S. S. United States

AS AN INTRODUCTION to a discussion of the S. s. united states, it may be interesting to explain some of the background leading up to the decision by the Government to build ships which have national defense features included in their basic design. During and after the termination of World War II, the Armed Forces in this country learned several lessons in regard to the levels at which our Merchant Marine must be maintained if the United States was to be able to maintain successfully its own security and, at the same time, contain and defeat the aggressive actions of any potentially unfriendly nation in other parts of the world. The lesson pertinent to this discussion was that this country was sadly lacking in large, fast vessels capable of rapid conversion into troop transports. The few vessels which were available, including those loaned to us by our allies, were discovered to be lacking in vital defense features, and, because of their inherent design as passenger vessels, were also found to require costly and lengthy alterations before they could serve as transports at all. An examination of rentals paid to foreign vessels, including costs of conversion and reconversion, further showed that it was financially expensive to depend on the utilization of foreign-flag vessels under war conditions.