First U.S.Lliberty ship steams into Antwerp. The James B. Weaver, first U.S.

First U.S.Lliberty ship steams into Antwerp. The James B. Weaver, first U.S. Liberty ship to enter the liberated Belgian port of Antwerp, steams up the Schldt River with its cargo of supplies for th Allied Expeditionary Force fighting the Germans on the Western Front. The port of Antwerp, third largest in Europe, fell to the Allies virtually undamaged by the Germans in their hasty retreat. A corps of 25L sea and river pilots, all Belgian, was ready to take in Allied ships to the 178 berths for large vessels, the wet basins covering nearly 42 kilometers of dock frontage and to the riverside berths stretching over six kilometers. The peacetime dock installations of Antwerp, with a capacity of 80,000 tons a day, were found intact and 85 percent of the nearly 600 cranes were in order. Grain ships bringing wital wheat supplios can be turned round in 36 hours by using the two grain elevators, each capable of discharging 200 tons a minute.