Here's good stuff on the three Liberty ships:
SS HARRY LANE
Constructed in 50 days in July-August 1942 by Oregon Shipbuilding in Portland, OR; scrapped 1962.
See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencylarge/wwtwo/koregon.htm and scroll to hull number 559.
Also see http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsH.html and scroll to the name of the ship.
SS MOSES AUSTIN
Constructed in 59 days in February-April 1943 by Tood Houston Shipbuilding, Houston, TX; sold to a private shipping company 1947, scrapped 1969.
See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencylarge/wwtwo/toddhouston.htm and scroll to hull number 53.
Also see http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsM.html#MorH and scroll to the name of the ship, for much more detail.
SS WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON
Built in 53 days in September-October 1942 by California Shipbuilding ("Calship")in Los Angeles. Scrapped 1959.
See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencylarge/wwtwo/kcalifornia.htm and scroll to hull number 78.
Also see http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsW.html#WilDH and scroll to the name of the ship.
Rick Pitz has the information on SS TURNER'S GAP exactly correct.
If you're interested in obtaining photographs of the three Liberty ships, Please see this web page for sources of photographs of World War II-era merchant ships: http://www.usmm.org/photosource.html. The best starting place would be Mr. William Hultgren, whose photographic collection concentrates on Liberty ships. I know enough about his collection to know that Mr. Hultgren apparently has images of HARRY LANE and MOSES AUSTIN, but not of WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. Mr. Hultgren is quite elderly but at last report was actively managing his collection.
A source for WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON may be the Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia. However, the second link for the Mariners Museum as displayed on the page I identify above is no longer valid. Instead, for help finding photographs and other materials held by the museum's library, contact library@marinersmuseum.org.
Both Mr. Hultgren and the Mariners Museum will charge for copies of their photographs but I don't know how much.
For still more information about all four ships, go to the EXCELLENT website ConvoyWeb and do a "Ship Search" at http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/index.html for the name of the ship(s) in question. It will show the whereabouts of a ship, assuming it is their database, by location, date, originating and destination ports. There will be no information on the crew, but if you know when your grandfather served in each ship, you will know where he was turning that period. ConvoyWeb is not as complete for ship movements in the Pacific as in the Atlantic and Mediterranean but you may find something.
A similar website is www.warsailors.com which has a search box on the home page. Convoyweb is the more comprehensive of the two sites but warsailors.com sometimes has more extensive information about an individual convoy than does Convoyweb, so search them both. Both sites appear to be better on ship movements in the Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean than in the Pacific.
Additionally, Internet searches of the name of the ship are sometimes fruitful. Search on the name of the ship preceded by "SS" (meaning steamship) rather than just the name of the ship, so as to avoid pages that discuss just the namesake of the ship. Therefore search for "SS HARRY LANE" rather than "HARRY LANE."
More to come.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com
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