As stated below, a Triple expansion reciprocating steam engine with the crankshaft angles set at 120 degrees. There are High pressure (HP) Intermediate pressure(IP) and Low Pressure (LP) cylinders. The steam cycle for each cylinder is Admission, Cut off, Expansion, Exhaust and Compression. Steam to each cylinder is controlled by valves, these may be piston or slide valves or a combination of both. E.g. piston valves were often used in conjunction with the HP Cylinder. The valves are operated from eccentrics fitted to the crankshaft via eccentric rods. There is a forward and reverse eccentrics for each cylinder which is controlled by the position of the block in what I call the expansion link. By the time the steam leaves the LP Cylinder it holds almost no pressure i.e. a vacuum. Air pumps extract steam from the LP Cylinder to the Condenser (shown in the video) where the steam is converted back to condensate for reuse in the boilers. There are two Babcock and Wilcox small tube boilers. You can see the red circles of the fuel burners on the boiler fronts . Steam would be supplied to other reciprocating machinery such as electricity generators, fuel pumps, feed water and transfer pumps, water distilling plant, fire or fire and bilge pumps air supply fans to the boilers, winches, capstans and steering gear. Hope this helps.
There is no "compression" stage. A steam engines does not need to compress the fuel air mixture as in a gasoline or diesel engine. A steam engine is an external combustion engine.
My father was on the Pierce Butler which was torpedoed twice on November 20th 1942 @ 11:40 am off the coast of South Africa, Durbin. All 62 men on board survived after being rescued 20 hours after being sunk my father was 17 and the youngest on board.
As you mentioned, there are 3 fully operational Liberty ships. I used to work as a volunteer on one of them, the SS Jerimiah O'Brien. San Francisco, CA. The SS John W. Brown. Baltimore, MD. And the SS Arthur M. Huddell (Renamed Hellas Liberty) in 2008. In Piraeus harbor, Greece. The rudder and the screw on the John W. Brown was actually taken from the Hellas Liberty when she was mothballed. Her rudder and screw were replaced when she was restored in Greece. Thanks for the tour. Brought back many fond memories of the ships! A really cool place to explore in the engine room is the shaft tunnel which runs from the engine room all the way aft to the screw. The folks maintaining her should be proud! She is in beautiful shape!
In addition to volunteering on the Victory ship SS Jerimiah Obrien out of San Francisco I have also volunteered on the SS Red Oak Victory, a Victory ship out of Richmond, California. The Victory ships were built towards the end of the war, and much larger than the Liberty ships.
I visited the SS Jeremiah O'Brien many times when I lived in San Francisco, when it was docked at Ft. Mason. Once a month or so the volunteers would light the boilers and the triple expansion steam engine would slowly turn the screw. Many times I stood in the engine room watching that huge engine operate.Then and now, I am astounded that American industry cranked these ships out at, what was it, one a week? at each of the ship yards making them.
Hi from Russia! Great thanx for this video! These ships was very effective during WWII to help our country to defeat nazism. Classical example of heroical history!
Great video. My dad sailed with the MM during WWII. Got sunk twice and survived. What a great guy he was! Served from Murmansk to Port Moresby. Small crews sailing those ships. A typical US Navy ship would have had more than 5 times the crew. Pop's delivered the goods. Thank goodness he got Veteran's status before he passed. They finally got recognized for their sacrifice during the war effort. MM's had the highest loss rate per capita than any of the armed forces during WWII. I think it was one in twenty six perished.
My grandfather joined MM he was a cook. He told many stories about rough seas ships splitting in half. He was in the navy in the 30s He all ways said he joined the MM instead of the navy because they pay more if you go down with the ship. Grandma would get mad and tell him to shut up you all ready told that story. I also remember him complaining about the cold storage eggs on how sometimes he cracked two dozen eggs just to give a sailor two sunny side up eggs.
Before he died, my dad would cringe at all those "No Man Left Behind" credos. He left men behind, so close they could hurl cartons of cigarettes into their life boats... But "The Convoy can`t stop. The Convoy can`t help and the Convoy can`t come about. The Convoy MUST get through..."
My grandmother worked in the WWII shipyards in Portland Oregon, USA at the first of the war it would take 6 to 9 weeks to build this ship by 1944 they reduced that to 8 days to build a ship. Remember this was advanced fabrication for the time. My grandmother was a “ Tacker “. The crane would place a steel sheet and hold it and the women trackers would just tack weld the sheet in place. Then the certified welders would make the welds. Thank you for a wonderful video.
Vic thanks for posting I served in the US Navy and in the early 60’s the Navy brought 16 Liberty ships out of mothball and turned them into Radar Picket Ships 8 on East Cost & 8 on West Coast . I was on the USS Scanner AGR5 and a Ship-fitter Pipe 2ed Class (E5) Our job was set way off shore of the cost and with our radar we were the Early Warning for any Aircraft heading toward the US . Those ships did 66RPM at 11.2 Knot took a long time to get on station . I must say they have done a wonderful job of keeping this ship in wonderful shape .
It is almost in perfect condition, a lot of money was spent for its restoration.. Unfortunately, it sits unappreciated and not as widely visited as it was originally planned at the port of Piraeus in Greece...
Thank you for reliving the past. For me as a nine year old and my family, it was the same type Liberty ship that brought us from Germany to our new country Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1952. The journey took 10 days and as a child I can vividly remember the piles of food we had for dinner, a stark contrast to what we previously shared in various refugee camps.
Fun Fact: The Liberty Ship "Patrick E. Perry" was built in 4 days, 15 hours and 29 minutes. There was a completion between various shipyards. By 1943 the average time it took to build a Liberty Ship was around 30 days.
I was on a couple of Liberty ships back in 1968-69 when they were brought into Todd Shipyard in Galveston, TX for repairs. I was working there as a summer job during my first two years of college. The "old timers" told me of how, during WWII, some of these ships would be brought into the shipyard with 30 ft. wide holes in their sides from German torpedoes. A lot of people don't know just how active the U-boats were in the Gulf of Mexico.
Thank you Vic for the magnificent tour of this Liberty Ship. I was a certified fireman/watertender/oiler on the SS Jeremiah O'Brien in San Francisco for a number of years. Some of the best times of my life were standing a watch in the engine room with both boilers going and we were underway. Also the great meals in the crews mess and the comeradre are something to remember. It was fun for me to watch your video as an engineer as I knew all the spaces you went into and it was interesting to see this ship compared to the JO'B. You did a fantastic job with your narration and you added so much to tour. Thank you again my friend as I truly appreciated your video. Best regards, Lisa
Hi LIsa, I am so glad that you enjoyed this video... By the way, I have been to the Liberty ship in SF, that was several years ago, so no video... Thank you for your comments!
My Uncle Bill, told me a story in about 1980 when I was a 13 yr old boy. He had fought in the Battle of the Bulge in WWII , was wounded later, somewhere in ,I believe, St Low, France, he recouped in England, then when the war was over, he boarded a Liberty ship, then promptly broke down in the mid Atlantic for a month, waiting for parts and repairs. Then made it back to the U.S. He said that was the most boring month of his life, broken down at sea. He was a farm boy from Texas.
My Grandfather was a gunner on one of these ships in the North Atlantic and the Pacific in WW II. I remember from my childhood the liberty ship Longstreet was repurposed as a target ship in Cape Cod Bay. Thank you for the tour. Thank you to the Craftsmen who restored her.
Dear friend of wind and sea water.....That´s a great great Tour..! Great Ship for the Merchant Marine History. When visit Greece, I most be there..! Thank´s a lot..!
Thank you so much for sharing this tour. I'm a huge Liberty Ship fan and am thrilled that you were able to cover the ship so well. Excellent job, and thanks for posting.
I was just about to say the same thing. Each cylinder would however be double acting. ie They produce power on the up and down strokes of each cylinder.
Worked on many triple expansion steam engines as an apprentice millwright, relatively clean and easy to work on, very quiet when running, seen them go from full ahead to full astern without closing throttle.
So is this a two-stroke engine? Forgive me if I say something silly? The engine room is like a labyrinth with all those pipes. Very industrial. Very trippy.
@@samanli-tw3id they used the liberty ship for the shots in the Titanic. I forget if it's the one in California or Baltimore, but it's a liberty ship engine in the movie.
Dear Mr Vic Stefanu Many thanks for an excellent recall on Liberty ships . I am a Retd mariner trained ex T.S.Dufferin and sailed on a similar ship (built in 1952 IHI Japan) Sailed 1965- 1969. It was a popular design except that redesign saw Steel Hatch Covers , a Radar , Echo Sounder and DF with a seperate Radio room adj to the Nav Bridge. These 5 Hatch Cargo ships served till about 1985. Wonderful era of Strong ships simple to operate and not the complexity of present day Shipp Business wrangle. Thanks again Sincerely With Rgds CaptTR Retd (Chennai India )
Hello my friend and thank you for this interesting information and for your comments. It was a pleasure being on one of these legendary ships and to e able to videotape the different places..
Actually pretty difficult to 'restore' one of these ships as they were built On the Cheap with the expectation that they might not even survive one Atlantic crossing. The cost-benefit analysis was that if a ship delivered one load of cargo, it had justified its cost. Maintenance during the war was probably close to non-existent; they were run 'ti they wore out, if a U-boat didn't sink them first. They were drastically underpowered with only 2,500 HP to push 10,000 tons through the North Atlantic and in heavy weather they could barely make headway.
I met a guy from Italy who's first name was 'Liberty'. He was born on a Liberty ship bring his family and others over from Europe to America. It was cool listening to his story.
Great documentary on that ship my brothers wife's father was a captain on one of those ships he use to take equipment to russia and the uk ,he told me many stories of his travels.he was an australian ship captain living in new york traveling taking cargo across the sea for the war effort.knew him well before he passed .
This is a historic ship & it's contribution to the war effort is so great that it can't be measured here the Greeks spared it for gratitude when things for them were so tough it help them to repaired their sea going economy it's true that it's speed was slow but proved that was able to deal in this situation with what it had the huge previous capacity of heavy cargo that changed the course of the war huge amount of all kind of material got the front rightly it's name was LIBERTY & fought through to VICTORY .
Excellent presentation. Nice work with the ship. Πολλα μπραβο σε όσους συνέβαλαν σε αυτη την προσπάθεια και φυσικά στον δημιουργό του video που μας εκανε γνωστο αυτό το στολίδι που έχουμε δίπλα μας και δεν το γνωριζαμε
Thank you for that fantastic tour of the Hellas Liberty. Your walk-through helped me to experience must have been like for my grandfather who served on the SS Marie M. Meloney, one of the 2,700 ships you mentioned. My grandpa was a tall man, and I often wondered how much headroom the ship had for him. Looks like it was OK for the most part. Thanks.
Nice walk around! I saw this one from a distance in 2012, glad to see it up close. The big silver boxes with 4 red circles on the sides are the boilers, sinusoidal header water tube boilers that burned oil. The red circles are where the burners went. Thanks!
Nice job with this video. What you were filming around the 20:30 mark are the ships two oil fired boilers. The restoration of this ship is just stunning. I need to visit this for myself someday.
Thank you to the museum for their preservation of the Liberty Ship. Furthermore thank you Vic Stefanu for the real live modern view of a perfectly preserved Liberty Ship.
vic thank you so much for this great video of our nations history...for many many merchant sailors they were the final resting place...being from Jacksonville, Florida and working at JAX Shipyard for about 6 years in my younger days it did my heart good seeing that ship and i really appreciate the slow and thoughtful way you make your video, Thank You again so much!
A great video. Thank you. I never seen inside footage of a Liberty ship before. No one should underestimate the tremendous contribution that these vessels made to the war effort.
A very enjoyable video tour of a magnificently restored Liberty ship. The ship has been beautifully restored and your narration was excellent. Thank you Vic for sharing this video.
The sides had to have a long wide and thick strip of reinforcing metal to keep them from cracking in the midsection in rough seas. Either it's a very early model or the refurbishing left it off. I don't recall the last versions having a redesign to leave the reinforcing off. Great find. Love the Greek islands and mainland.
Hi Vic. I always admire how you manage to combine history, documentary, information, environmental issues, e.t.c. in your videos. Your channel is not only a travel channel but a lot more. Thank you.
A liberty ship carried four 83 foot boats over to England at a time. My Dad served aboard an 83 footer and the liberty ship used the radar on my Dad's boat to help guide it across the Atlantic. My Dad said they ran into heavy fog during the trip and were thankful for the radar.
Very Good Restoration, I wouldn't have wanted the job to do the Repaint of this Ship- What a Mindboggling Job, 1000's of pipes & Galleyways - It would take 1 man a Lifetime with a Brush!! lol👍😉
Mr. Vice Stefanu, Great video Sir as I never knew this ship still existed. Glad we have three instead of two still in existing. You did a beautiful job with the video. In the engine room, those four red things I saw is I believe those are the boilers, the heart of the ship. Again Sir, thank you.
1960-1970 I was working on 4 different Liberty ships, Big memories and travel the hole world. those years will never be forgotten . Does any body knows where I can find in Piraeus and if i can visit inside to take the pictures ?
Hi Petro, the ship is visible once you enter the port, you cannot miss it. Yes, you can take pictures there, I am going back to Greece in a month and I will visit it again..
@@VicStefanu THANK YOU VIC STEFANOU, I WILL VISIT THE SHIP WHEN I VISIT GREECE, IT WILL BRING ME BACK THE DECADE OF 60s ,MAYBE THIS YEAR AND THEN I WILL MY MY TOWN I WAS BORN , NAFPAKTOS, THANKYOU
My first trip was on a Liberty ship as a cadet, Liverpool to S. America, in 1958, some refinements to the accommodation had been made by then, otherwise still the same as your excellent video, well done Vic.
This is very nice video by the way I meant the people 2 years ago in Boston who was the people that donate this Liberty to Greece beautiful beautiful playing and also had a memories from Liberty when I was in the Merchant Marines 1966 69 took me 45 days from Bulgaria to Japan what a beautiful memories
Well done, Vic. The ship is in suburb condition for an old ship and seems is only out of dry dock. I was onboard the J.O'B. in the US, also in great shape.
@@edmondmkasian6173 Hi, I was planning on coming early next year, I want to visit Persepolis... I hope everything in the world turns peaceful and I will definitely come there..
@@VicStefanu oh forget any thing you hear in news. I think its better you take your international driving license and but RV or van or station wagon here and plan to visit at leat 60 - 70 historical sites. Specially hamedan , zanjan , kashan, osfahan , shiraz ( perspolis , pasargad) zahesan ( burned city from 2000 years BC ) . don't rush for exit iran . Just take your time and visit every place . I guarantee you'll experience best among all of your visits.
Congrats for this amazing video! I knew they were able to build them at a higher rate than the were distroyed. I think to the Battle of the Atlantic and to the Uboat war to the convoys. Also I think to the courage of sailors who served on those ships during the WWII.
I’m reading Robert Locke’s book,”Helmet for my pillow’, and he speaks of being on this ship as troop transport and it’s cool to see your video. He says the marines would hang out on the greasy canvas hatch coverings shown in beginning of your video, thanks for upload
Very well-preserved. I visited the wreck of a grounded Liberty ship near the shores of the Black Sea in Costinești, Romania. Back in the 90s there were still things to see onboard. But nowdays all that is left of her is a rusty hulk. People stole everything they could to sell as scrap metal. I am happy to see how that ship must have looked like when she wasn't a rusting wreck.
The ships were so slow because they were originally intended to use steam turbines. Those engines were in low supply and were mostly going to war ships, so the Liberty ships had to go with the older and less powerful compound steam engines, and just one of them. Thanks for sharing this tour! It's not common to see modern video of the Liberty ships, given that most of them were scrapped by the 80's.
Thanks Vic for another great presentation. If I could make a couple of points to add. While you mention that it’s historic you don’t elaborate why other than being one of the last 3 of 2,700 remaining. Or where the others are. Perhaps how it came to be now in Greece. Liberty ships aren’t so well known outside British & American people. They were paramount to the WWII allied victory but merchant history isn’t as glamorous as military events. They were supply chain ships between US & UK delivering various US sent materials enabling the British to defend against the Nazis. Designed only with a lifespan of 5 years and initially taking approx 6 weeks to build, eventually build time became far shorter with a record of a yard completing one in 4 days. As the tide of the war turned they were replaced by the Victory ships.
Thank you for your comments. I may add that when I arrived there, I was expecting to find a brochure or some information regarding the history of the ship but there was nothing. All I had was a paragraph or two from the internet.. unfortunately.. so my knowledge and information (at that time) was very limited...
those shafts you thought where pistons where actually the reversing gear for the engine. its a 3 cylinder each cylinder of the engine has two cams one for running the engine forwards and one revers that thick metal pipe with the 3 arms on the side of the engine is the linkage which switches between the two sets of cams
The two large grey items are the boilers. The red plates on them are the removable furnace doors which also carry the oil fuel delivery pipes. The oil tanks are the ready use oil fuel day tanks
Unbelievable restoration of such an iconic ship, must have cost a fortune! It looks amazing! Someone had very very deep pockets. Thank you for taking the time to take us on a tour Vic. I recall seeing one of these ships in the islands of the Phillipines in 1980 being used as a general trader. Know doubt she is long gone. Would love to know the history of this vessel in Greece.
Any idea as to what the original name of this vessel was and what shipyard built it? The two most successful shipping magnates of Greece made their first fortunes with these ships that they purchased for next to nothing from the US government post war. I remember the most recent liberty ship restoration that took place was crewed by some of the original members of the US Merchant Marine with most of the crew being young crew members from modern shipping vessels. These youngsters were left speechless by the knowledge that their "forefathers" had about this ship and found it quite complex as compared to today's shipping fleet. It would be interesting to see if the Greek Navy built a small chapel on board as well.
SS Arthur M. Huddel, IMO: 5025706, is a Liberty ship built by St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company (Jacksonville, Florida) with keel laid 25 October 1943 and the yard workers working overtime to launch on 7 December 1943 and complete outfitting nine days later. She has been transferred to Greece and serves as the museum ship Hellas Liberty.
Vic, every once in awhile you find something that really is close to my heart. In the first place, my Dad's father had come from a little town that's now a suburb of Pireaus. Even so, there's still a street there named after my family. Yes, three is a street named Christopulos. Second, you are sharing your experience of being on a restored Liberty ship. In 1956 my family and I sailed as passengers on a converted Liberty ship, the California Bear that was operated by Pacific Far East Lines. We sailed from San Francisco to Yokohama to Naga, to Pusan, emigrating to South Korea. This is a long and very powerful story, and I don't think that I have the time to tell it here, but this is a picture of the ship. There were eight passengers on the ship and this voyage was a particularly crucial time in our lives. Blessings Vic. Hope you have a wonderful and safe Christmas. www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/178003/title/california-bear/cat/510
As stated below, a Triple expansion reciprocating steam engine with the crankshaft angles set at 120 degrees. There are High pressure (HP) Intermediate pressure(IP) and Low Pressure (LP) cylinders. The steam cycle for each cylinder is Admission, Cut off, Expansion, Exhaust and Compression. Steam to each cylinder is controlled by valves, these may be piston or slide valves or a combination of both. E.g. piston valves were often used in conjunction with the HP Cylinder. The valves are operated from eccentrics fitted to the crankshaft via eccentric rods. There is a forward and reverse eccentrics for each cylinder which is controlled by the position of the block in what I call the expansion link.
By the time the steam leaves the LP Cylinder it holds almost no pressure i.e. a vacuum. Air pumps extract steam from the LP Cylinder to the Condenser (shown in the video) where the steam is converted back to condensate for reuse in the boilers.
There are two Babcock and Wilcox small tube boilers. You can see the red circles of the fuel burners on the boiler fronts . Steam would be supplied to other reciprocating machinery such as electricity generators, fuel pumps, feed water and transfer pumps, water distilling plant, fire or fire and bilge pumps air supply fans to the boilers, winches, capstans and steering gear. Hope this helps.
Wow... All this information helps up a lot, thank you so much!!!!!!! 👍👍👍
There is no "compression" stage. A steam engines does not need to compress the fuel air mixture as in a gasoline or diesel engine. A steam engine is an external combustion engine.
You sound like a legendary expert in steam propulsion!
My father was on the Pierce Butler which was torpedoed twice on November 20th 1942 @ 11:40 am off the coast of South Africa, Durbin. All 62 men on board survived after being rescued
20 hours after being sunk my father was 17 and the youngest on board.
Very interesting, thank you for these comments!! 😊😊😊
I was Radio Officer on that ship S/S HELLAS /SVZP on 1967-1968 very good memories .thank You too much my friend.
Thank you for viewing my videos and for your comments!
Best ship tour ever!
Wonderful renovation. Looks like new.
Hello and thank you from Las Vegas NV USA.
Hello, thank you for watching my videos and for your wonderful comments!! 👍👍👍 We love las Vegas!!
As you mentioned, there are 3 fully operational Liberty ships. I used to work as a volunteer on one of them, the SS Jerimiah O'Brien. San Francisco, CA. The SS John W. Brown. Baltimore, MD. And the SS Arthur M. Huddell (Renamed Hellas Liberty) in 2008. In Piraeus harbor, Greece. The rudder and the screw on the John W. Brown was actually taken from the Hellas Liberty when she was mothballed. Her rudder and screw were replaced when she was restored in Greece. Thanks for the tour. Brought back many fond memories of the ships! A really cool place to explore in the engine room is the shaft tunnel which runs from the engine room all the way aft to the screw. The folks maintaining her should be proud! She is in beautiful shape!
Thank you for your comments! It is amazing that only 3 of these magnificent ships survive (after 2,754 built)!!
USS Liberty at Port of Tampa, Tampa Florida
USS American Liberty at the Port of Tampa is not a Liberty ship, it is a Victory ship.
In addition to volunteering on the Victory ship SS Jerimiah Obrien out of San Francisco I have also volunteered on the SS Red Oak Victory, a Victory ship out of Richmond, California. The Victory ships were built towards the end of the war, and much larger than the Liberty ships.
I visited the SS Jeremiah O'Brien many times when I lived in San Francisco, when it was docked at Ft. Mason. Once a month or so the volunteers would light the boilers and the triple expansion steam engine would slowly turn the screw. Many times I stood in the engine room watching that huge engine operate.Then and now, I am astounded that American industry cranked these ships out at, what was it, one a week? at each of the ship yards making them.
Hi from Russia! Great thanx for this video! These ships was very effective during WWII to help our country to defeat nazism. Classical example of heroical history!
Hello, thank you for your comments!! 😊😊😊
Great video. My dad sailed with the MM during WWII. Got sunk twice and survived. What a great guy he was! Served from Murmansk to Port Moresby. Small crews sailing those ships. A typical US Navy ship would have had more than 5 times the crew. Pop's delivered the goods. Thank goodness he got Veteran's status before he passed. They finally got recognized for their sacrifice during the war effort. MM's had the highest loss rate per capita than any of the armed forces during WWII. I think it was one in twenty six perished.
Wonderful comments, thank you! You must be very proud of your dad!
My grandfather joined MM he was a cook. He told many stories about rough seas ships splitting in half. He was in the navy in the 30s
He all ways said he joined the MM instead of the navy because they pay more if you go down with the ship. Grandma would get mad and tell him to shut up you all ready told that story. I also remember him complaining about the cold storage eggs on how sometimes he cracked two dozen eggs just to give a sailor two sunny side up eggs.
@@benpluta6187 Thank you for sharing with us these interesting stories!
Thank you for your time this was very interesting, it would be nice to visit.again well done
Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed the video!! 😊😊😊
Thank You so much for sharing this with us
Hello, thank you for watching my videos!! 😊😊
My father was a sailor in the 1950's, he loved the liberty's and showed me a few of them. Thanks for your video that gives such a good inside look.
Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed the video!! 😊😊😊
Before he died, my dad would cringe at all those "No Man Left Behind" credos. He left men behind, so close they could hurl cartons of cigarettes into their life boats... But "The Convoy can`t stop. The Convoy can`t help and the Convoy can`t come about. The Convoy MUST get through..."
👍👀🇬🇷🛳 thank you Sir !
Thanks for watching! 😊😊😊
My grandmother worked in the WWII shipyards in Portland Oregon, USA at the first of the war it would take 6 to 9 weeks to build this ship by 1944 they reduced that to 8 days to build a ship. Remember this was advanced fabrication for the time. My grandmother was a “ Tacker “. The crane would place a steel sheet and hold it and the women trackers would just tack weld the sheet in place. Then the certified welders would make the welds. Thank you for a wonderful video.
Hi David, thank you for sharing with us these wonderful memories and for your comments...
What a marvelous treasure! Thank you for this tour and thanks Greece for preserving this amazing, historic vessel!
Hello, thank you for watching my videos!! 👍👍👍
Vic thanks for posting I served in the US Navy and in the early 60’s the Navy brought 16 Liberty ships out of mothball and turned them into Radar Picket Ships 8 on East Cost & 8 on West Coast . I was on the USS Scanner AGR5 and a Ship-fitter Pipe 2ed Class (E5) Our job was set way off shore of the cost and with our radar we were the Early Warning for any Aircraft heading toward the US . Those ships did 66RPM at 11.2 Knot took a long time to get on station . I must say they have done a wonderful job of keeping this ship in wonderful shape .
Hi Norman, thank you for your interesting comments!!
I was excited to see where my dad did welding on Liberty ships. I made my heart feel good. Thank you so much!
Thanks for watching! 👍👍👍
I can’t get over how clean and new she looks after so many years. I’ve worked on ships less than 5 years old that have looked worse. Well done!
It is almost in perfect condition, a lot of money was spent for its restoration.. Unfortunately, it sits unappreciated and not as widely visited as it was originally planned at the port of Piraeus in Greece...
Thank you for reliving the past. For me as a nine year old and my family, it was the same type Liberty ship that brought us from Germany to our new country Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1952. The journey took 10 days and as a child I can vividly remember the piles of food we had for dinner, a stark contrast to what we previously shared in various refugee camps.
Hello, thank you for your comments!! 👍👍👍
Fun Fact: The Liberty Ship "Patrick E. Perry" was built in 4 days, 15 hours and 29 minutes. There was a completion between various shipyards. By 1943 the average time it took to build a Liberty Ship was around 30 days.
Hi, thank you for this information and for watching my videos!! 👍👍👍
I have spend a part of my life on board those ships. Thanks for the video. Good job !
Hello, thank you for your comments and for watching my videos!!
Ho visitato la Hellas Liberty lo scorso anno con grande emozione. Esperienza da ripetere!
I was on a couple of Liberty ships back in 1968-69 when they were brought into Todd Shipyard in Galveston, TX for repairs. I was working there as a summer job during my first two years of college. The "old timers" told me of how, during WWII, some of these ships would be brought into the shipyard with 30 ft. wide holes in their sides from German torpedoes. A lot of people don't know just how active the U-boats were in the Gulf of Mexico.
Thank you for your comments!!
What is really amazing is that these ships were turned out 20 or 30 a month during the war. Amazing.
Thank you for preserving her.
Thank you for your comments and for viewing my videos!
Thank you Vic for the magnificent tour of this Liberty Ship. I was a certified fireman/watertender/oiler on the SS Jeremiah O'Brien in San Francisco for a number of years. Some of the best times of my life were standing a watch in the engine room with both boilers going and we were underway. Also the great meals in the crews mess and the comeradre are something to remember. It was fun for me to watch your video as an engineer as I knew all the spaces you went into and it was interesting to see this ship compared to the JO'B. You did a fantastic job with your narration and you added so much to tour. Thank you again my friend as I truly appreciated your video. Best regards, Lisa
Hi LIsa, I am so glad that you enjoyed this video... By the way, I have been to the Liberty ship in SF, that was several years ago, so no video... Thank you for your comments!
@@VicStefanu I visited a Victory ship in Tampa. The SS American Victory. A very nice ship, indeed.
@@cyberp0et Hello, thank you for your comments!! 👍👍👍
My Uncle Bill, told me a story in about 1980 when I was a 13 yr old boy. He had fought in the Battle of the Bulge in WWII , was wounded later, somewhere in ,I believe, St Low, France, he recouped in England, then when the war was over, he boarded a Liberty ship, then promptly broke down in the mid Atlantic for a month, waiting for parts and repairs. Then made it back to the U.S. He said that was the most boring month of his life, broken down at sea. He was a farm boy from Texas.
Hi, thank you for this interesting story and for viewing my videos!!
My Grandfather was a gunner on one of these ships in the North Atlantic and the Pacific in WW II. I remember from my childhood the liberty ship Longstreet was repurposed as a target ship in Cape Cod Bay. Thank you for the tour. Thank you to the Craftsmen who restored her.
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Dear friend of wind and sea water.....That´s a great great Tour..! Great Ship for the Merchant Marine History. When visit Greece, I most be there..! Thank´s a lot..!
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Wonderful !
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Thank you so much for sharing this tour. I'm a huge Liberty Ship fan and am thrilled that you were able to cover the ship so well. Excellent job, and thanks for posting.
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The engine is a three cylinder triple expansion steam engine. Beautiful restoration of the ship.
I was just about to say the same thing. Each cylinder would however be double acting. ie They produce power on the up and down strokes of each cylinder.
Worked on many triple expansion steam engines as an apprentice millwright, relatively clean and easy to work on, very quiet when running, seen them go from full ahead to full astern without closing throttle.
Ever seen the movie Titanic?
So is this a two-stroke engine? Forgive me if I say something silly? The engine room is like a labyrinth with all those pipes. Very industrial. Very trippy.
@@samanli-tw3id they used the liberty ship for the shots in the Titanic. I forget if it's the one in California or Baltimore, but it's a liberty ship engine in the movie.
Dear Mr Vic Stefanu Many thanks for an excellent recall on Liberty ships . I am a Retd mariner trained ex T.S.Dufferin and sailed on a similar ship (built in 1952 IHI Japan) Sailed 1965- 1969. It was a popular design except that redesign saw Steel Hatch Covers , a Radar , Echo Sounder and DF with a seperate Radio room adj to the Nav Bridge. These 5 Hatch Cargo ships served till about 1985. Wonderful era of Strong ships simple to operate and not the complexity of present day Shipp Business wrangle. Thanks again Sincerely With Rgds CaptTR Retd (Chennai India )
Hello my friend and thank you for this interesting information and for your comments. It was a pleasure being on one of these legendary ships and to e able to videotape the different places..
I've taken many cruses on the John W. Brown. It never gets old. Love going down to the engine room to watch it run for hours.
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good job, great video !
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Amazing Condition, they have done a Fantastic Restoration, I hope it Lives for Many more Decades to come! Thankyou Vic for your Tour - Cheers👍😉🇦🇺
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Actually pretty difficult to 'restore' one of these ships as they were built On the Cheap with the expectation that they might not even survive one Atlantic crossing. The cost-benefit analysis was that if a ship delivered one load of cargo, it had justified its cost. Maintenance during the war was probably close to non-existent; they were run 'ti they wore out, if a U-boat didn't sink them first. They were drastically underpowered with only 2,500 HP to push 10,000 tons through the North Atlantic and in heavy weather they could barely make headway.
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I met a guy from Italy who's first name was 'Liberty'. He was born on a Liberty ship bring his family and others over from Europe to America. It was cool listening to his story.
Wow, what an amazing story, thank you for sharing it with us!
It is such a great pleasure to take a peek for one of a truly historical, type of navy ships. Thank you for sharing us this wonderful experience sir.
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Good job on restoring this piece of history
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Excellent video. Salamis Shipyard did a great job restoring that wonderful machine.
The definitely did.. thank you for your comments!!
Great documentary on that ship my brothers wife's father was a captain on one of those ships he use to take equipment to russia and the uk ,he told me many stories of his travels.he was an australian ship captain living in new york traveling taking cargo across the sea for the war effort.knew him well before he passed .
Interesting.. Thank you! 👍👍👍
This is a historic ship & it's contribution to the war effort is so great that it can't be measured here the Greeks spared it for gratitude when things for them were so tough it help them to repaired their sea going economy it's true that it's speed was slow but proved that was able to deal in this situation with what it had the huge previous capacity of heavy cargo that changed the course of the war huge amount of all kind of material got the front rightly it's name was LIBERTY & fought through to VICTORY .
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Thank you so much for sharing this video!!!!! Greetings from Brazil
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Excellent presentation. Nice work with the ship. Πολλα μπραβο σε όσους συνέβαλαν σε αυτη την προσπάθεια και φυσικά στον δημιουργό του video που μας εκανε γνωστο αυτό το στολίδι που έχουμε δίπλα μας και δεν το γνωριζαμε
Ευχαριστω παρα πολυ!
Thank you for that fantastic tour of the Hellas Liberty. Your walk-through helped me to experience must have been like for my grandfather who served on the SS Marie M. Meloney, one of the 2,700 ships you mentioned. My grandpa was a tall man, and I often wondered how much headroom the ship had for him. Looks like it was OK for the most part. Thanks.
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They could build one in just 39 days. Incredible!
It really is, thank you for watching!! 👍👍👍
Nice walk around! I saw this one from a distance in 2012, glad to see it up close. The big silver boxes with 4 red circles on the sides are the boilers, sinusoidal header water tube boilers that burned oil. The red circles are where the burners went. Thanks!
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Nice job with this video. What you were filming around the 20:30 mark are the ships two oil fired boilers. The restoration of this ship is just stunning. I need to visit this for myself someday.
Thank you for your comments and for the information regarding the boilers!
Thanks for this. I've read about the Greek liberty ship for years, finally got a good look at it thanks to you.
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Thank you to the museum for their preservation of the Liberty Ship. Furthermore thank you Vic Stefanu for the real live modern view of a perfectly preserved Liberty Ship.
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Nice to see her well preserved!
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vic thank you so much for this great video of our nations history...for many many merchant sailors they were the final resting place...being from Jacksonville, Florida and working at JAX Shipyard for about 6 years in my younger days it did my heart good seeing that ship and i really appreciate the slow and thoughtful way you make your video, Thank You again so much!
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Thank you very much Vic for a very good job done. Very nice ship.
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Beautiful, I was 3rd officer on italian ss "Vesuvio" formerly "John P. Duval" July 1971/March 1972. Thank you
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A great video. Thank you. I never seen inside footage of a Liberty ship before. No one should underestimate the tremendous contribution that these vessels made to the war effort.
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Thank you for the tour Vic! Beautiful old boat. I had the privilege of taking a cruse on the Chesapeake Bay aboard the John W. Brown. A decade ago.
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Fabulous video of a Liberty Ship, I could almost smell the fresh paint!
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I love you old steam ship.Thank you for video.
Thanks for watching!
Thank you Vic. Most enlightening. Marvel of engineering from the 40's for the war effort.
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A very enjoyable video tour of a magnificently restored Liberty ship. The ship has been beautifully restored and your narration was excellent. Thank you Vic for sharing this video.
Thank you for your wonderful comments my friend!
Has to be a greek to preserve such a fantastic ship!!
Thank you!!!!
Thank you too!
The sides had to have a long wide and thick strip of reinforcing metal to keep them from cracking in the midsection in rough seas. Either it's a very early model or the refurbishing left it off. I don't recall the last versions having a redesign to leave the reinforcing off. Great find. Love the Greek islands and mainland.
HI and thank you for your comments. I do not think this was an early model, it was launched in December of 1943!
i never thought id ever see round a liberty ship.thanks for your video. Scott from Scotland,
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That ship is cleaner than some hospitals I've been in. Cool video
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Thanks for taking us along.
Thank you!
Hi Vic. I always admire how you manage to combine history, documentary, information, environmental issues, e.t.c. in your videos. Your channel is not only a travel channel but a lot more. Thank you.
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What a treat. Great job to you and your country for the restoration. Super!!!!
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A liberty ship carried four 83 foot boats over to England at a time. My Dad served aboard an 83 footer and the liberty ship used the radar on my Dad's boat to help guide it across the Atlantic. My Dad said they ran into heavy fog during the trip and were thankful for the radar.
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Great video and its a good thing that they are being kept and restored.
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Absolutely stunning! Thank you Sir!
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Very Good Restoration, I wouldn't have wanted the job to do the Repaint of this Ship- What a Mindboggling Job, 1000's of pipes & Galleyways - It would take 1 man a Lifetime with a Brush!! lol👍😉
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Mr. Vice Stefanu,
Great video Sir as I never knew this ship still existed. Glad we have three instead of two still in existing. You did a beautiful job with the video. In the engine room, those four red things I saw is I believe those are the boilers, the heart of the ship.
Again Sir, thank you.
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1960-1970 I was working on 4 different Liberty ships, Big memories and travel the hole world. those years will never be forgotten . Does any body knows where I can find in Piraeus and if i can visit inside to take the pictures ?
Hi Petro, the ship is visible once you enter the port, you cannot miss it. Yes, you can take pictures there, I am going back to Greece in a month and I will visit it again..
@@VicStefanu THANK YOU VIC STEFANOU, I WILL VISIT THE SHIP WHEN I VISIT GREECE, IT WILL BRING ME BACK THE DECADE OF 60s ,MAYBE THIS YEAR AND THEN I WILL MY MY TOWN I WAS BORN , NAFPAKTOS, THANKYOU
My first trip was on a Liberty ship as a cadet, Liverpool to S. America, in 1958, some refinements to the accommodation had been made by then, otherwise still the same as your excellent video, well done Vic.
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This is very nice video by the way I meant the people 2 years ago in Boston who was the people that donate this Liberty to Greece beautiful beautiful playing and also had a memories from Liberty when I was in the Merchant Marines 1966 69 took me 45 days from Bulgaria to Japan what a beautiful memories
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Well done, Vic. The ship is in suburb condition for an old ship and seems is only out of dry dock. I was onboard the J.O'B. in the US, also in great shape.
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@@VicStefanu❤hi sir. I am from iran. One day come here and see my country with great history
@@edmondmkasian6173 Hi, I was planning on coming early next year, I want to visit Persepolis... I hope everything in the world turns peaceful and I will definitely come there..
@@VicStefanu oh forget any thing you hear in news. I think its better you take your international driving license and but RV or van or station wagon here and plan to visit at leat 60 - 70 historical sites. Specially hamedan , zanjan , kashan, osfahan , shiraz ( perspolis , pasargad) zahesan ( burned city from 2000 years BC ) . don't rush for exit iran . Just take your time and visit every place . I guarantee you'll experience best among all of your visits.
@@edmondmkasian6173 Hello my friend, thank you for this information!! 😊😊😊
Congrats for this amazing video! I knew they were able to build them at a higher rate than the were distroyed. I think to the Battle of the Atlantic and to the Uboat war to the convoys. Also I think to the courage of sailors who served on those ships during the WWII.
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Thanks you for posting this! I found it enlightened and historically fascinating 👍
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I’m reading Robert Locke’s book,”Helmet for my pillow’, and he speaks of being on this ship as troop transport and it’s cool to see your video. He says the marines would hang out on the greasy canvas hatch coverings shown in beginning of your video, thanks for upload
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Wonder tour, thanks!
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Very well-preserved.
I visited the wreck of a grounded Liberty ship near the shores of the Black Sea in Costinești, Romania. Back in the 90s there were still things to see onboard. But nowdays all that is left of her is a rusty hulk. People stole everything they could to sell as scrap metal.
I am happy to see how that ship must have looked like when she wasn't a rusting wreck.
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Thanks for your tour. I enjoyed it very much. Cheers.
Thank you!!
The ships were so slow because they were originally intended to use steam turbines. Those engines were in low supply and were mostly going to war ships, so the Liberty ships had to go with the older and less powerful compound steam engines, and just one of them.
Thanks for sharing this tour! It's not common to see modern video of the Liberty ships, given that most of them were scrapped by the 80's.
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Compound steam engines. I see. That's why their design looks so freakin complicated. I mean this is a blast. Even looking at this. True art.
Thanks Vic for another great presentation.
If I could make a couple of points to add. While you mention that it’s historic you don’t elaborate why other than being one of the last 3 of 2,700 remaining. Or where the others are. Perhaps how it came to be now in Greece.
Liberty ships aren’t so well known outside British & American people. They were paramount to the WWII allied victory but merchant history isn’t as glamorous as military events. They were supply chain ships between US & UK delivering various US sent materials enabling the British to defend against the Nazis.
Designed only with a lifespan of 5 years and initially taking approx 6 weeks to build, eventually build time became far shorter with a record of a yard completing one in 4 days.
As the tide of the war turned they were replaced by the Victory ships.
Thank you for your comments. I may add that when I arrived there, I was expecting to find a brochure or some information regarding the history of the ship but there was nothing. All I had was a paragraph or two from the internet.. unfortunately.. so my knowledge and information (at that time) was very limited...
Thank you for all this information, btw..
έχω κάνει θερμαστής (στοκολο) και τι δε μου θυμμειζουν αυτά τα πλοία πολύ συγκινητικό βίντεο μπράβο!
Ευχαριστω παρα πολυ!
Thank you for the great videos!!!
Hi Robert, thank you for your comments!
Very impressed
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Enjoyed the tour of the Liberty Ship, Vic. Thank you.
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Imagine all that being built in under a month? And Surviving for another 70 years! How did this particular ship survive scrapping ?
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Το είχα δει περνώντας απο τον παράπλευρο δρόμο αλλά δεν ήξερα ότι ήταν επισκέψιμο.Το εσωτερικό είναι σε αρίστη κατάσταση.Ευχαριστούμε για το ανέβασμα!
Ευχαριστω παρα πολυ!
those shafts you thought where pistons where actually the reversing gear for the engine. its a 3 cylinder each cylinder of the engine has two cams one for running the engine forwards and one revers that thick metal pipe with the 3 arms on the side of the engine is the linkage which switches between the two sets of cams
Hi and thank you for the clarification!
I've done the WW2 re-enactment cruise on the John W.Brown in Maryland. Totally awesome
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The two large grey items are the boilers.
The red plates on them are the removable furnace doors which also carry the oil fuel delivery pipes.
The oil tanks are the ready use oil fuel day tanks
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Unbelievable restoration of such an iconic ship, must have cost a fortune! It looks amazing! Someone had very very deep pockets.
Thank you for taking the time to take us on a tour Vic. I recall seeing one of these ships in the islands of the Phillipines in 1980 being used as a general trader.
Know doubt she is long gone. Would love to know the history of this vessel in Greece.
Hi Mark, thank you for your comments!! You can read about the history of this ship here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Arthur_M._Huddell
Thanks Vic, most fascinating. All the best. Mark
Any idea as to what the original name of this vessel was and what shipyard built it?
The two most successful shipping magnates of Greece made their first fortunes with these ships that they purchased for next to nothing from the US government post war.
I remember the most recent liberty ship restoration that took place was crewed by some of the original members of the US Merchant Marine with most of the crew being young crew members from modern shipping vessels. These youngsters were left speechless by the knowledge that their "forefathers" had about this ship and found it quite complex as compared to today's shipping fleet.
It would be interesting to see if the Greek Navy built a small chapel on board as well.
SS Arthur M. Huddel, IMO: 5025706, is a Liberty ship built by St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company (Jacksonville, Florida) with keel laid 25 October 1943 and the yard workers working overtime to launch on 7 December 1943 and complete outfitting nine days later.
She has been transferred to Greece and serves as the museum ship Hellas Liberty.
Amazing to see this this evening! Thanks a lot! Amazing video like always!!
Thank you my friend!!
I thank you for all this amazing Vids!
Thanks for the video
ευχαριστω!!
Vic, every once in awhile you find something that really is close to my heart.
In the first place, my Dad's father had come from a little town that's now a suburb of Pireaus. Even so, there's still a street there named after my family. Yes, three is a street named Christopulos. Second, you are sharing your experience of being on a restored Liberty ship. In 1956 my family and I sailed as passengers on a converted Liberty ship, the California Bear that was operated by Pacific Far East Lines. We sailed from San Francisco to Yokohama to Naga, to Pusan, emigrating to South Korea. This is a long and very powerful story, and I don't think that I have the time to tell it here, but this is a picture of the ship. There were eight passengers on the ship and this voyage was a particularly crucial time in our lives. Blessings Vic. Hope you have a wonderful and safe Christmas.
www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/178003/title/california-bear/cat/510
Thank you for your very interesting comments and the wonderful website.. I was also born in a suburb of Pireas called Nikaia...
thank you for sharing with us over the RUclips.
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Good job, very good, thank you
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Thanks for the video..it will be a memorable one!!
Thank you!!
Very cool video, rare look, really scary thinking about it at war
Hi Harry, thank you for your comments!!