventured into electoral politics in 1874, when he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives , where he initially served two terms representing New York's 10th congressional district , from March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1879. During his first stint in Congress, he was made head of

3782-650: The Frasch Process to extract sulfur from other nearby salt dome sites. The Union Sulphur Company tried to stop the Freeport Sulphur Company by suing on the basis of later patents that improved upon the original patents. The Delaware District Court largely sided with the Union Sulphur Company. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, however, reversed the district court, concluding that the new patents were not really new inventions, but merely extensions of

Union Sulphur Company - Misplaced Pages Continue

3904-734: 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

4026-489: 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,

4148-541: The Saint Patrick's Day parade, a decision that alienated much of the Democratic Party's Irish–American base in the city. Hewitt also refused to allow Tammany the control of patronage they wanted, and Croker saw to it that Hewitt was not nominated for a second term. Hewitt was considered a defender of sound financial management . He is quoted as saying "Unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation". Hewitt also upheld

4270-615: 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

4392-517: The USS Hewitt during World War I, from 1917 to 1919. In January 1921, Hewitt and her entire crew disappeared without a trace off the northeastern coast of Florida. Only days after this unexplained disappearance, the commercial schooner Carroll A. Deering was discovered run aground on shoals off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Her entire crew had disappeared and were never found. These incidents were believed to have occurred in roughly

4514-542: The USS  Hector , which was previously named Pedro and had been captured by the U.S. Navy during the Spanish–American War . The company later had its own ships built. Arcturus was built as Clio by Pacific American Fisheries, Inc., Bellingham, Washington as one of seven wooden-hull Design 1065 ships built for the United States Shipping Board . The ship was launched March 22, 1919. The ship

4636-547: 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

4758-699: 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

4880-536: 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. Abram Hewitt Abram Stevens Hewitt (July 31, 1822 – January 18, 1903) was an American politician, educator, ironmaking industrialist , and lawyer who

5002-494: The Vacuum Oil Company . She was given a U.S. Navy number (ID No. SP-1630), indicating she may have served in the U.S. Navy during World War I. She was purchased by the Union Sulphur Co. in 1919 and renamed C.A. Snider , after company Secretary Clarence A. Snider. She was sold in 1929, and subsequently sold and renamed a number of times before being scrapped in 1962. Built in 1919 by Northwest Steel as J.R. Gordon . She

Union Sulphur Company - Misplaced Pages Continue

5124-907: The Victory Ship Goucher Victory during World War II. On May 27, 1905, executives of the Union Sulphur Co. incorporated the Brimstone Railroad and Canal Company in Louisiana. The company was formed to build a railroad to run the seven miles from the mines to junctions that connected with the Southern Pacific Railway (now called the Southern Pacific Transportation Company ) and the Kansas City Southern Railway . The Brimstone Railroad company had three locomotives and 106 cars. It also owned

5246-545: The civil service reform in the United States . He oversaw the passage of the Rapid Transit Act of 1894, which would provide public funding for the construction of the first New York City Subway line. A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the University of Illinois at Chicago ranked Hewitt as the twenty-sixth-best American big-city mayor to have served between

5368-639: The first line of what would eventually develop into the New York City Subway , for which he is considered the "Father of the New York City Subway System". Hewitt was born in Haverstraw, New York . His mother, Ann Gurnee, was of French Huguenot descent, while his father, John Hewitt, was from Staffordshire in England and had emigrated to the U.S. in 1796 to work on a steam engine to power

5490-665: 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

5612-593: 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

5734-510: 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

5856-463: The 40 barrels on hand to collect it were full. On January 23, 1896, the Union Sulphur Company was incorporated in New Jersey to take title to the land and Frasch patents. Half the stock went to the American Sulphur Company, and the other half went to Frasch and his backers. Frasch and his engineering team worked through various technical challenges, but work stalled because of irregular production, and

5978-436: The American Sulphur Company released deadly hydrogen sulfide gas that killed five drillers, and the efforts were abandoned. As the American Sulphur Company was abandoning its efforts, Frasch, with the backing of Frank Rockefeller , Feargus B. Squire and Louis Severance , was on an adjacent property beginning his own efforts. Frasch had learned about the well-publicized sulfur mining failures, and purchased land adjacent to

6100-413: The American Sulphur Company's land. He assumed that the sulfur deposits extended laterally underneath his property, and he planned to extract the sulfur with a new method. He would insert three pipes down into the sulfur. Super-heated water would be pumped down one pipe to melt the sulfur, and compressed air would be pumped down another pipe. The increased pressure from the compressed air would then force

6222-582: The American naturalist and explorer William Beebe with Arcturus for a six month scientific voyage, The Arcturus Oceanographic Expedition, to the Galápagos Islands on behalf of the New York Zoological Society. The expedition was also supported by Harrison Williams . The expedition identified many new species. Beebe also observed a volcanic eruption between two nameless mountains, and named

SECTION 50

#1732855798478

6344-501: 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

6466-540: The Brush Electric Co. for twelve years, with much of his time spent in Italy working on construction of the company's electric plants. Whiton was a supporter of the New York Zoological Society, now called the Wildlife Conservation Society . He became a member of its executive committee in 1924 and vice president in 1925. Herman Whiton, son of Frieda Frasch and Henry D. Whiton, served as president of

6588-674: 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

6710-650: 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

6832-425: 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

6954-399: 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 the largest number of ships ever produced to a single design. Their production mirrored (albeit on

7076-472: 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,

7198-502: 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,

7320-417: 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

7442-461: The Sabine River Canal, which provided a shipping channel to the Sabine River and Sabine Lake , and from there into the Gulf of Mexico. Liberty Ships Liberty ships were 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,

SECTION 60

#1732855798478

7564-481: 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

7686-504: The Union Sulphur & Oil Corporation to reflect its transition to oil production. In 1955, the name was changed to the Union Oil & Gas Corporation. In 1960, the Union Oil & Gas Co. merged with the Texas Natural Gas Corporation to form the Union Texas Natural Gas Corporation. In 1962, Union Texas merged with Allied Chemical . Through a series of transactions the Union Texas division eventually became part of multinational energy company BP . A native of Calcasieu Parish, Henning

7808-456: The Union Sulphur Co. She was a 4,500 gross register ton bulk carrier. She was named after Union Sulphur Co. President Henry D. Whiton. She served as the USS Henry D. Whiton (ID No. D-4811) in World War II, from January 21, 1942 through March 2, 1946. She participated in almost eighty convoys, including Convoy TAG 5 . She was sold to the Italian Government in 1946 and scrapped in 1959. Built in 1917 by Harlan and Hollingsworth as Olean for

7930-409: The Union Sulphur Co. in 1934 and re-named W.R. Keever , after an executive at the company. She served during World War II, from May 1942 to March 1945. She participated in over forty convoys. She was purchased by the U.S. government in March 1945 for $ 356,343.66 (~$ 4.78 million in 2023), and given to Russia as part of the Lend-Lease policy. She was renamed Cheliabinsk . During World War II,

8052-402: The Union Sulphur Co. operated at least twenty-seven Liberty Ships . This was far more ships than the company had ever before operated. The ships were owned by the U.S. government but operated by the company under a War Shipping Administration General Agency Agreement. The company had to supply crews and equipment, maintain the ships, and operate them at sea. The Union Sulphur Co. was awarded

8174-478: The Union Sulphur Company beginning in 1907. Son of company investor Louis Severance , John Severance was a successful entrepreneur in his own right. Henry D. Whiton served as president of the Union Sulphur Company from 1905-1914. Although his hiring likely resulted from his marriage to Herman Frasch's daughter Frieda Frasch, prior to their marriage Whiton had distinguished himself as an executive with Charles F. Brush 's Brush Electric Company. Whiton had worked at

8296-419: The War, but did not exert control over its production. By 1929, the company's original sulfur mines were depleted, but the company had located oil near the edge of the salt dome where it mined sulfur. The company thereafter acquired additional properties for sulfur mining, but gradually transitioned to oil and natural gas extraction in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In 1950, the company changed its name to

8418-399: 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

8540-443: 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

8662-414: The company and chairman of the board until 1952. He was a supporter of the Princeton University Physics Department, and was instrumental in its acquisition of a Synchrotron . Gordon oversaw transportation at the company, including its fleet of ships. He served as President of the United States Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation . He died in 1930. Burden was a director of the company. Burden,

8784-729: The company. Her faith in Frasch won them over, and they continued to back the venture. The fuel cost problem was solved by simple good fortune. On January 10, 1901, a huge oil field was discovered at Spindletop , not far from the Union Sulphur Company's drilling site. The Union Sulphur Company now had easy access to cheap energy, making the sulfur mining process highly profitable. Production increased from 2 wells producing 3078 long tons in 1901 to 19 wells producing 218,950 tons in 1905. By 1912, production increased to 787,735 tons, of which 57,736 were exported. As importantly, costs were one-fifth that of sulphur from Sicily, which had previously dominated

8906-513: 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

9028-631: The degree of LL.D. in 1887, and he was the president of its alumni association in 1883, and a trustee from 1901 until his death. In 1876, he was elected president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers , and was a founder and trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Science . He was also a trustee of Barnard College and of the American Museum of Natural History . Abram Hewitt died at his New York City home on January 18, 1903, and

9150-422: 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

9272-589: 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

9394-520: 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

9516-459: 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

9638-524: 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

9760-482: The gypsum layer, without finding any significant oil deposits. For the next 23 years, a series of corporations aided by esteemed experts such as Professor Eugene W. Hilgard , noted French engineer Antoine Granet, Rossiter W. Raymond , and Richard P. Rothwell, attempted to mine the sulfur deposits. Hilgard and Granet confirmed that about 450 feet below the surface was a 100-foot-thick layer of limestone impregnated with pure sulfur. A 25-foot thick layer of limestone kept

9882-441: 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

10004-449: The high cost of the coal necessary to heat the water caused the operation to lose money. The venture was on the verge of failure. Frasch met with Abram Hewitt and Edward Cooper and asked for more financial support. They were skeptical, but also present at the meeting was Hewitt's wife Sarah Cooper Hewitt, sister of Edward Cooper. She announced that she would personally back Frasch if her husband and brother would sell her their stakes in

10126-516: 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

10248-469: The industry. The Union Sulphur Company quickly came to dominate the global sulfur market, . Unfortunately for Frasch, he was too far ahead of his time. He had filed his original three patents for the Frasch Process back in 1891. At the time, patents lasted 17 years. His original patents thus expired in 1908. Competitors such as the Freeport Sulphur Company quickly emerged and began to use

10370-482: 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

10492-496: The manufacture of explosives, among others. The Union Sulphur Company, as the primary source of sulfur in the U.S. before and during World War I, was critical to the U.S. war effort. As the legal battle over the expiration of its patents continued, the company's daily output of sulfur rose from 700 tons per day to over 4,000 tons per day to meet the U.S.'s and its Allies' wartime needs of 150,000 tons per month. The U.S. government exerted control over domestic sulfur distribution during

10614-425: The molten sulfur up through the empty third pipe. Upon drilling on his property, however, Frasch discovered that the sulfur was only located beneath the American Sulphur Company property. The American Sulfur Company was not a fly-by-night venture, but a credible corporation backed by Abram Hewitt , Edward Cooper and Hamilton McKown Twombly . It had spent $ 300,000 to $ 350,000 to buy the land and attempt to extract

10736-418: The mountains Mt. Whiton and Mt. Williams after his two benefactors. In 1926, Beebe authored a book about the expedition called The Arcturus Adventure . The official photographer on the expedition was Ernest B. Schoedsack . The official historian on the expedition was Ruth Rose . The two later married, and Schoedsack would go on to co-direct the film King Kong with Ruth Rose editing the screenplay. Arcturus

10858-546: The much smaller Herman Frach to sink. She went down in only seven minutes, and twenty-five of her crew were lost. Built in 1920 by Newburgh Shipyards, Inc. for the Union Sulphur Co. She was a 4,500 gross ton bulk carrier. She was sold to the Italian Government in 1946 and renamed Auctoritas . She was scrapped in 1959. Built in 1942 by Bethlehem Steel as the Liberty Ship SS Carter Braxton . She

10980-530: The oil virtually useless for many purposes. John D. Rockefeller 's Standard Oil company owned fields of oil that contained sulfur. The oil would become far more valuable if the sulfur were removed, so Standard Oil purchased Frasch's company and employed him as the first head of its research department. Frasch perfected his method for removing sulfur from oil, resulting in a financial windfall for Standard Oil. As early as 1867, organized efforts were made by various concerns to extract oil and sulfur located beneath

11102-537: The original expired patents. Union Sulphur appealed to the Supreme Court, which declined to review the Third Circuit opinion. The competitors were free to use the Frasch Process . The Union Sulphur Company continued to extract sulfur, averaging over 200,000 tons per year from 1905 to 1911 and eventually producing a total of almost 9.5 million tons. Sulfur has many industrial uses, including as sulfuric acid and in

11224-612: The pair were shipwrecked together. After this, Hewitt became "virtually a member of the Cooper family", and in 1855 married Edward's sister, Sarah Amelia. In 1845, financed by Peter Cooper, Hewitt and Edward Cooper started an iron mill in Trenton, New Jersey , the Trenton Iron Company, where, in 1854, they produced the first structural wrought iron beams, as well as developing other innovative products. Hewitt's younger brother, Charles,

11346-468: 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

11468-580: The same area, which was also the area where in 1918 the USS Cyclops and her entire crew of three hundred and six disappeared without a trace. The three unexplained incidents resulted in a public outcry about possible threats from pirates, communists, and other conspiracy theories. The controversy led to investigations by five agencies of the U.S. federal government. The disappearances were never explained, causing them to become part of Bermuda Triangle lore. Built in 1909 by Roper & Sons as Gladstone for

11590-503: 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

11712-533: The shaft reached the limestone, the water would be pumped out. Miners could then descend through the shaft and dig lateral shafts within the limestone. This method was attempted first by the Calcasieu Sulphur & Mining Company in 1870, and later the Louisiana Sulphur Company in 1879, followed by the American Sulphur Company in 1890. All such efforts ended with flooded shafts. The last effort by

11834-611: 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

11956-507: 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,

12078-505: 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

12200-440: The sulfur separated from the watery layers above. If a mine shaft could be built through the watery layers, down to the limestone and sulfur, miners could descend and dig caverns laterally to extract the sulfur. The problem was that any mine shaft would flood with water and quicksand as it was built. Granet proposed digging straight down and building a mine shaft supported by 87 iron rings, 10 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. When

12322-409: The sulfur. Frasch met with Hewitt and proposed a simple 50/50 deal combining their property with his process. Hewitt wanted greater assurances about the unproven extraction process, and Frasch went to work with engineers such as Jacques Toniette and Jacob Hoffman. On a day in late December 1894, the Frasch Process succeeded, and pure molten sulfur rose up from beneath the bayou, and within 15 minutes

12444-556: The years 1820 and 1993. Hewitt had many investments in natural resources, including considerable holdings in West Virginia , where William Nelson Page (1854–1932) was one of his managers. He was also an associate of Henry Huttleston Rogers (1840–1909), a financier and industrialist who was a key man in the Standard Oil Trust , and a major developer of natural resources. One of Hewitt's investments handled by Rogers and Page

12566-469: 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

12688-480: Was mayor of New York City for two years from 1887 to 1888. He also twice served as a U.S. Congressman from New York's 10th and chaired the Democratic National Committee from 1876 to 1877. The son-in-law of the industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper , Hewitt is best known for his work with the Cooper Union , which he aided Cooper in founding in 1859, and for planning the financing and construction of

12810-454: Was 2,478  GRT , 268.3 ft (81.8 m) registered length with official number 218749, call letters LSKQ. Clio was operated by States Steamship until returned to Pacific American Fisheries after World War I. In September 1921 the ship was sold to Union Sulphur Company. Union Sulphur Co. President Henry D. Whiton was a patron of the New York Zoological Society, now called the Wildlife Conservation Society . In 1925, Whiton provided

12932-621: 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

13054-469: Was a 3,365 gross ton bulk carrier. She was named after Frasch's daughter Frieda Frasch. She served as the USS  Frieda during World War I, from October 1918 to January 1919. She was later sold to a Chinese concern and renamed Peh Shan , and later Norse Carrier . On December 8, 1941, during the Second Sino-Japanese War , she was captured by Japan at Shanghai and renamed Sana Maru . She

13176-552: Was a 5,700 gross ton bulk carrier. She was named after Union Sulphur Co. executive J.R. Gordon, who oversaw the company's fleet of ships. In 1930, she was renamed the Herman F. Whiton , after Union Sulphur Co. President Herman Whiton . She was purchased by the U.S. government in March 1945 for $ 361,753.60 (~$ 4.86 million in 2023), and given to Russia as part of the Lend-Lease policy. She

13298-465: Was a manager at the iron mill. Hewitt also invested in other companies, in many case serving on their boards. Hewitt supervised the construction of the Cooper Union , Peter Cooper's free educational institution, and chaired its board of trustees until 1903. In 1871, inspired by reformer Samuel J. Tilden , Cooper prominently campaigned to remove the corrupt "Tweed Ring", led by William M. "Boss" Tweed , from control of Tammany Hall , and to reorganize

13420-513: Was a successful inventor, while another son, Edward Ringwood Hewitt (1865–1957), was also an inventor, a chemist and an early expert on fly-fishing. He published Telling on the Trout , among other books. Hewitt's youngest son, Erskine Hewitt (1871–1938), was also a lawyer and philanthropist in New York City. He donated Ringwood Manor to the State of New Jersey in 1936. On February 18, 1909, Erskine Hewitt

13542-404: 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,

13664-538: Was interred at Green-Wood Cemetery . His last words, after he took his oxygen tube from his mouth, were "And now, I am officially dead." Hewitt's daughters, Amy, Eleanor, and Sarah Hewitt, built a decorative arts collection that was for years exhibited at the Cooper Union and later became the core collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum . His son, Peter Cooper Hewitt (1861–1921),

13786-516: Was made at the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn in 1883. Hewitt was elected mayor of New York City in 1886. He defeated the labor candidate Henry George as well as the Republican candidate Theodore Roosevelt . Hewitt's election campaign had the support of Tammany Hall . The endorsement was formal and included organizational muscle. Hewitt refused to review

13908-427: 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

14030-606: Was operated by Japan during World War II until October 20, 1943, when she was sunk off the coast of French Indochina by the American Gato-class submarine USS  Kingfish . Built in 1914 by the Fore River Shipyard as Pacific for the J. S. Emery Steamship Co. She was a 5,400 gross ton bulk carrier. In 1915, she was purchased by the Union Sulphur Co. for $ 700,000 (~$ 15.3 million in 2023) and renamed Hewitt , after company investor Abram Hewitt . She served as

14152-526: Was operated by the Union Sulphur Co. during World War II. She was then purchased by the Union Sulphur Co. in 1947 and renamed Herman Frasch . She was sold to the Terminal Steamship Company in 1955, and was later sold to a Liberian concern, and then a Greek concern that renamed her Meltemi . She was scrapped in Taiwan in 1959. Built in 1912 by the Fore River Shipyard for the Union Sulphur Co. She

14274-580: 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,

14396-404: Was renamed Olympic Challenger and operated as a factory whaling mother ship. The William A.M. Burden was later sold to Pacific Tankers Inc. and renamed Petronorte . The Olympic Challenger was later sold to Japanese whaling firm Kyokuyo Hogei and renamed Kyokuyo Maru 2 . Built in 1920 by Newburgh Shipyards, Inc. as Exanthia . She was a 5,900 gross ton bulk carrier. She was purchased by

14518-657: Was renamed Tomsk and later scrapped in 1959. The second Herman F. Whiton was built during World War II to serve the American war effort. She was built in 1943 by Kaiser Permanente as the T2 Tanker Oregon Trail . She was purchased by the Union Sulphur Co. in 1948 and renamed Herman F. Whiton , after Union Sulphur Co. President Herman Whiton . The company also bought T2 Tanker Brookfield , and renamed her William A.M. Burden after company Director William A.M. Burden. In 1949, both tankers were sold to Aristotle Onassis 's Olympic Whaling Co. The Herman F. Whiton

14640-496: 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

14762-719: Was the Loup Creek Estate in Fayette County, West Virginia . The Deepwater Railway was a subsidiary initially formed by the Loup Creek investors to ship bituminous coal from coal mines on their land a short distance to the main line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) along the Kanawha River . After rate disputes, the short line railroad was eventually expanded to extend all the way into Virginia and across that state to

14884-548: Was the assistant manager of the Company from 1899 until 1915, when he became vice president and general manager overseeing much of the company's operations. Keever was hired in January 1905 to supervise drilling for the company. He had prior drilling experience from Jennings Oil Field and Sour Lake Oil Field. He remained with the company for twenty years, becoming a vice president and general manager. Served as Secretary and Treasurer of

#477522