The Flying Enterprise was one of the many Liberty ships built during World War II and continued in service as a commercial cargo vessel after the war. While departing England for the US in late December 1951, the Enterprise found herself surprised by a violent hurricane. After days of being worked by the sea the Enterprise suffered a severe stress crack which ran across her main deck amidships and 12 feet down each side. Continuous swells caused cargo to shift to port and develop a permanent 30degree list. As the Captain and his ship fought the storm for over two weeks, the list eventually worsened and submerged the crack and funnel. This caused rapid down flooding into the holds and engine room. The Captain stayed aboard to the last moment, finally leaping from the descending smokestack as the Flying Enterprise surrendered to the sea on Jan 15, 1952.

The primary goal of this engineering examination was to determine and explain not only why the ship broke but also how she managed to stay afloat for over two weeks. Using 3D-computer animation, JMS faithfully reconstructed the ship, externally and internally, to evaluate and illustrate its inherent design weaknesses. Very little hard data existed concerning the ship's cargo arrangement so an examination of the events leading up to the eventual sinking had to be researched from many sources ranging from salvage reports to photographs and rescue vessel communications recorded during the incident.

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...the Enterprise rides a large wave amidships..