USAT Liberty
{{Short description|United States Army cargo ship}}
{{Other ships|Liberty (ship)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=USAT Liberty.jpg |Ship caption=USS Liberty (ID # 3461) Fitting out at the yard of her builder, the Federal Shipbuilding Co., Kearny, New Jersey, circa September 1918. This freighter was in commission from October 1918 to May 1919. }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1942}} |Ship name=USS Liberty |Ship namesake= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=*Federal Shipbuilding |Ship yard number=1 |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=19 June 1918 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=7 October 1918 |Ship decommissioned=7 May 1919 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship struck= |Ship honors= |Ship fate=Beached, 11 January 1942 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship displacement=13,130 tons |Ship length={{convert|411|ft|6|in|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|55|ft|abbr=on}} |Ship draft={{convert|26|ft|6|in|abbr=on}} |Ship propulsion= |Ship speed={{convert|11|kn|km/h}} |Ship complement=70 |Ship armament=1 × 6" gun, 1 × 3" gun |Ship notes= }} |
USAT Liberty was a United States Army cargo ship torpedoed by {{ship|Japanese submarine|I-66||2|up=yes}} in January 1942 and beached on the island of Bali, Indonesia. She had been built as a Design 1037 ship for the United States Shipping Board in World War I and had served in the United States Navy in that war as animal transport USS Liberty (ID-3461). She was also notable as the first ship constructed at Federal Shipbuilding, Kearny, New Jersey. In 1963 a volcanic eruption moved the ship off the beach, and Liberty{{'}}s wreck is now a popular dive site.
World War I
Liberty was launched on 19 June 1918 by the Federal Shipbuilding Company in Kearny, New Jersey, and acquired by the United States Navy on 7 October 1918 and commissioned the same day. Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, Liberty departed the New York Navy Yard on 24 October 1918, arriving at Brest, France, with her cargo of horses on 8 November. Over the next 6 months, Liberty made two additional cruises from New York to France discharging both animal and general cargo at French ports. Loaded with 436 tons of U.S. Army cargo and 2,072 tons of steel rails, Liberty arrived at Newport News, Virginia, on 30 April 1919 from her final cruise. She was decommissioned there on 7 May and was returned to the United States Shipping Board the same day.
Between the wars
On 20 October 1929, Liberty collided with the French tug {{Ship|ST|Dogue||2}} at Le Havre, Seine Maritime, France. Dogue sank with the loss of two crew members.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Casualty reports |date=21 October 1929 |page=23 |issue=45339 |column=F }}
On 23 November 1933, Liberty collided with the American cargo ship {{SS|Ohioan|1914|2}} in the Ambrose Channel. Ohioan was consequently beached near the West Bank Light.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Two American steamers in collision |date=24 November 1933 |page=25 |issue=46610 |column=D }}
World War II
By 1939, Liberty—although owned by the United States Maritime Commission (a successor to the USSB)—was employed by the Southgate-Nelson Corporation of Norfolk, Virginia. Southgate-Nelson was the operator of several packet lines, including the American Hampton Roads Line, the Yankee Line, and the Oriole Lines, but secondary sources do not indicate for which of these services Liberty sailed.Jordan, p. 418. In November 1940, Liberty was one of ten ships taken up by the United States Army for defense service.{{cite news |last=Cave |first=Wayne B. |title=Shipping news and activities at Los Angeles Harbor |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=7 November 1940 |page=A12}}The other nine ships taken up by the United States Army were {{USAT|Chirikof||2}}, {{USAT|Etolin||2}}, {{USAT|West Corum||2}}, {{SS|Waukegan||2}}, {{USAT|Edenton||2}}, {{SS|West Segovia||2}}, {{USAT|America||2}}, {{SS|President Roosevelt|1922|2}}, and {{SS|President Jefferson|1921|2}}. (see ref #4)
At the time of the United States' entry into World War II in December 1941, USAT Liberty was in the Pacific. In January 1942, she was en route from Australia to the Philippines with a cargo of railway parts and rubber. On 11 January, Liberty was torpedoed by {{ship|Japanese submarine|I-66||2|up=yes}} about {{convert|10|nmi|km}} southwest of the Lombok Strait, near position {{coord|08|54|S|115|28|E}}. US destroyer {{USS|Paul Jones|DD-230|2}} and Dutch destroyer {{HNLMS|Van Ghent|1926|2}} took the damaged ship in tow attempting to reach Celukan bawang harbour at Singaraja, the Dutch port and administrative centre for the Lesser Sunda Islands, on the north coast of Bali. However she was taking too much water and so was beached on the eastern shore of Bali at Tulamben so that the cargo and fittings could be salvaged.
In 1963 the tremors associated with the eruption of Mount Agung caused the vessel to slip off the beach, and she now lies on a sand slope in {{convert|25|to|100|ft}} of water, providing one of the most popular dive sites off Bali.
The wreck of USAT Liberty is often misidentified as USAT Liberty Glo{{SS|Liberty Glo}} was a Hog Islander built at the end of World War I, but survived World War II to be scrapped in Baltimore, Maryland, in November 1950. or identified by its former name, USS Liberty. The wreck is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a Liberty ship, through confusion of the ship's name with the class of World War II-built standard design cargo ships.
Dive site
Liberty′s wreck rests about {{convert|40|m|ft|sigfig=1}} from the beach in Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia.{{cite web |title= USAT Liberty Wreck, Tulamben, map |website= openstreetmap.org |url= https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/3457562260#map=17/-8.27441/115.59490 }} The highest point of the wreck is the stern at a depth of about {{convert|5|m|ft}}{{cite web |author= Gert Leroy Underwater |title= Liberty wreck dive Tulamben, video |website= youtube.com |at= 2'20 |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoeKQ4wqMXA |access-date= 2024-05-22 }} and the lowest point sits at about {{convert|30|m|ft|sigfig=1}}.{{Cite web |url= https://www.diveplanit.com/dive-site/usat-liberty-wreck-tulamben-bay/ |title= USAT Liberty Wreck in Tulamben Bay |website= diveplanit.com |date=2016-06-29 |language=en-AU|access-date=2019-10-15}}{{cite web |title= USAT Liberty Map |website= tulambenwreckdivers.com |url= https://tulambenwreckdivers.com/Liberty-Wreck-Map |access-date= 2024-05-22 }} The wreck is a great display of how nature creates life everywhere{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}} and great coral formations can be observed on the wreck's guns.{{Cite web|url=https://divetip.com/diving-liberty-wreck-bali/ |title=Diving USAT Liberty Wreck |website= divetip.com |date= 9 September 2018 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-15}}
It is also just beside a species-rich zone called "Coral Garden" (depth 4-25 m).{{cite web |title= Coral Gardens (depth 4-25 m) |website= amedjepundivers.com |url= https://amedjepundivers.com/dive-sites/coral%20gardens.html |access-date= 2024-05-16 }}{{cite web |title= Tulamben: Coral Garden, Drop-Off, Alamanda, Melasti and Seraya Dive Sites |website= gekodivebali.com |url= https://gekodivebali.com/en/bali-dive-sites/tulamben-bali |access-date= 2024-05-16 }}
Gallery of wreck pictures
File:Liberty-wreck1.JPG|front 6-inch-gun
File:Liberty-wreck2.JPG|loading boom
File:Liberty-wreck3.JPG|partly collapsed hold
File:Liberty-wreck4.JPG|rail profiles heavily covered by corals
Explanatory notes
{{Reflist|group=Note}}
Citations
{{Reflist}}
General and cited references
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20160208061359/http://www.divingatbalishangrila.com/diving-bali.htm Diving at the USAT Liberty]
- {{cite book |last=Jordan |first=Roger W. |title=The World's Merchant Fleets, 1939: The Particulars and Wartime Fates of 6,000 Ships |publisher=Chatham |location=London |year=1999 |page=383 |isbn=1-86176-023-X}}
- {{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/l6/liberty-ii.htm}}
- [http://gekodivebali.com/bali-dive-sites/usat-liberty-shipwreck Info with photo and map of the Liberty at Tulamben]
External links
- {{Commons category inline|USAT Liberty (ship, 1918)}}
{{Design 1037 ships}}
{{1929 shipwrecks}}
{{1933 shipwrecks}}
{{January 1942 shipwrecks}}
{{1963 shipwrecks}}
{{Recreational dive sites|wresit}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liberty (ID-3461)}}
Category:Buildings and structures in Bali
Category:Design 1037 ships of the United States Navy
Category:Maritime incidents in 1929
Category:Maritime incidents in 1933
Category:Maritime incidents in January 1942
Category:Ships built in Kearny, New Jersey
Category:Ships sunk by Japanese submarines
Category:Transport ships of the United States Army
Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean