Emergency Shipbuilding Program Explained

The Emergency Shipbuilding Program (late 1940 – September 1945) was a United States government effort to quickly build simple cargo ships to carry troops and materiel to allies and foreign theatres during World War II. Run by the U.S. Maritime Commission, the program built almost 6,000 ships.[1] [2] [3]

Origins

By the fall of 1940, the fleet of the British Merchant Navy (equivalent to the United States Merchant Marine) was being sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic by Germany's U-boats faster than the United Kingdom could replace them. Led by Sir Arthur Salter, a group of men called the British Merchant Shipping Mission came to North America from the UK to enlist U.S. and Canadian shipbuilders to construct merchant ships. As all existing U.S. shipyards capable of constructing ocean-going merchant ships were already occupied by either building ships for the U.S. Navy or for the U.S. Maritime Commission's Long Range Shipbuilding Program, which had begun three years previously to fulfill the goals set forth in the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, the mission negotiated with a consortium of companies made up of the existing U.S. ship repairer Todd Shipyards, which had its headquarters in New York City in league with the shipbuilder Bath Iron Works located in Bath, Maine.[4] [5]

The new yard, called the Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding Corporation, was to be an entirely new facility located on a piece of mostly vacant land located adjacent to Cummings Point in South Portland, Maine, for the purpose of building 30 cargo ships. The mission, likewise, negotiated with a different consortium made up of Todd along with a group of heavy construction companies in the Western U.S. for the building of a new shipyard in the San Francisco Bay area for construction of 30 ships identical to those to be built in Maine.

That yard was to be called the Todd-California Shipbuilding Corp. It was slated to be built on the tide flats of Richmond on the east side of the bay. The construction companies that made up the second half of that corporation had no experience building ships, but did have an extensive resume with the construction of highways, bridges, and major public-works projects such as the Hoover Dam, the Bonneville Dam, and the massive Grand Coulee Dam. Known as the Six Companies, the members included two companies that were to become driving powers in wartime merchant shipbuilding during the ensuing years, and the men behind those companies were Henry J. Kaiser, who headed the Kaiser Companies, and John A. McCone,[6] who led the Bechtel/McCone Company.[3]

Contracts for both yards and the ships were signed on December 20, 1940. All the ships to be built were collectively called the Ocean class and to be of an existing British design for five-hatch cargo ships of about 10,000 tons' load displacement and 11 knots' service speed using obsolete, but readily available, triple-expansion, reciprocating steam engine and coal-fired Scotch-type fire tube boilers. The first of these vessels, the was launched at the Todd-California yard on October 15, 1941.[7] [2]

The early years

With the defense of both the U.S. and its overseas possessions, along with a very strong national interest in assisting Britain in its struggle to keep its supply lines open to both North America and its overseas colonies, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced what was to become known as the Emergency Shipbuilding Program on January 3, 1941, for the construction of 200 ships very much similar to those being built for the British.[8] He designated that the program be implemented and administered by the Maritime Commission, which since 1937 had been the federal government department tasked with merchant marine development, and which had worked very closely with the British Mission in placing its 60-ship order. Immediately, the Commission authorized that the two yards building for the British build ships for the U.S. upon completion of their current contracts.[9]

The Maritime Commission also funded the yards to add building ways and realizing that more than two yards would be needed for the program they were expecting to enter into contracts to build new shipyards on the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific Coasts of the U.S. In this first wave of expansion, seven additional yards were added to those in Maine and California, and like those yards were to be for the sole purpose of building only the emergency type of ships. While all the yards were to be built by private contractors and operated by commercial shipbuilding companies, the new yards were financed by the Maritime Commission with funds authorized by Congress, thus were owned by the federal government. One of the new yards planned for construction was to be in Baltimore, Maryland, and would be run by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation. That facility became known as the Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard for the Fairfield section of Baltimore, where it was located. Bethlehem Shipbuilding was one of the nation's largest shipbuilding companies, having construction yards on the East Coast in Quincy, Massachusetts, on Staten Island, New York, and at Sparrows Point, also in Baltimore.[2]

On the West Coast, it had yards in San Pedro and San Francisco. Another was to be in Wilmington, North Carolina, and managed by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Newport News, Virginia, which had one of the largest commercial yards in the U.S., and by 1941 was exclusively building large combatant ships for the Navy. That yard was to be called the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company.[3]

Additionally, yards were authorized to be built on the Gulf Coast at Mobile, Alabama, which was to be operated by the Mobile-based Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company, in New Orleans on the Industrial Canal to be known as the Delta Shipbuilding Company and operated by the American Shipbuilding Company of Toledo, Ohio, one at Houston, Texas on the Houston Ship Channel to be operated by Todd Shipyards and called the Todd-Houston Shipbuilding Corp. On the West Coast, one yard was contracted to be built in Los Angeles at Terminal Island and managed by the Bechtel/McCone Company. That yard would be called the California Shipbuilding Corporation or CalShip for short. The Kaiser Corporation itself received a contract to build a new yard on the Columbia River at Portland, Oregon, which would be known as the Oregon Shipbuilding Corp.

See also: Type C1 ship#C1-B-early-years for details on the first C1-B contracts awarded in 1939

The program grows as war nears

As 1941 progressed, the construction of the emergency yards accelerated rapidly and keels were laid upon the new building ways. Well before the first wave of expansion was underway or the original 60 British ships were delivered, shortly after the Lend-Lease Bill was passed by Congress in March, a second wave of 306 additional ships was ordered, including 112 of the emergency type; the remainder was standard-type vessels and tankers. This additional number of ships required additional building ways, so the Maritime Commission authorized new ways to be added to the yards in both the Long Range and Emergency Programs and also contracted for a second yard to be built for the Kaiser-managed yards in Richmond, California. After this time, the original Kaiser yard became known as Richmond #1 and the new yard as Richmond #2.[3]

After the May 27[10] Declaration of Unlimited National Emergency by the President, the Emergency Program was further expanded in a third wave. To accommodate the addition of more ships to be built, additional ways were added to the yards in the program and the schedule of construction accelerated to build more ships per shipway per year. In total, this increase raised the planned output of all merchant shipbuilders to about 500 ships (5 million total deadweight tons) for 1942 and 700 ships (7 million tons) in 1943.[11]

Impacts of the program on war production and society

Material shortages

While this rapid expansion was taking place, all other defense industries were also in a maximum production mode to accommodate the orders being placed by the government for all other manner of military equipment, which included the massive wartime naval expansion program begun in 1940 with the passage of the Two Ocean Navy Act. So much growth in demand happening simultaneously in industries sharing common materials inevitably led to shortages in steel, propulsion machinery, and most other ship equipment. In many cases, the shortages affected the emergency program more than it did the Navy's, since its programs were deemed of higher priority in the eyes of the many wartime boards set up for deciding on where scarce resources would be allocated. All along the way, the Navy made claim to as much of the raw materials, steel, machinery, manufacturing plant allocations, and labor that it could get.[3]

Manpower shortages

Another effect of the breakneck growth in production in the early years of the war was a labor shortage in the towns and cities where the emergency shipyards were being built. Since a de facto drought in shipbuilding work had occurred in the U.S. for nearly two decades, the number of experienced shipbuilders was quite small at the war's start. Additionally, many of those towns and cities where new yards were to be built had not been major shipbuilding centers before 1941, and these yards felt the shortage the most. To overcome this shortage, an aggressive recruiting program was undertaken by both the commission and the companies operating the shipyards. Since many of the emergency yards were being managed by established shipbuilding or repair companies, they could send some of their more skilled men to get "the new facilities on their feet and running".

However, a labor force with abilities to accomplish heavy industrial and mechanical work was most needed. To find this labor, recruiting was directed towards areas of the nation's hinterland, which had only a few years before found itself in the depths of the Great Depression in the not mistaken belief that men used to keeping farm machinery operating could build ships, as well. Getting these former farmers to decide to take up shipbuilding was not too difficult an undertaking because the wages offered to these previously poor men were much higher than had ever been offered to such working-class Americans before. This opportunity to earn a good wage showed the way to a possible future, where life might provide better security than in the poverty years of the 1930s, and that was all that was needed to get people on the move. Not uncommonly, entire families made the pilgrimage from places such as the Dust Bowl regions of Texas and Oklahoma to the shipbuilding centers on the West Coast or the Gulf of Mexico. With such a rapid influx of new workers to these communities, however, acute shortages in housing, schools and other needed services arose. Along with building new shipyards and ships, a need existed to build all the necessities for many workers to live in most of the largest shipbuilding centers such as Richmond, and Portland. Workers with just about any skilled trade had steady employment in those communities throughout the course of the war. Some skilled workers such as engineers were "frozen" in their jobs and were not allowed to leave their work, even to enlist.[12]

Women and minorities enter the shipbuilding workforce

Before the war, shipbuilding had been exclusively a male occupation, but the need to reach out to new sources of labor for the emergency yards created opportunities for women to gain employment in the many trades that are needed to construct a ship. While not as much riveting as welding was used in the building of the emergency ships, the popular symbolic figure of Rosie the Riveter partly sprang from the wartime shipyard, where a new cadre of female shipfitters suddenly developed. Additionally, in the deep South, where African Americans had been excluded from the higher-paying industrial and manufacturing employment, such a shortage of labor existed for the yards on the Gulf that reluctant employers had to accept that black labor was required to meet production goals. In the end, the record productivity for black labor in the Gulf shipyards was no lower than for any other group employed.[13]

Program summary

Shipyards in the program

By the end of World War II, the list of shipyards building for the Maritime Commission comprised these yards (those in italics did not exist prior to the Emergency Program's start in 1940): For Seattle-Tacoma the Maritime Commission contracts prompted a reopening of a yard that had been dormant for 15 years. Bethlehem Staten Island and Bethlehem San Francisco only produced 5 C1-B each for the Maritime Commission through contracts awarded on a bidding basis in 1939 and following the passing of the Two-Ocean Navy Act of July 1940 switched to producing warships for the Navy. Bath Iron Works produced 4 C-2 before the war in a similar manner.

Yards on the East Coast
Yard name Location First deliveryTypes deliveredTotal number of waysTotal vessels
Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co.Chester, Pennsylvania1938C2 type, C4 type, T2 type, T3 typeprobably 24 [14] 276 ships for Maritime Commission (MC) (plus 78 private account ships)
Bethlehem Sparrows PointSparrows Point, Maryland1939C1 type, C2 type, C3 type, C5 type, R1 type, T2 type, T3 typenumber77 ships for MC (plus 38 for private acct.)
Federal ShipbuildingKearny, New Jersey1939C1 type, C2 type, C3 type, P2 type, T3 typenumber84 ships for MC (plus 92 for USN or private account ships)
Newport News ShipbuildingNewport News, Virginia1940C2 type, C3 type, P4 type, T3 typenumber18 ships for MC (remainder for USN)
Bethlehem Staten IslandStaten Island, New YorkJanuary 1941C1 typenumber5 ships for MC (remainder for USN)
Bath Iron WorksBath, MaineAugust 1941C2 typenumber4 ships for MC (remainder for USN)
Bethlehem FairfieldBaltimore, MarylandDecember 1941EC2 type, S2 (LST) type, VC2 type16 ways514 ships for MC
Pusey and JonesWilmington, DelawareJanuary 1942C1 type3 ways19 ships for MC
North Carolina ShipbuildingWilmington, North CarolinaFebruary 1942EC2 type, C2 type9 ways243 ships for USMC
Todd-Bath ShipbuildingSouth Portland, MaineMarch 1942British Ocean type, EC2 type13 ways30 ships for UK, 242 ships for USMC
Walsh-Kaiser Company, Inc.Providence, Rhode IslandFebruary 1943EC2 type, S2 (frigate) type, S4 (transport) type6 ways64 ships for MC
Southeastern ShipbuildingSavannah, GeorgiaMarch 1943EC2 type, C1-M type6 ways105 ships for MC
St. Johns River Shipbuilding CompanyJacksonville, FloridaApril 1943EC2 type, T1 type6 ways94 ships for MC
J.A. Jones ConstructionBrunswick, GeorgiaMay 1943EC2 type, C1-M type6 ways99 ships for MC
Penn-Jersey Shipbuilding Corp.Camden, New JerseyAugust 1943N3 typenumber14 ships for MC
Welding ShipyardsNorfolk, VirginiaNovember 1943T3 type1 way10 ships for USMC (remainder for private account ships)

There were 4 regional concentrations of shipbuilding on the west coast: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland/Vancouver and Puget Sound. All the yards in this table were in one of those regions.

Yards on the West Coast
Yard name Location First delivery dateTypes deliveredTotal number of waysTotal vessels built
Moore Dry Dock CompanyOakland, CaliforniaJuly 1940C2 type, R2 type, C3 type4 ways112 ships
Bethlehem Steel Corp.San Francisco, CaliforniaFebruary 1941C1-Bnumber5 ships for MC (remainder for USN)
Seattle-Tacoma ShipbuildingTacoma, WashingtonApril 1941C1-B, C3, T1
MC: cargo
RN: escort carriers
USN: escort carriers, troop transports, gasoline tankers, seaplane and destroyer tenders
8 ways5 ships for MC, 44 for US Navy, 26 for Royal Navy
Western Pipe & SteelSouth San Francisco, CaliforniaApril 1941C1 type, C3 type4 ways23 ships for MC
Kaiser Richmond No. 1 YardRichmond, CaliforniaAugust 1941British Ocean type, EC2 type, VC2 type7 ways30 ships for UK, 191 ships for MC
Kaiser Richmond No. 2 YardRichmond, CaliforniaSeptember 1941EC2 type, VC2 type12 ways442 ships for MC
Consolidated Steel Long BeachLong Beach, CaliforniaSeptember 1941C1-B, P1 9
Oregon ShipbuildingPortland, OregonJanuary 1942EC2 type, VC2 type11 ways474 ship
California ShipbuildingTerminal Island, Los Angeles, CaliforniaFebruary 1942EC2 type, VC2 type14 ways443 ships for MC
Kaiser Vancouver ShipyardVancouver, WashingtonJuly 1942EC2 type, S2 (LST) type, S4 (escort carrier) type, VC2 type and C4 type12 ways143 ships
MarinShipSausalito, CaliforniaOctober 1942EC2 type, T2 type6 ways93 ships for MC
Pacific Bridge CompanyAlameda, CaliforniaDecember 1942N3 type2 ways (basins)9 ships for MC (remainder for USN)
Kaiser Swan Island ShipyardSwan Island, Portland, OregonDecember 1942T2 type8 ways147 ships for MC
Consolidated Steel WIlmingtonWilmington, CaliforniaDecember 1942C1-B, C1-M, C2, S2 (frigate), S4 (transport) 8 waysN ships
Kaiser Richmond No. 4 YardRichmond, CaliforniaApril 1943S2 (LST) type, S2 (frigate) type, C1-M type3 ways51 ships
Kaiser Richmond No. 3 YardRichmond, CaliforniaAugust 1943C4 type5 ways (basins)35 ships for MC
Bethlehem Alameda WorksAlameda, CaliforniaAugust 1944P2 type4 ways10 ships for MC
Pollock-Stockton ShipbuildingStockton, CaliforniaAugust 1943Net layer, Floating Dry Dock, bargesnumber10 Net Layer, 4 Dry Docks for US Navy
Commercial Iron WorksPortland, OregonJune 1941Net layer, Tugboats, Minesweeper, Submarine chaser, LCI(L), bargesnumber86 LCI(L), 12 Net Layer, 7 Minesweeper, 42 Sub chaser, 13 Tugs
Everett-Pacific ShipbuildingEverett, WashingtonMarch 1943Floating Dry Dock, Net Layer, Tug, bargesnumber12 Dry Dock, 10 Net Layer, 40 Tugs-->

Major regional concentrations were in or near Houston and at the port of Mobile, Alabama.

Yards on the Gulf Coast
Yard name Location First delivery dateTypes deliveredTotal number of waysTotal vessels built
Pascagoula, Mississippi1940C3 type6 ways80 ships for MC or private
(Barges in Decatur AL plant)
Tampa ShipbuildingTampa, FloridaJuly 1940C2 type3 ways13 ships for MC (37 more for USN)
Gulf ShipbuildingChickasaw, AlabamaApril 1941C2 typeprobably 4 [15] 36 ships for MC (35 for USN, 2 for RN)
Pennsylvania ShipyardsBeaumont, TexasMay 1941C1 type, C1-M type, N3 type, V4 type5 way99 ships for MC
Todd Houston ShipbuildingHouston, TexasMay 1942EC2 type, T1 type9 ways222 ships for MC
Delta Shipbuilding New Orleans, LouisianaMay 1942EC2 type8 ways188 ships for MC
Alabama Drydock Co.Mobile, AlabamaMay 1942EC2 type, T2 type12 ways123 ships for MC (remainder for private)
Avondale Marine WaysWestwego, LouisianaJanuary 1943N3 type, V4 typenumber22 ships (remainder for private)
J.A. Jones Construction Co.Panama City, FloridaMarch 1943EC2 type, T1 type6 ways108 ships for MC
Pendleton Shipyard CompanyNew Orleans, LouisianaAugust 1943N3 type, V4 typenumber13 ships for MC
Todd Galveston Drydocks Co.Galveston, TexasSeptember 1943T1 typenumber13 ships
Yards on the Great Lakes
Yard name Location First delivery dateTypes deliveredTotal number of waysTotal vessels built
Cargill Inc.Savage, MinnesotaNovember 1941T1 typenumber18 for US Navy[16]
Leatham D. Smith Shipbuilding Co.Sturgeon Bay, WisconsinNovember 1942C1-M type, N3 type, S2 (frigate) typenumber34 ships for MC (remainder to USN or other govt.)
Walter Butler Shipbuilders Inc.Superior, WisconsinDecember 1942C1-M type, N3 type, S2 (frigate) typenumber52 ships for MC
Froemming BrothersMilwaukee, WisconsinApril 1943C1-M type, V4 type, S2 (frigate) typenumber26 ships for MC
American ShipbuildingLorain, OhioMay 1943L6 type, S2 (frigate) typenumber14 ships for MC (remainder 35 for USN or private)
Walter Butler ShipbuildersDuluth, MinnesotaMay 1943C1-M type, N3 type, T1 typenumber38 ships for MC (remainder to private)
Globe ShipbuildingSuperior, WisconsinMay 1943C1-M type, V4 type, S2 (frigate) typenumber29 ships for MC
Ecorse, MichiganMay 1943L6 typenumber6 ships for MC (remainder for private)
Great Lakes Engineering WorksAshtabula, OhioMay 1943L6 typenumber4 ships (remainder for private)
American ShipbuildingCleveland, OhioJune 1943L6 type, S2 (frigate) typenumber9 ships for MC (16 for USN)
Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co.Evansville, Indiana & Leavenworth, KansasSeptember 1942LST, LCT, crane ships, bargesnumber171 LST, 64 LCTs, 3 crane ship

Ships built by type

Type of ship
(incl. all variant designs w/in type)
Deliveries 1940Deliveries 1941Deliveries 1942Deliveries 1943Deliveries 1944Deliveries 1945Totals for all years
C1 type cargo ship12920 78642194
C1-M type cargo ship000064189220
C2 type cargo ship617205410982309
EC2 type (1) cargo ship075512797281442755
VC2 type cargo ship0000208322530
C3 type cargo ship261425654436315
C4 type cargo ship000 5263465
T1 type tanker000253746108
T2 type tanker0231139218139529
T3 type tanker41221141059
P2 type troop transport000031619
S2 type frigate0001859885
S3 type landing ship0012640076
S4 type escort carrier0001931050
S4 type attack transport0000293564
L6 type Great Lakes ore carriers000160016
N3 type cargo ship00046516107
V4 type tug0004814062
(1) includes 60 British type

References

Notes
  • Bibliography
  • External links

    Notes and References

    1. Web site: The Emergency Shipbuilding Program | MARAD. www.maritime.dot.gov.
    2. Web site: HyperWar: Gray Steel and Black Oil [Chapter 14]]. www.ibiblio.org.
    3. Web site: Shipbuilding under the United States Maritime Commission 1936 to 1950. www.usmaritimecommission.de.
    4. Web site: General | MARAD. www.maritime.dot.gov.
    5. Web site: Vessels for the U.S. Navy | MARAD. www.maritime.dot.gov.
    6. Web site: John McCone : Biography . spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk . 2012 . 2 November 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20121018035306/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmccone.htm . 18 October 2012 .
    7. Web site: The Shipbuilding Program of the U.S. Maritime Commission | MARAD. www.maritime.dot.gov.
    8. Franklin D. Roosevelt, "We Choose Human Freedom" (Speech, The American Presidency Project, Washington, D.C., May 27, 1941)
    9. Web site: The Maritime Administration's First 100 Years: 1916 – 2016 | MARAD. www.maritime.dot.gov.
    10. Web site: Announcing Unlimited National Emergency . Franklin D. . Roosevelt . Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum . May 27, 1941 . 2 November 2012.
    11. Web site: U.S. Maritime Commission Post-World War II | MARAD. www.maritime.dot.gov.
    12. Waging War on the Home Front, An Illustrated Memoir of World War II, by Chauncey Del French
    13. Web site: ROSIE THE RIVETER NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK.
    14. Web site: Fourth Naval District (Cochrane Collection) .
    15. Web site: Eighth Naval District (Cochrane Collection) .
    16. http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/emergencylarge/cargill.htm shipbuildinghistory.com