In 1941, the United States Maritime commission decided to establish the emergency shipyards to build affordable and as rapid possible cargo ships for the U.S. and Britain to replace the losses from German torpedoes.

The Bethlehem-Airfield Shipyard on Baltimore Harbor was established in February and quickly set 27,000 employees to work building these new “Liberty ships.” Each Liberty ship was designed to carry over 10,000 tons of cargo but often carried far more to meet wartime needs. On Sept. 27, 1941, the first Liberty ship, SS Patrick Henry, was launched from Bethlehem-Airfield. Over the next four years, the shipyard churned out 384 Liberty ships, plus 94 larger and faster Victory ships and 45 amphibious landing ships.