2E Class, Japanese Cargo Ships

U.S. Navy. Via ibiblio.org

Specifications:

The 2Es were standardized cargo vessels built under the 1944 program of the Navy Ministry, whose Technical Bureau developed the designs based on work done by the Ministry of Communications in 1942. They were designed for mass production rather than commercial economy, like the American Liberty Ships. The ships were build entirely from prefabricated sections with a simplified hull form (no concave sections) and the deckhouse aft over the diesel machinery spaces. As with the American equivalent, special yards were set up for their construction.

These slow, fragile ships proved easy prey for submarine attack. Their diesel engines were an older design that was notoriously unreliable.

More of these ships were built than any other standardized design. As a result, although they were designed as coastal freighters, they were pressed into service for transoceanic traffic. Postwar, they carried many Japanese servicemen home and formed the nucleus of a revived merchant marine.

Production Schedule:

References:

Heal (2003)

Jentschura, Jung, and Mickel (1977)

Parillo (1993)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009, 2011 by Kent G. Budge. Index

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