Mass merchant construction produced much more than ordinary freighters. Spacious hulls could become auxiliary and escort carriers as well as repair ships. The 21 repair ships built for the Royal Navy alone show that mobile workshops were a programme in their own right. Their number implies a deliberate commitment to keeping a global fleet working far from home dockyards. The example makes support tonnage visible within Allied production statistics often dominated by combatants, landing craft, and cargo ships.
Chapter · 11:26-12:25
Repair ships were a wartime programme in their own right
Twenty-one Royal Navy repair ships reveal a major support programme hidden behind better-known merchant, escort-carrier, and landing-craft totals.