The Design 1023 ship (full name Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1023) was a

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

hulled Husk (or hull) in botany is the outer shell or coating of a seed. In the United States, the term husk often refers to the leafy outer covering of an ear of maize (corn) as it grows on the plant. Literally, a husk or hull includes the protective ...

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

design approved for mass production by the

United States Shipping Board The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War ...

s (USSB)

Emergency Fleet Corporation The Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) was established by the United States Shipping Board, sometimes referred to as the War Shipping Board, on 16 April 1917 pursuant to the Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729) to acquire, maintain, and operate merchant shi ...

(EFC) in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Like many of the early designs approved by the EFC, the Design 1023 did not originate with the EFC itself but was based on an existing cargo ship designed by

Theodore E. Ferris Theodore Ernest Ferris (August 17, 1872 – May 30, 1953) was an American naval architect and engineer responsible for the "Ferris Designs" used by the US Emergency Fleet Corporation, of the United States Shipping Board, during World War I. Early ...

for the

(USSB). The ships, to be built by the Submarine Boat Corporation of

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Bayles Shipyard Bayles Shipyard is a historic shipyard located at Port Jefferson, New York, Port Jefferson in Suffolk County, New York. It includes the 1897 Bayles Chandlery, the 1917 Machine Shop and Mould Loft and the 1917 Compressor House. ''See also:'' The vi ...

Port Jefferson, New York Port Jefferson (informally known as "Port Jeff") is an incorporated village in the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island. Officially known as the Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson, the population ...

(EFC hulls 773-776). USSB chose to exercise their first optional contract for sixty eight extra vessels planned for Submarine Boat Corp. and 118 ships, yard numbers 1-118, were completed for the USSB between 30 May 1918 and 27 Mar 1920. The second optional contract for thirty two vessels was never exercised by USSB and the contract was officially rescinded by the Shipping Board on 28 February 1920. The Shipping Board also decided not to build any ships at Bayless Shipyard and officially canceled their order on 1 February 1920. However, Submarine Boat Corp. elected to proceed with construction and completed the remaining thirty two vessels for Submarine Boat's shipping subsidiary, Transmarine, between 30 March 1920 and 11 April 1921. All the Submarine Boat ships were steam turbine propelled. The first vessel, ''Agawam'', was completed in 1918. The government and Submarine Boat reached an agreement by which the company would take over the USSB owned yard that it had been operating. It would pay a rental of $4,000,000 for three years and then buy the plant. It would also buy the fabricated steel at the plant for half price and complete the 32 cancelled hulls on its own account. Four Design 1023 hulls, EFC 773-776, were under construction by New York Harbor Drydock Company, formerly Bayles Shipyards, when they were cancelled and sold on the ways. The ships were powered by triple expansion steam engines rather than the steam turbine of the basic design. A number of the ships were lost and known or presumed captured by the Japanese in World War II. For example, ''Surico'', later ''Admiral Gove'' and ''Ramona'', was sunk at Shanghai, salvaged and named ''Hitora Maru''. The ship survived the war after being burned out, salvaged again to be repaired in Panama and operating as ''Valles'' into the late 1950s. Another became a Japanese ship and a casualty of the war. ''Buffalo Bridge'' went to Japan for break up under the temporary name ''Buffalo Bridge Maru'' but was not scrapped and became ''Kosei Maru'' which was sunk by the 13 March 1943. Many of the ships were broken up or otherwise lost between 1929 and 1945 but a few survived the war. An example of surprising survival is ''Sunewco'', one of the ships completed in 1920 for Transmarine as was ''Surico''. Renamed ''Admiral Y. S. Williams'' in 1934 the ship was scuttled in Hong Kong in December 1941. The hull was salvaged by the Japanese and operated as ''Tatsutama Maru'' which survived the war but was found to be unfit for service in 1945. In 1952 the ship was put back in service as ''Yamahagi Maru'' until disappearing from registry in 1956.

Notable ships of the class

* , originally ''Suwordenco'', one of the ships of the

Pensacola Convoy The Pensacola Convoy is a colloquialism for a United States military shipping convoy that took place in late 1941 as the Pacific War began. The name was derived from that of its primary escort ship, the heavy cruiser . ''Pensacola'' was official ...

* ' previously ''Point Arena'' (1928) and ''Riverside Bridge'' (1920) and one of the ships of the

* originally ''Holyoke Bridge'' sank by

Japanese submarine I-26 ''I-26'' was an Imperial Japanese Navy B1 type submarine commissioned in 1941. She saw service in the Pacific War theatre of World War II, patrolling off the West Coast of Canada and the United States, the east coast of Australia, and Fiji and ...

on off

state of Washington Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

* , originally ''Milwaukee Bridge'', scuttled by crew on 2 January 1942 while being pursued by armed merchant cruisers ''Aikoku Maru'' and ''

Hōkoku Maru was an that served as an armed merchant cruiser in the Second World War. She was launched in 1939 and completed in 1940 for Osaka Shosen Lines. In 1941 she was commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy. She served as a commerce raider and ...

'' * sank on June 30, 1921 after hitting a mine off port of

Burgas Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a popu ...

*'' Nisqually'', originally ''Suremico'' converted to scow 1937, bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft during the

Battle of Wake Island The Battle of Wake Island was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on Wake Island. The assault began simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor naval and air bases in Hawaii on the morning of 8 December 1941 (7 December ...

References

Bibliography

External links

EFC Design 1023: Illustrations
{{Design 1023 ships, state=collapsed Standard ship types of the United States Design 1023 ships