All About U.S. World War II Concrete Ships

On 7th December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. On 8th December 1941, Congress approved President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s request for a declaration of war on Japan and within a few days, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. The U.S. became fully engaged in WWII..

Between 1939 and 1945, 3,500 Allied merchant ships, amounting to 14.5 million gross tons, were sunk.

 The WWI USSB Emergency Fleet programme was generally deemed to have been a failure.However, shortages of steel, shipyards and skilled labour, combined with a need for more merchant ships, led to the Maritime Commission inviting 75 contractors to bid for the construction of a then undetermined number of reinforced concrete barges to relieve the shortage of tankers for transporting petroleum around the Atlantic seaboard.