WWII Welded Merchant Vessel Structural Failures (Fleet-Wide)

So, it turns out — we learned about this property of toughness around the turn of the 20th century, around 1900. That Charpy bar — it was just celebrated about five years ago, the 100th anniversary of Charpy testing, and it's still used. But what happened was in World War II we had some problems with the Liberty ships. Anybody know the Liberty ship story?

Hard numbers: 4,700 welded vessels built, 970 had fracture casualties, 24 complete strength-deck fractures, 8 lost, 4 broke in two. Established why post-WWII fracture mechanics arose at three institutions.

From the 1850s or 1880s until the 1950s, that's what all the mechanical and civil engineers, design materials engineers, designed to: strength. And then came World War II and the Liberty ships. I've already shown you some of the Liberty ships and how they broke in two. But I don't know that I showed you the numbers.