The Liberty Ship John Muir by Harold Wood According to Edwin Way
Teale, in his otherwise excellent book The Wilderness World of
John Muir (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1954), "during the First
World War, a liberty ship was christened the SS John Muir."
Teale had his wars mixed up. In actuality, all "Liberty Ships"
were built during and used in the Second World War, not the
first. The Liberty Ship John Muir was built in 1942. It was one
of approximately 2700 Liberty Ships built during Second World
War. A "Liberty Ship" was an emergency cargo ship, mass-produced
using a common design. As German submarines kept sinking supply
ships, it was important to the war effort to mass-produce as
many new ships as possible for transporting supplies. So Liberty
Ships had to be constructed quickly - in under six months. Since
many hundreds of Liberty Ships were sunk under enemy fire during
World War II, new Liberty Ships had to be built to replace them
over and over again. Remarkably, the Liberty Ship John Muir
survived the war