MARITIME COMMISSION BUILDING PROGRAMS DURING WORLD WAR II

KEY TO COLUMN HEADINGS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Note: The hull, shipbuilder, contract, program, and design tables all contain identical data. The only difference is the sort order of the records and the order of the columns.

MCEV. Prefix to MC hull numbers. These numbers are in three series: the main series (MC), one for Liberty ships (MCE), and one for Victory ships (MCV).

MHULL1 [thru] MHULL2. MC, MCE, or MCV hull numbers. If MHULL 2 is "NO #", the contract was cancelled before numbers were assigned. If numbers had been assigned, they might have come after the number shown in MHULL1.

QTY. Number of ships in the contract, or portion of the contract covered by this line.

DESIGN. MC design, using standard MC symbols. These included the prefix "E" for Liberty ships, "V" for Victory ships, and the extra prefix "Z" for some specialized Liberty ship variants (as in Z-ET1-S-C3). All MC designs to which ships were built are listed and described on a separate page, "List of MC Designs with Descriptions."

BUILDER. Shipbuilder's name. "NOT ASSIGNED" indicates MC hull numbers were not assigned.

CITY, STATE. Shipbuilder's location (city and state). CRAIG (LB) = Long Beach, Craig Yard.

PFX. Code used when a shipbuilder had more than one series of builder's hull numbers. In some cases (but not all) these letters were used by the builder.

BHULL1 [thru] BHULL2. Builder's hull numbers. Some are repeated because of cancellations.

PROGRAM. Cargo, Liberty, Military, Minor, Tanker, or Victory.

ACTION. MC action date (YYMMDD). Date of the action by the Maritime Commission approving construction of the indicated ships by the indicated builder. Usually equivalent to a contract award. Example of date format: 410304 = 4 March 1941.

ORDER. Date (YYMMDD) of the contract.

MCC. Type of contract. MC (the first five orders by the MC), MCc (the main series), DA-MCc (Lend Lease), MCc-ESP (early Liberty contracts).

CONTR1 [thru] CONTR2. Contract numbers of the original contracts. If the original contract was replaced by a later one, the later one is in the notes. Gaps in the numerical sequence were probably for contracts not covering ships. The term ".SUPP". in CONTR2 indicates that the order was a supplement to an earlier contract whose number is shown in CONTR1. When the number of contracts does not equal the number of ships, see the Notes column for the number of ships per contract.

MIL. Ordered under or subsequently added to the Military Program.

TO MIL. Date (YYMMDD) ordered under or added to the Military Program.

CX. Type of action in the Canc. column: Canc. = cancelled, Resc. = rescinded.

CANC. Date (YYMMDD) of cancellation of the contract or the portion of it covering the ships indicated

NOTES. (Abbreviations listed alphabetically.) ADJ: The contract was adjusted at a later date, the original contract number being retained but the later date being given in most sources.
APPR. = approved.
AH = hospital ship.
ASS = assigned.
ASSGT. = assignment of private contract to the Maritime Commission.
C13638 (under 6 digits) = MCc (contract) 13638.
CA. = circa.
CANC = cancelled.
CONTR = contract.
DATES FROM PROGS: The dates in the main list are the dates of the program in which the event was first reflected (generally the 15th of the month). The actual dates would be a bit earlier. (The same is true for some dates rescinded: R=PROG.)
DISTRIB?: The correlation between the MC hull numbers and builder's hull numbers was guessed.
EST = estimated.
ELIM = eliminated.
ET1: The design was changed from EC2-S-C1 to Z-ET1-S-C3 on the first date given (and back to EC2 on second date, if any).
EX followed by builder's name: The original contract was with the builder named following EX. If this name is followed by "Q.V." the contract with that builder is listed on a separate line in this list (because the change is reflected in Fischer's table). The builder's name is sometimes followed by the builder's hull numbers.
EX MIL = transferred from the Military Program to the appropriate non-military program on the date given.
EXCL = excluded.
GEN.FIN. = General Finance Corp. This is the only contractor that was not a shipbuilder: one of its hulls was built by Everett-Pacific Co., Everett, WA, and the other by Pointer-Willamette Co., Edmonds, WA.
GJF = Gerald J. Fischer (see sources, below)
K.VANC = Kaiser, Vancouver. K.SWAN = Kaiser, Swan Is.
MCC = PURCH: the MCc is a contract for purchase from a previous owner.
NOT GJF (see sources, below)
OR CONTR indicates a possible alternate contract date.
Private contract: The ship was ordered by a private company, not the MC. The MC was not involved in such contracts except to approve their form.
PER CONTR = number of ships per contract.
PURCH = purchased.
PERM #2 = Permanente Yard #2.
R=PROG: See DATES FROM PROGS above.
REFRIG = refrigerated variant of the design.
REIN, REINST = reinstated.
SUBCON = subcontracted.
SUSP = suspended.
TO MCC, TO DA (followed by a contract number and, if known, a date): The ships were transferred to a later contract (on the date given, if any). These later contract numbers are the ones given in most sources. An effort was made here to use only original numbers in the basic list.
TO C is the same as TO MCC.
TO (followed by builder's name): Later reordered from builder named following TO. If this name is followed by "Q.V." (quo vide, or "which see"), the contract with that builder is listed separately in this list and the original contract is listed as rescinded (see EX).
TODD-G = Todd Galveston.
UNK = unknown.
ZEC2 = Z-EC2-S-C2 design (not Z-EC2-S-C5).

DESIGN TABLE

MATL. Concrete, steel, or wood.

SHIPTYPE. Barge (B), cargo (C), passenger (P), refrigerated (R), special (S), tanker (T), and tug (V).

LOA. Length overall.

DWT. Deadweight tonnage.

DISP. Displacement tonnage.

SOURCES

The Maritime Commission shipbuilding programs are summarized in Table A-8 in Gerald J. Fischer, A Statistical Summary of Shipbuilding under the U.S. Maritime Commission during World War II (Washington, 1949), page 31. The list presented here was correlated with Fischer's Table A-8, and if items in the NOTES marked "GJF" are taken into account, this list correlates exactly with Table A-8 except for a few cancellations in the program for minor types. "NOT GJF" in the NOTES means that the information there is not in Fischer but probably should have been. More detailed information is in Record Group 178 at the National Archives, primarily the "Vickery file" (Entry 28), which contains copies of much of the correspondence relating to ship acquisition, and the "Historian's collection" formed by Fischer and Frederic C. Lane (entry 35) during the preparation of Lane's Ships for Victory and Fischer's Statistical Summary. The notes from which Fischer produced his program table are now in RG 178, Entry 35, box 26. (When consulted they were in box 20f.) Boxes 21-37 (formerly 20a-20q) contain under file symbol 117 the extensive records of the Office of the Historian on vessel construction.

Maritime Commission shipbuilding contracts with the construction dates of individual ships were listed in U.S. Maritime Commission, Construction Division, "Permanent Report of Completed Ship Construction Contracts, Report B1," copies of which are in RG 178 (see above) and at the Naval Historical Center. The postwar program was documented through 1976 in U.S. Maritime Administration, "Shipbuilding Progress Report, Permanent Report of Completed Ship Construction Contracts" dated 1 January 1977. Click here for downloadable copies of these two reports.