[Milsurplus] WWII low grade metals

[Hubert Miller]

I saw this in Men's Journal, May 2002, article "Doomed", about the February 1983 sinking of a cargo ship
off the coast of Virginia in a storm, with only three crew surviving from 34.

"The 'Marine Electric', a 605 foot coal carrier, was built in 1944. As with many ships of that era, the steel
in her hull had an improper blend of iron, oxygen, and alloy. This 'tired iron' tended to fracture when water
temperatures fell below fifty degrees....The ship had been built as a T-2 type tanker...
"...the sinking of the Marine Electric led to sweeping reforms in the maritime industry. First, the American
merchant fleet was purged of more than seventy World War II ear ships like the Marine Electric, which 
were decommissioned and sent to wrecking yards." 

Puts a different light on those post war prices for surplus ships. 
And reminds me, I had a GN-45, p/o SCR-284, and the metal of the generator housing cracked and broke,
just like some cheap pot metal.
-Hue Miller