Tony, one of our members, stepped in at very short notice to give us an interesting talk on the British designed and American constructed Liberty Ships used during the second world war.

Our attention was drawn to an unsung hero of those times, namely: Robert Cyril Thompson, a Sunderland shipbuilder.

Cyril was responsible for the design of this economical and efficient merchant ship. In late 1941, he headed a purchasing mission to the United States to order the construction of 60 urgently needed 10,000 ton cargo ships, but finding that no USA yards had suitable ships, or capacity to take orders, he negotiated a deal to have built 60 ships based on his design. On taking passage back to the UK to get the contract signed, his ship was torpedoed and sunk. Cyril managed to save the documents and after a period in a lifeboat was rescued by a passing ship heading in the wrong direction. Cyril was able to persuade the captain to return to Britain so that the documents could be delivered.

The 60 ships were speedily constructed in two new vast shipyards by a consortium headed by Henry J. Kaiser, and 20 more to the same design built in Canadian shipyards.

Kaiser bought innovative techniques, such as prefabricating the ships in sections and assembling them using welding instead of riveting. The record for building one ship was four days and 15 1⁄2 hours after the keel was laid.

When the USA was attacked at Pearl Harbour and entered the war, Thompson’s design was adopted and over 1,000 ships were built by Kaiser and other American shipyards.

Members found the talk very enlightening and it covered a subject that was unbeknown to many members.