Hellas Liberty

Having seen a Liberty ship in Piraeus on arrival, I got curious and followed up a bit later by uncle Google to see what she was about and discovered that she is a museum and has free entry so I took the opportunity one Sunday to go see her in the "flesh" so to speak.

s/s Hellas Liberty

When I started at sea in 1985 I saw on the Baltic sea from time to time vessels with derricks and midship superstructures and was always fascinated about them. In school we had gotten to operate derricks. The old timers onboard of course always discounted them as old Polish rustbuckets, which they eventually were, but nevertheless for a young lad they embodied the true romanticized ship shape and fed the imagination with the stories one heard in the messroom and read in books. 

Liberty ship General arrangement plan 

(courtesy of FB group Ships general arrangement plans)

Mothballed Liberty ships on Hudson river (courtesy of Hudson valley viewfinder)

Hellas Liberty, originally launched as SS Arthur M. Huddell in 1943, she was sponsored by Mrs. Arthur M. Huddell, the widow of the namesake. She was banged together in a few months in Florida, in Oct her keel was laid, and by Dec she was off running to support the war effort in carrying supplies, material and personnel.

The mothball fleet in California (photo courtesy by Contra Costa Historical Society). 

The last ships were scrapped as late as 2017.

Bow

Interestingly there were many women building "Liberty class" vessels, during WWII, in the yards as the men were out on the front fighting the axis power. Rosie the Riveters, women who made up 41 percent of the workforce, produced as many as three ships a day. I think the record for building a Liberty ship was under a month. In total these Liberty ships were built 2707 pieces out of the 6000 pieces, or so, different kind of ship classes built to develop the US merchant fleet (1941-45). Pretty massive output considering it is approximately 10% of the merchant fleet worldwide today, not considering gross tonnage though. 

Stern

After the war several of them were mothballed in USA and then later sold off to private interests, the greatest clients appear to have been Greek shipowners after their government made a deal with the US Gov't in 1947 on the initiative of the Greek shipowners association and finalized in the end by Sophocles Venizelos and the Minister of Shipping Nikolaos Abraham. 

Gangway and entrance onboard

Greece had lost 70% of their fleet during the war and they aimed to replenish the shortage in tonnage with the US surplus. Several Greek shipowners, whose names still live on today, like e.g. Onassis, Niarchos and Livanos got involved. These families made fortunes on the Liberty ships and they were famous trading these tramps worldwide as well as I would assume they lifted the Greek economy in one way or the other. The Liberty ships was the Greek shipowners favored vessel until 1964 after which their decline started and about 10 years later they had disappeared altogether to the shipbreakers yards. Source. 

Hatch cover and vents

Anyway, according to Wikipedia, s/s Arthur M. Huddell had had its last charter assignment in 1964 and was laid up in Suisun bay, the US navy took her over in 1977, and stripped her of lifesaving appliances and her propeller and subsequently reclassed the ship as a barge. Then from 1982-1983 she had been used in Pacific cable laying operations and then once again been laid up in the reserve fleet. She was also further cannibalized for spare parts, including the rudder. 

View aft from fwd deck

Then time went by and the barge Arthur M. Huddell was slated to be scuttled as an artificial reef. Fortunately conservatists from Greece, mostly shipowners, intervened and by 2008 she was decided to be donated to Greek interests and by 2009 she was towed to Greece by a Polish tugboat "Posidon". In preparation of the voyage she had been first towed to Norfolk for necessary repairs and she left in Dec 2008. 

Anchor windlass

In Greece more work was done on her, including manufacturing of a new rudder and a donated "Victory class" propeller from the US. All work was done without the help of the Greek Gov't, and the primus motor having started the project, was being led by Spyros M. Polemis.

Anchor securings

As I arrived the ship I just clambered onboard as there was nothing else going on, on top of the gangway was no signs so as an old sailor I just headed for the superstructure and the messroom. There I found some caretakers I presume, all seemingly old sailors themselves. We communicated in halting English and Greek, me telling them where I am from and what I do, so upon learning that I am a mariner from Finland they told me to go ahead and check out whatever I want, including the engine room. They said normally they don't let landlubbers in but a sailor could go down there, any headbumps would be on my own account. Well, said and done I started roaming the vessel all around.

Main deck view forward

Front of superstructure with bridge on top

Cargo hatch cover with canvas, under the canvas are 

hatchboards that were lifted off manually for loading/ discharge

View aft from bridge deck to the aft poop deck

Forward samson post and cargo derricks

I'm guessing a lot of work and maintenance has been put on the rigging as some of the derricks had been rigged up, obviously to do this the wires have to be in good condition and the winches working as well as safe for the public.

Boat deck, port side

Evacuation ladder

Open lifeboat from above

Lifeboat station

As per Wikipedia her lifeboats had been taken off so I am assuming new ones were procured from somewhere once she was back in Greece. Original or not, they must have been of the open type, small engine in one of them with oars, some may have even had a mast and sail to rig. These days lifeboats are of the closed type and on most cargo ships they are free fall type, so a lot of evolution has been happening on the lifesaving side.

View from bridgewing to foredeck

Funnel

Monkey Island, compass is missing from binnacle on the left, 

on right is a radio direction finder antenna

Having gone all over the outer decks I found myself going into the superstructure and my first point of interest was the navigation bridge. The equipment was very sparse and to think they navigated worldwide was impressive, although I had the education to do the same I had never had to experience such an austere bridge.

Bridge with compass binnacle, rudder and engine telegraph

Bridge and view forward, pretty ascetic and small portholes

Bridge porthole view

Engine telegraph

Sound pipe to talk to the monkey island

Chart room and table

Radio station

Behind the bridge was the radio room and chart room and they were followed by the officer's quarters including their communal sanitation spaces. No private bathrooms as today is the norm in most cargo ships.

Officers quarters

Officers quarters (radio officer)

Crew and officers communal sanitary spaces

Hold arranged into museum exhibition area. 

Walls were lined with pictures of old Captains from the era on various Greek Liberty merchantmen

Cargo hold with tween deck and opening to lower hold (removable beams in place)

Engine control room

Going down the engine room my first stop was the "control room", not much of a "room" as it was only a pulpit for the engine log with a clock, clinometer and a talking pipe to the bridge. Simple but practicable, I had seen same on old coasters that I worked on before. As vessels got more electronics and electric equipment onboard the control room evolved to an airconditioned space with monitors where engineers supervise and control the performance of various systems onboard. The aircondition, of course, is there to prevent the electrics and electronics equipment from frying and prolonging their life.

Electric main switch board

Here obviously everything was manual and coal fired, engineers would probably do hourly rounds, recording temperatures and looking for developing issues and listening for sounds of the same. Motormen, oilers and other ratings would then take care of maintenance and keeping the fires (=engine) going. The engine room was probably much quieter in these days compared to the high or medium speed diesels of today.

Picture of the main engine

Top of main engine

Main engine

Main engine

Main engine crank shaft

Piston shaft

Boiler hatches

Coal furnace of the boiler

Propeller shaft tunnel

Having much gone through every nook and cranny I finally emerged on top the main deck and went back to the messroom, I thanked the caretakers for the liberty given of being able to have a nosy everywhere and left the same way I came. All in all a very interesting day opening up the eyes for the conditions of those bygone days. I think I'll return one day for more exploration and talks with the caretakers.

Auxiliary engineering

Ship specs

Tonnage 10,865 LT DWT
7,176 GT

Displacement 3,380 long tons (3,434 t) (light)
14,245 long tons (14,474 t) (max)

Length 441 feet 6 inches (135 m) loa
416 feet (127 m) pp
427 feet (130 m) lwl

Beam 57 feet (17 m)

Draft 27 ft 9.25 in (8.4646 m)

Installed power 2 × Oil fired 450 °F (232 °C) boilers, operating at 220 psi (1,500 kPa)
2,500 hp (1,900 kW)

Propulsion 1 × triple-expansion steam engine, (manufactured by Filer and Stowell, Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

1 × screw propeller

Speed 11.5 knots (21.3 km/h; 13.2 mph)

Capacity 562,608 cubic feet (15,931 m3) (grain)
499,573 cubic feet (14,146 m3) (bale)

Aft poop deck and Greek ensign