The ship
She was the first ship built at the Federal Shipbuilding yard in Kearny, New Jersey. She was launched on 19 June 1918 for the US Shipping Board. The US Navy took her into service as USS Liberty in October 1918. She made three crossings to France carrying animals and general cargo. Then she returned to the Shipping Board in 1919. Between the wars she collided with a French tug at Le Havre in 1929. She collided with another cargo ship in New York's Ambrose Channel in 1933. By 1939 she belonged to the US Maritime Commission. The US Army took her over in November 1940.
How she sank
In January 1942 Liberty was sailing from Australia to the Philippines. She carried railway parts and rubber. At about 04:15 on 11 January, the Japanese submarine I-166 torpedoed her. She was roughly 10 nautical miles southwest of the Lombok Strait. She could no longer move. The destroyers USS Paul Jones and HNLMS Van Ghent took her in tow toward Singaraja on Bali's north coast.…
Dive the wreck
What divers see there month by month, how deep it goes, who can dive it and the dive centers nearby.
The USAT Liberty dive site →
