SS John P. Gaines was Liberty ship

Liberty ship

Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...

 built during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and named for politician John P. Gaines

John P. Gaines

John Pollard Gaines was a U.S. military and political figure. He was a Whig member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Kentucky from 1847 to 1849, and he served as Governor of the Oregon Territory from 1850 to 1853, stepping down after a turbulent term in office.-Early...

.

On 24 November 1943 she broke in two and sank with the loss of 10 lives off the Aleutian Islands. It was later determined that the welded construction combined with the grade of steel used had caused embrittlement

Embrittlement

Embrittlement is a loss of ductility of a material, making it brittle. Various materials have different mechanisms of embrittlement.* Hydrogen embrittlement is the effect of hydrogen absorption on some metals and alloys....

 that caused a sudden break, as demonstrated by metallurgist Constance Tipper

Constance Tipper

Constance Fligg Elam Tipper was a British metallurgist and crystallographer.Constance Tipper specialized in the investigation of metal strength and its effect on engineering problems. During the Second World War, she investigated the causes of brittle fracture in Liberty Ships...

. A number of other Liberty ships suffered similar problems, with three sinking.