After World War II, the surplus of cargo ships produced by the Emergency Shipbuilding Program meant that the U.S. Maritime Commission had several years to develop a successor to the Victory ship and Long Range Shipbuilding Program-era designs.  The final two vessels designed and ordered by the U.S. Maritime Commission were the transatlantic liner SS United States and the cargo ship SS Schuyler Otis Bland.  Larger and faster than the preceding generation of ships, these vessels were the fittingly innovative final acts of the U.S. Maritime Commission.