Liberty ships launch era of Coast artificial reefs

Five Liberty ships, the workhorse Ugly Ducklings of Americas World War II fleet, were sunk in the Mississippi Sound.

War wasnt to blame.

The ships, at least what is left of them after nearly 40 years on the sea bottom, are haven to snapper, grouper, sheephead and other sport fish. The vessels were stripped and deliberately scuttled in the mid-1970s to create fishing reefs, and that initial success led to an inshore and offshore artificial reef program that continues today.

During the war, more than 2,750 Liberty ships were built in this nation to help crush the Japanese and German war machines by delivering cargo, troops, even bombs. These ships that used time and cost-cutting measures lived up to their Liberty name but when President Franklin D. Roosevelt called them a dreadful looking object, the Ugly Ducking nickname stuck. Another nickname, Kaisers Creeping Coffins, arose from their slowness, at 10 knots, and Henry J. Kaiser, whose ship-building empire constructed most of them.

After the war, the Liberties became the mainstay of the worldwide tramp steamer fleet, but some, or parts of them were converted for other uses. Today, only two are thought to still see action at sea.

As they weathered, Liberties in the National Defense Reserve Fleet were offered to coastal states as artificial reefs, and the Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks Inc., stepped into action. With the help of state agencies, continuing today through the Department of Marine Resources, MGFB organizers and those who continue the reef efforts have helped plant hundreds of reefs near shore, in the Mississippi Sound and south of the barrier islands.

But even before the mid-1970s and the five Liberty sinkings, this region benefited from artificial reefs when old tires and even older cars were used for two reefs in the late 1960s. That was the root of the Fishing Banks.

Those involved with MGFB today credit four men with leading the way for what are called The Liberty Reefs: businessman Roland Agregaard, supper club owner Gus Stevens, Coast leader Yankie Barhanovich and charter boat captain J.P. Trochesset. Two have sons now working in the charter fishing industry, captains Jay Trochesset of the Silver Dollar III and Kenny Barhanovich of the Miss Hospitality.

The road to the reefs was sometimes rough because commercial fishermen worried that objects in the artificial reefs would snag their nets -- they did and they still occasionally do. The reefs are marked on up-to-date nautical charts. and the planning behind their locations considers water depths and locations. Some very low-profile reefs, in fact, have been planted off popular fishing piers.

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Liberty ships launch era of Coast artificial reefs