USAT Liberty

USS Liberty (ID # 3461) Fitting out at the yard of her builder, the Federal Shipbuilding Co., Kearny, New Jersey, circa September 1918. This freighter was in commission from October 1918 to May 1919.
History
United States
Name:	USS Liberty
Builder:	Federal Shipbuilding Kearny, New Jersey
Yard number:	1
Launched:	19 June 1918
Commissioned:	7 October 1918
Decommissioned:	7 May 1919
Fate:	torpedoed by I-166, 11 January 1942, and beached
General characteristics
Displacement:	13,130 tons
Length:	411 ft 6 in (125.43 m)
Beam:	55 ft (17 m)
Draft:	26 ft 6 in (8.08 m)
Speed:	11 knots (20 km/h)
Complement:	70
Armament:	1 × 6" gun, 1 × 3" gun

USAT Liberty was a United States Army cargo ship torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-166 in January 1942 and beached on the island of Bali. She had been built as a Design 1037 ship for the United States Shipping Board in World War I and had served in the United States Navy in that war as animal transport USS Liberty (ID-3461). She was also notable as the first ship constructed at Federal Shipbuilding, Kearny, New Jersey. In 1963 a volcanic eruption moved the ship off the beach, and Liberty's wreck is now a popular dive site.

Liberty was launched on 19 June 1918 by the Federal Shipbuilding Company in Kearny, New Jersey, and acquired by the United States Navy on 7 October 1918 and commissioned the same day with Lieutenant Commander Charles Longbottom in command. Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, Liberty departed the New York Navy Yard on 24 October 1918, arriving at Brest, France, with her cargo of horses on 8 November. Over the next 6 months, Liberty made two additional cruises from New York to France discharging both animal and general cargo at French ports. Loaded with 436 tons of U.S. Army cargo and 2,072 tons of steel rails, Liberty arrived at Newport News, Virginia, on 30 April 1919 from her final cruise. She was decommissioned there on 7 May and was returned to the United States Shipping Board the same day.