WWII hand-powered lathe from Liberty Ship - photo

[mklotz]

That's a monstrous lathe. I guesstimated the height of the crossfeed wheel above the deck at 28" and used that to scale the overall length of the lathe. It came out close to thirteen feet!

The marking on the headstock says Lodge and Shipley. Their 24 x 120 would be about that length and looks very similar to the one on the ship...

Lodge and Shipley

Note the crank below the right end of the tailstock. I believe that's a means of moving what must be a very heavy tailstock using the lathe rack. You can see it also on the picture of the lathe on the boat.

Here's a video of a similar size Lodge and Shipley taking a 1/4" cut in steel...

It's all very overwhelming for us hobbyists with Unimats, Sherlines and 12 x 24 imports.

I doubt a lathe like that would notice any ship motion. In fact, the lathe probably provides structural stiffening for the boat.