Interesting project, you might want to consider a forward mounted platform as well, as in most cases, it would be free
from eddies caused by the superstructure and the warm air exhausting from the stack, both of which could impact the
Pogo's handling while in vertical mode. Perhaps the fwd deck for general landing practice on a stationary ship, the aft
deck for underway landing training.
The Liberty structural problems were from embrittlement of the steel used and design errors rather than welding per se.
The notion that 'weld seams' split is erroneous, the failure was to the steel next to the welds, and the cracks would
propagate across the surface for long distances.
BTW only three are definitively known to have sunk because of cracks, out of 1200 that displayed cracking to various
degrees.