On one day last week 14 new merchant ships slid down U.S. ways, in shipyards from Quincy, Mass, to Portland, Ore. It was the record single-day launching since World War I.
The occasiondubbed Liberty Fleet Daywas reminiscent of World War I in more ways than one. The nation the launchings were aimed at was the same: Germany. The reason for the ballyhoo was the same: to get the U.S. public behind a program designed to build more ships than German U-boats can sink. Said Franklin Roosevelt in a recorded speech broadcast at each yard:...
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