(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. AH = hospital ship; APPR. = approved; ASS = assigned; ASSGT. = assignment of private contract to the Maritime Commission; C13638 (under 6 digits) = MCc (contract) 13638; CANC = cancelled, CONTR = contract; EST = estimated; ELIM = eliminated; EX MIL = transferred from the Military Program to the appropriate non-military program on the date given; EXCL = excluded; GJF = Gerald J. Fischer (all references are to Table A-8 in his official Statistical Summary of Shipbuilding under the U. S. M. C., published in 1949.); K.VANC = Kaiser, Vancouver; K.SWAN = Kaiser, Swan Is.; PER CONTR = number of ships per contract; PURCH = purchased; PERM #2 = Permanente Yard #2; REFRIG = refrigerated variant of the design; SUBCON = subcontracted; SUSP = suspended; TODD-G = Todd Galveston; UNK = unknown; ZEC2 = Z-EC2-S-C2 design (not Z-EC2-S-C5).

Notes (ctd.). ADJ: The contract was adjusted at a later date, the original contract number being retained but the later date being given in most sources. CA. = circa. 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. 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. 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. "MCC = PURCH": the MCc is a contract for purchase from a previous owner. "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. REIN, REINST = reinstated. 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).

This list was correlated with Gerald J. Fischer Statistical Summary of Shipbuilding under the U. S. M. C., Table 8. If items in the Notes marked "(GJF)" are taken into account, this list correlates exactly with Table 8 except for a few cancellations in the program for minor types. "(NOT GJF)" means that the information in the Notes is not in Fischer but probably should be.


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.

Copyright © Stephen S. Roberts 2004-2015.