Crew Quarters

The crew of a Liberty Ship lived in these cabins known as fo'c'sles (pronounced FOHK-səl) which were named after the spaces in the bow of a ship where prior generations of seamen were quartered. The fo'c'sles housed a maximum of four men and included modest luxuries such as lockers, bunk lights for reading, and porthole fans for ventilation. 

Each is labeled with a plaque designating its crew assignment on the frame above the door. The two forward cabins on each side of the Officer’s Salon were reserved for the Naval Armed Guard personnel, or ‘gunners’, who manned the forward guns. These were more cramped than the fo'c'sles used by the merchant seamen, with as many as eight sailors sharing one cabin.

An ongoing concern for a wartime Liberty Ship crew was maintaining blackout conditions, and several precautions were taken. Each entrance had a blackout curtain draped across the passageway to prevent light from escaping. If the crew desired ventilation at night they could fit their portholes with light-proof ventilation grilles.

The walls and doors were designed with kick-out panels for crewmen to escape should the doors be jammed shut if the ship was burning or sinking. Exterior doors were also fitted with switches that shut off the passageway lights whenever the door was open. In an emergency, these dark conditions were quite a hazard, so escape routes, exits, and emergency equipment were identified using glow-in-the-dark tape. The red emergency lights you see today are a modern safety requirement.