[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 97 (Tuesday, June 11, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H4424-H4425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             LIBERTY SHIPS

  (Mr. CARTER of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember the 
Liberty ships and those who built them during World War II in Savannah, 
Georgia.
  Just after the U.S. entered the war, the Maritime Commission awarded 
a contract to the Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation to start 
building cargo ships for military service.
  The first completed ship was called the USS Oglethorpe, named after 
the city's founder. By the end of the war, 46,000 employees had 
produced 88 Liberty ships at the Savannah location.
  These were America's lifeline to the war in Europe and the workhorses 
that transferred necessary supplies back and forth across the Atlantic 
Ocean filled with dangerous obstacles.
  Unfortunately, the USS Oglethorpe was lost, torpedoed by a German U-
boat in 1943. Today, a model of that ship stands at the Savannah trade 
center to thank and remember all those who served in the Savannah 
shipyards, constantly working to help win the war, as well as those 
ship captains who risked their lives crossing the ocean.
  This generation truly deserves the name the Greatest Generation, and 
with them rested the fate of the entirety of Western civilization.
  I am proud of this group in the First Congressional District of 
Georgia and their contribution to the effort during World War II.

[[Page H4425]]

  

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