After quoting Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death,” U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt promised that waves of newly built civilian “emergency cargo” ships would bring liberty to Europe. From 1941 to 1945, 18 American shipyards built a total of 2,710 of these, nicknamed “Liberty ships,” each able to move over 10,000 tons of cargo and/or passengers. At Savannah’s largest industry ever, the Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation, the ninth of 88 “Libertys” built was the S.S. Crawford W. Long (lower right), named for Georgian ether pioneer Crawford Williamson Long, M.D. (left). The S.S. Crawford W. Long was delivered for wartime Merchant Marine service on May 22, 1943, just 142 days after its keel had been laid and less than a year before the fall of Berlin. Just 26 years after it was built for the Merchant Marine, the S.S. Crawford W. Long was scrapped in 1969. From “Liberty” to death: 1943–1969. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.)
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After quoting Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death,” U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt promised that waves of newly built civilian “emergency cargo” ships would bring liberty to Europe. From 1941 to 1945, 18 American shipyards built a total of 2,710 of these, nicknamed “Liberty ships,” each able to move over 10,000 tons of cargo and/or passengers. At Savannah’s largest industry ever, the Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation, the ninth of 88 “Libertys” built was the S.S. Crawford W. Long (lower right), named for Georgian ether pioneer Crawford Williamson Long, M.D. (left). The S.S. Crawford W. Long was delivered for wartime Merchant Marine service on May 22, 1943, just 142 days after its keel had been laid and less than a year before the fall of Berlin. Just 26 years after it was built for the Merchant Marine, the S.S. Crawford W. Long was scrapped in 1969. From “Liberty” to death: 1943–1969. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.)

After quoting Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death,” U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt promised that waves of newly built civilian “emergency cargo” ships would bring liberty to Europe. From 1941 to 1945, 18 American shipyards built a total of 2,710 of these, nicknamed “Liberty ships,” each able to move over 10,000 tons of cargo and/or passengers. At Savannah’s largest industry ever, the Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation, the ninth of 88 “Libertys” built was the S.S. Crawford W. Long (lower right), named for Georgian ether pioneer Crawford Williamson Long, M.D. (left). The S.S. Crawford W. Long was delivered for wartime Merchant Marine service on May 22, 1943, just 142 days after its keel had been laid and less than a year before the fall of Berlin. Just 26 years after it was built for the Merchant Marine, the S.S. Crawford W. Long was scrapped in 1969. From “Liberty” to death: 1943–1969. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.)
View largeDownload slide

After quoting Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death,” U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt promised that waves of newly built civilian “emergency cargo” ships would bring liberty to Europe. From 1941 to 1945, 18 American shipyards built a total of 2,710 of these, nicknamed “Liberty ships,” each able to move over 10,000 tons of cargo and/or passengers. At Savannah’s largest industry ever, the Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation, the ninth of 88 “Libertys” built was the S.S. Crawford W. Long (lower right), named for Georgian ether pioneer Crawford Williamson Long, M.D. (left). The S.S. Crawford W. Long was delivered for wartime Merchant Marine service on May 22, 1943, just 142 days after its keel had been laid and less than a year before the fall of Berlin. Just 26 years after it was built for the Merchant Marine, the S.S. Crawford W. Long was scrapped in 1969. From “Liberty” to death: 1943–1969. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.)

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George S. Bause, M.D., M.P.H., Honorary Curator, ASA’s Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Schaumburg, Illinois, and Clinical Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. UJYC@aol.com.

Copyright © 2014, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
2014