SS Hellas Liberty in Piraeus Port, Greece after major restoration (2010)
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History | |
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United States | |
Name: | Arthur M. Huddell |
Namesake: | Union leader Arthur M. Huddell (1869-1931) |
Ordered: | MCE hull 1215 |
Builder: | St. Johns River Shipbuilding, Jacksonville, Florida |
Laid down: | 25 October 1943 |
Launched: | 7 December 1943 |
Refit: | 1944 |
Fate: | sold for preservation in Greece |
Greece | |
Name: | Hellas Liberty |
Acquired: | 2008 |
Identification: | IMO number: 5025706 |
Status: | Converted to a museum ship |
General characteristics | |
Type: | Liberty ship |
Displacement: | (as built) 14,257 (fl) tons |
Length: | 441 feet 6 inches (134.6 m) |
Beam: | (molded) 56 feet 10.75 inches (17.3 m) |
Draft: | (as built) 25 feet 3.25 inches (7.7 m) |
Installed power: | 2 x Combustion Engineering oil-fired boilers |
Propulsion: | Filer and Stowell triple expansion, reciprocating engine; 2,500 shp (1,900 kW) |
Speed: | 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) |
Range: | 19,000 nautical miles (35,000 km; 22,000 mi) |
Coordinates: 37°56′33″N 23°37′51″E / 37.942414°N 23.630944°E
SS Arthur M. Huddel, IMO: 5025706, is a Liberty ship built by St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company with keel laid 25 October 1943 and the yard workers working overtime to launch on 7 December 1943 and complete outfitting nine days later.
Arthur M. Huddell carried explosives and general cargo first being loaded in Jacksonville, Florida for London after joining a convoy out of New York, then after return to Norfolk, Virginia and carrying coastal cargo departed Charleston, South Carolina, for Oran, Algeria with a cargo of high explosives.
During the summer of 1944 the ship was converted to a pipe carrier and transported pipe in her aft two holds from the United States to England that was used in the construction of a fuel pipeline under the English Channel, Operation PLUTO, following the Normandy landings. She made the first and last pipe transport voyage carrying 70 miles (112.7 km) of pipe departing New York on 22 September 1945 and then spending eighty-four days in London discharging 17 miles (27.4 km) of pipe into pipe laying ships and unloading the remainder at the dock. For the remainder of the war and immediate post war period Arthur M. Huddell carried coal, general cargo and personnel in voyages involving the United States, France, Italy and Algeria before a final return to Baltimore, Maryland in July 1945 and a voyage to New York before lay up.