The design and construction of WWII Liberty cargo ships revolutionized shipbuilding by overhauling the blueprint process and standardizing on commonality of parts, welding, pre-fabrication and assembly line construction. Give me Liberty, or give me death!” a rallying cry of the Revolutionary War, got a second act in World War II. “Built by the mile and chopped off by the yard,” Roosevelt promised the no-frills Liberties would form a “bridge of ships” across the Atlantic. And they did. An exaggeration perhaps, but in truth, the Liberty wasn’t much to write home about.