The Liberty Ship was NOT an adaptation of the C-2 cargo ship. It ‘s evolution is more interesting.
Between World War I and World War II British shipbuilder Joseph L. Thompson developed a design for a tramp steamship. Design work progressed during the worldwide depression in the shipping industry in the hopes that it could be used when the economy improved. Known as Economy Ships, design was conservative; riveted construction, coal fired, triple expansion engines, although using superheated steam. A few vessels were built to this design prior to WWII.
Meanwhile, Americans followed a different path. The US Government’s Maritime Commission (MARAD) designed a family of state-of-the art cargo ships, resulting in the “C class”. The C-2 was one of these MARAD designed classes.
Also between the Wars, Great Britain “rationalized” it’s shipbuilding industry by closing many yards. As a result, by late 1940 Great Britain did not have unused shipyard capacity to build cargo ship tonnage to replace severe losses from German U boats.
Britain, therefore, turned to the USA to build cargo ships for its depleted Merchant Marine. A commission sent to the US found the “high end” C type cargo vessels being built in American yards to be unsuited to British needs and American shipyards full. In a remarkably short time the British Shipbuilding Commission contracted with a consortium of American companies to not only build 60 cargo ships, but the new shipyards to build them. Known as the Ocean Class these were based on the British Economy Ship Design. The Canadians also built a number to the same design known as the “Fort class ships”. The first of these American built Ocean Class vessels would be launched from the new shipyard built at Richmond, California in August 1941.
With it becoming obvious that the United States would enter the war, debate began within the US government to determine how to build cargo ships to support the war effort. MARAD officials promoted their C Class designs but a major concern was the ability of the US industrial base to mass produce the required number of geared steam turbine sets to power these ships. Finally President Roosevelt issued an executive order requiring that a design be adopted that could allow large quantities of ships to be mass produced.
The design that met these requirements was the British Ocean Class/ Economy Ship, not the MARAD C-2 Class. To better adapt it to American shipyard practices Naval Architecture firm Gibbs & Cox redrew the British plans. Major changes included, welded construction, water tube boilers, oil fuel, and a redesigned superstructure. The hull lines, (hull shape) of the liberties is the same as that of the Oceans.
MARAD designed C Class cargo ships also continued to be built throughout the war but not in the same numbers as the standardized Liberty designs.
Roger
Don't you know that the NARA (
I also have plans to build a Liberty-class model in the future (although it might be Victoria class 
).
