USAT Liberty Glo

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USAT Liberty Glo, a United States Army Transport, was built at the Hog Island emergency shipyard in Philadelphia during World War I, but was completed after the November 1918 armistice. Shortly after the U.S. entry into World War II, Liberty Glo was torpedoed and beached on the island of Bali and is now a popular dive site.

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[edit] Early history

Hog Island Hull No. 517 was laid down as SS Scooba on June 12, 1918 but by the time it was launched on June 14, 1919 it had been renamed SS Liberty Glo. Delivered to the U.S. Shipping Board on August 2, 1919, she was a cargo ship of 5,000 GT and 7,825 long tons of deadweight (DWT), 394 feet (120 m) long and 54 feet (16 m) beam. Liberty Glo was the 36th Hog Islander built and one of twelve built as "Type B" troop carriers. (Liberty Glo was not a Liberty Ship, which were a similar concept of vessel built during World War II.)

On December 5, 1919, the Liberty Glo struck a mine 10 mi (19 km) northwest of Terschelling on the coast of the Netherlands. The explosion broke the hull in two from waterline to waterline at number two cargo hold, the deck plates and bulwarks holding the ship together so that, despite the heavy sea running, the captain was able to get it ashore with no casualties and save most of the US$2,000,000 cargo. Captain Stousland paid the following tribute to the Hog Island product:

She broke close to the rivets but they remained intact, notwithstanding the fact that the number three bulkhead is now the bows and against it the breakers hammered without mercy to my great surprise it remained intact. The Liberty Glo was built as good as any ship afloat and how she hung together after being cut in two was most remarkable. [1]

[edit] Sinking

The redesignated USAT Liberty Glo, remeasured at 6,211 tons, was bound from Australia to the Philippines on January 11, 1942 with a cargo of railway parts and rubber for the war effort when she was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-166 about 10 mi (19 km) southwest of Lombok Strait (08°54′S, 115°28′E). U.S. destroyer USS Paul Jones (DD-230) and Dutch destroyer HNLMS Van Ghent took the damaged ship in tow attempting to reach Singaraja, the Dutch port and administrative centre for the Lesser Sunda Islands, on the north coast of Bali. However she was taking too much water and so was beached on the eastern shore of Bali at Tulamben so that the cargo and fittings could be salvaged.

Liberty Glo was one of 58 Hog Islanders that were casualties in World War II.

In 1963 the tremors associated with the eruption of Mount Agung caused the vessel to slip off the beach, and she now lies on a sand slope in 30 to 100 feet (9 to 30 m) of water, providing one of the most popular dives off Bali.

Dive operators commonly misname the wreck “USS Liberty”, and it has also been incorrectly referred to as a Liberty Ship, which were a similar concept of vessel built during the Second World War.

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