The Kaiser Shipyards were seven major shipbuilding yards located on the United States west coast during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Kaiser ranked 20th among U.S. corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. The shipyards were owned by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, a creation of American industrialist Henry J. Kaiser (1882–1967), who established the shipbuilding company around 1939 in order to help meet the construction goals set by the United States Maritime Commission for merchant shipping. Four of the Kaiser Shipyards were located in

Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a city council.

, and were called the

Richmond Shipyards The four Richmond Shipyards, in the city of Richmond, California, United States, were run by Permanente Metals and part of the Kaiser Shipyards. In World War II, Richmond built more ships than any other shipyard, turning out as many as three shi ...

. Three other shipyards were located in the Pacific Northwest along the

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

and Willamette rivers: the

Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation was a World War II emergency shipyard located along the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. The shipyard built nearly 600 Liberty and Victory ships between 1941 and 1945 under the Emergency Shi ...

and the Swan Island Shipyard in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

, and the Vancouver Shipyard in

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...

. Henry Kaiser was known for developing new methods of shipbuilding, which allowed his yards to outproduce other similar facilities and build 1,490 ships, 27 percent of the total Maritime Commission construction. Kaiser's ships were completed in two-thirds the time and a quarter the cost of the average of all other shipyards.

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...

s were typically assembled in a little over two weeks, and one in less than five days. Kaiser Shipyards shut down at the end of the war. The

Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park is a United States national historical park located in Richmond, California, near San Francisco. The park preserves and interprets the legacy of the United States home front d ...

was dedicated October 25, 2000 on the site of one of the shipyards in Richmond.

History

Henry Kaiser had been building cargo ships for the

Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 195 ...

in the 1930s, partnering with

Todd Pacific Shipyards Vigor Shipyards is the current entity operating the former Todd Shipyards after its acquisition in 2011. Todd Shipyards was founded in 1916, which owned and operated shipyards on the West Coast of the United States, East Coast of the United St ...

and the

Bath Iron Works Bath Iron Works (BIW) is a major United States shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, founded in 1884 as Bath Iron Works, Limited. Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics. It is the fifth-largest ...

. When orders for ships from the British government, already at war with Germany, allowed for growth, Kaiser established his first Richmond shipyard begun in December 1940. In April 1941 the Maritime Commission requested an additional Kaiser yard, to be used for

construction, and after the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

, Kaiser started third and fourth yards, building troop transports and tank landing ships (LSTs), respectively. His son, Edgar Kaiser, Sr, was appointed Vice-President and General Manager of the shipyards. Together, these four Kaiser Shipyards produced 747 ships, including many of the famous

s and Victory shipsfor carrying general cargo and military munitions, armaments and supplies, more than any other complex in the United States. Only one of these ships, , survives. Two other Liberty ships built in other American yards also exist as working museum exhibits: moored in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

and in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

. An additional Victory cargo ship also survives: . Through 1943 The Kaiser shipyards produced s. While promising 16 carriers by 1944, Kaiser encouraged employees to go above and beyond and make 18 instead, with the slogan "18 or more by 44".

Other details

* Kaiser set several records: ** The

SS ''Robert E. Peary'' was assembled in less than five days as a part of a special competition among shipyards. ** At the Oregon Shipbuilding Yard on the Columbia River, near Portland, the Victory ship SS ''Joseph N. Teal'' was built in ten days in fall 1942. * The Oregon Shipbuilding Yards were responsible for 455 ships. * Kaiser recruited from across the United States to work in his yards, hiring women and minorities. *

Fields Point Fields Point (also known as Field's Point) is a historic park in the Washington Park neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island jutting into Narragansett Bay right near the Providence River and Route 95. History The point was named after William ...

in Providence, Rhode Island, had a shipyard temporarily run by Kaiser-Walsh when the former management ran into difficulties. The shipyard was closed and sold after the war to a Swedish shipowner who dismantled the shipyard and later erected it in the city of Uddevalla on the west coast of Sweden.

Notes

References

* Herman, Arthur. ''Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II'' (New York: Random House, 2012).

External links

History.com

Kaiser Vancouver (WA) & Portland (OR) Yards

Rosie the Riveter Trust

A guide to the Permanente Metals Corporation photograph album, 1941-1945
{{authority control Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States Henry J. Kaiser United States home front during World War II . American companies established in 1940 Manufacturing companies established in 1940 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1946 American women civilians in World War II

History

Other details

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links