North Sands (ship type)

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The North Sands general cargo ship type was a series cargo ship type that was built at various Canadian shipyards for Great Britain during World War II . The ship type was created between 1941 and 1944 in around 200 units, whose names either began with “Fort” or ended with “Park”. The name "North Sands" was derived from the location of the Joseph L. Thompson and Sons shipyard in Sunderland, which supplied the design.

history

Against the background of the initially successful German submarine war of World War II, there was a shortage of cargo space on the British side. Although the importance of shipbuilding for the defense of Great Britain quickly became clear, the shipbuilding industry in the UK, which was mainly engaged in warship construction, could not absorb the great losses on its own. The British government therefore decided to send the British Merchant Shipbuilding Mission , a working group on the construction of cargo ships under the direction of Robert Cyril Thompson, General Manager of the Thompson Shipyard, to the United States and Canada.

The mission left Great Britain in September 1940 to set up an emergency program for standard cargo ships as soon as possible. The group carried plans with them for the 10,000- tonne trampoline steamer Dorington Court, built by Thompson in 1939 , and first convinced the United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) that the slow, but simply constructed and, above all, quick-to-build trampoline design was of a higher quality in the given situation but more complicated construction is preferable. After the first preparatory steps for the construction of 60 units of the Ocean type , a simplified and welded version of the Dorington Court , had been initiated in the United States , the group traveled on to Canada.

Once there, the group signed contracts in January 1941 to build the first 20 (other sources 25) ships of the North Sands type. Like the Ocean ships, this was based on the plans of the Empire Liberty , but was only welded at a few points and riveted in the remaining 90% . Just around a month and a half after the type ship Empire Liberty , which was launched on August 28, 1941 at Thompson's in North Sands, the first Canadian construction, the Fort St. , followed on October 15, 1941 at the Burrard Drydock Company shipyard in North Vancouver. James . A total of ten different Canadian shipyards built the North Sands type. He later formed the basis of the improved Victory - and Canadian grades .

literature

  • Frederic Chapin Lane: Ships for Victory: A History of Shipbuilding under the US Maritime Commission in World War II . Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 2001, ISBN 0-8018-6752-5 .
  • WH Mitchell, LA Sawyer: The Oceans, the Forts and the Parks . Sea Breezes, Liverpool 1966.