Consolidated Steel Corporation (formed 18 December 1928) was an American steel and shipbuilding business. Consolidated built ships 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 ...

in two locations:

Wilmington, California Wilmington is a neighborhood in the Harbor region of Los Angeles, California, covering . Featuring a heavy concentration of industry and the third-largest oil field in the continental United States, this neighborhood has a high percentage of L ...

and Orange, Texas. It was created in 1929 by the merger of

Llewellyn Iron Works Reese James Llewellyn (30 August 1862 – 15 December 1936) was a Welsh-American businessman. He was the co-founder and president of Llewellyn Iron Works, a company based in Los Angeles, which provided iron works and steel for the construction of ...

, Baker Iron Works and

Union Iron Works Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries ...

, all of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

Orange shipyard

The Orange, Texas shipyard lay on the banks of the Sabine River, a few miles upstream of the Sabine Pass that grants access to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United S ...

. () It was expanded in 1940 when Consolidated Steel was awarded destroyer contracts from the U.S. Navy. They were the Orange Car & Steel Company and Southern Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Company before the war. After the war the yard became a U.S. Steel fabrication plant. Steel sold to Signal International and then sold to Westport Orange Shipyard, LLC. At its peak durning the war, it employed 20,000 people. The first ship launched was the destroyer on March 2, 1942. The last ship launched was the destroyer on December 28, 1945.

United States Naval Station Orange United States Naval Station Orange, later Texas Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet and US Naval Reserve Orange was major United States Navy shipyard in Orange, Texas on the Sabine River. The shipyard opened on August 24, 1940, to manage the construct ...

was the overseer of the Navy projects. Contracts for 12 ''Fletchers'' were authorized with the Two-Ocean Navy Act and placed later in 1940 ''Fletchers'' were produced no more than 6 concurrently. ''Gearings'' were produced no more than 10 concurrently. There were 6 slipways that could built one destroyer or destroyer escort and there were 2 side launching ways that could each build 2 destroyers or 3 destroyer escorts. The stern-first launching ways must obviously have been there first, see also launch photographs e.g. * 39 of 415 destroyers ** 12 of 175 s (built May 1941 - October 1942) *** ... ** 27 of 98 s (built May 1944 - December 1945) *** ... *** ... * 102 of 563 destroyer escorts and APDs ** 12 of 148 s (April 1943 - December 1943) *** ... ** 47 of 85 s (built June 1942 - December 1943) *** ... *** ... ** 34 of 83 s (built October 1943 - August 1944) *** ... ** 6 of 6 s *** that were completed as APDs (instead of converted from finished DEs) ** 3 of 50 s *** that were completed as APDs * 106 of 923 Landing Craft Infantry (built 1942-1944) ** Hull numbers 61 - 96, 943 - 1012

Levingston Shipbuilding Company Levingston Shipbuilding Company was a shipbuilding company at Orange, Texas on the Sabine River founded by George Levingston. During World War II Levingston Shipbuilding Company built ships for the United States Naval Station Orange also on th ...

and Weaver Shipyards round up the landscape of WW2 shipbuilding in Orange.

Wilmington shipyard

The Consolidated Steel Wilmington shipyard () in Wilmington, California was an emergency yard built in 1941 in the Port of Los Angeles ''West Basin'' after Consolidated Steel was awarded

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, 19 ...

contracts. At its peak, it employed 12,000 people, working on eight shipways on the 95-acre facility at 1100 W Harry Bridges Blvd, Wilmington. Production peaked on May 29, 1944, when it launched three large ships in only a -hour period. Later that year, the yard delivered its 500th vessel of the war. The yard was built as a temporary facility and, like most such war plants, it was closed after the war ended. Together, the shipyards ranked Consolidated 29th among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. Sources disagree on the division of labor between the Wilmington and Long Beach yards. * 47 C1-B in Wilmington, 18 in Long Beach. 36 C1-M-AV1 in W., 19 in L.B. * 58 C1-B in Wilmington, 7 in Long Beach, 55 C1-M-AV1 in W.: * 18 C1-B, 2 P2 in Long Beach after June 1940 (exclusive of 412 ... 415): contract sources given below List of contracts: Ships built: * 126 of 395 C1 ** 58 of 95 C1-B (3 of 61 below were built in the nearby Long Beach yard) *** (MC-263) ... (MC-266) *** (MC-486) ... (MC-511) *** (MC-698) ... (MC-701) *** (MC-1015) ... (MC-1028) *** (MC-1042) ... (MC-1044) *** (MC-1693) ... (MC-1695) *** (MC-2073) ... (MC-2079) ** 13 of 13 C1-S-AY1 *** (MC-1029) ... (MC-1041) *** all names in the form of "Cape X", all went to britain as "Empire X" ** 55 of 211

C1-M-AV1 Type C1 was a designation for small cargo ships built for the United States Maritime Commission before and during World War II. Total production was 493 ships built from 1940 to 1945. The first C1 types were the smallest of the three original M ...

*** (MC-2314) ... (MC-2331) *** (MC-2461) ... (MC-2473) *** (MC-2563) ... (MC-2586) * 10 of 121 C2-S-B1 ** ... ** * Landing Craft Mechanized 44 LCM in 1942 and 1943. Then 129 LCM in 1945 * 18 of 96 Tacoma-class frigates ( S2-S1-AQ1) in 1942 and 1943 * 32 of 32 Gilliam-class attack transport (S4-SE2-BD1) in 1944 and 1945 ** ... Bethlehem San Pedro and

California Shipbuilding __NOTOC__ California Shipbuilding Corporation built 467 Liberty and Victory ships during World War II, including ''Haskell''-class attack transports. California Shipbuilding Corporation was often referred to as Calship. The ''Dictionary of Ame ...

were located nearby on Terminal Island. See also: California during World War II#Ship building

Long Beach shipyard

The former Craig Shipbuilding yard was the first Consolidated Steel facility to become operational. On Liberty Fleet Day, September 27, 1941, the yard launched SS ''Alcoa Polaris'', a C1-B type cargo vessel, as one of the fourteen ships launched nationwide on the same day to show the magnitude of the shipbuilding program. * 7 C1-BThe Log, July 1941, p. 42 ** (MC-75) ** (MC-76) ** (MC-77), launched 26 June 1941 ** (MC-78) ** 3 more C1-B cargo ships from the Wilmington batch listed above * Two type p1 passenger ships, model P1-S2-L2. The P1-S2-L2 s were two ships. The first American assault military transports. Made with an aft ramp for the launching of small landing craft or for the unloading of tanks. ** , first in class **

After the war

Shortly after the end of the war, in 1945, Consolidated Steel bought the assets of the

Western Pipe and Steel Company The Western Pipe and Steel Company (WPS) was an American manufacturing company that is best remembered today for its construction of ships for the Maritime Commission in World War II. It also built ships for the U.S. Shipping Board in World W ...

of California, another wartime shipbuilding firm, for a sum in excess of $6.2 million. The WPS assets along with some other assets of Consolidated were sold in 1948 for over $17 million to the Columbia Steel Company, a division of US Steel, which formed a new division known as the Consolidated Western Steel Corporation to manage them. The former President and Chairman of Consolidated Steel's board, Alden G. Roach, became President of Consolidated Western. Consolidated Western was later merged directly into the parent company, US Steel. After the sale to Columbia, the remaining assets of Consolidated Steel were folded into a new company known as Consolidated Liquidating Corporation, which was dissolved on February 29, 1952.

Baker Iron Works

Baker Iron Works of

also manufactured mining equipment. The Baker Iron Works had its start at Los Angeles, California, about 1877, when Milo S. Baker acquired a small machine shop there. The business, begun on a small scale as M.S. Baker & Company, grew quite rapidly. A much larger facility was erected in 1886 and in June of that year the business was incorporated as the Baker Iron Works with capital stock of $75,000. Five Directors were named: Milo S. Baker, E.H. Booth, Charles F. Kimball, Fred L. Baker (Milo's son), and H.T. Neuree. Less than a year later, Baker erected a $15,000 building quivalent to $300,000 in today's buying poweron Buena Vista Street near College. Baker Iron Works had a great many different products, manufacturing mining, milling, pumping, hoisting, oil and well drilling machinery,

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

s, boilers, oven and heating furnaces, as well as a line of architectural iron. It seems to have been especially noteworthy for steam boiler fabrication, installation and maintenance. According to one authority, in 1889 Baker produced the first locomotive built in Los Angeles, designed by Milo's son Fred, vice president of the firm. Another authority says Baker built

horse car A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...

s and perhaps street cars for Los Angeles,

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

and other communities in the Los Angeles area and that they built some larger cars for the Santa Ana & Orange Motor Road in 1898. According to this authority, after

Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

bought this line, the cars were revamped and continued in service until 1920. It is claimed that in the early 1890s, ''Street Railway Journal'' reportedly ranked Baker "among the principal car builders on the Pacific Coast." In 1887, Baker constructed six street cars for the City & Central Street Railway. According to an article in the 1 January 1890 issue of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'', the Baker Works then occupied some and provided employment to 75 men. A large variety of manufacturing was being done. The foundry was making iron and brass castings to fit nearly all kinds of machinery for mining and milling purposes, besides pumping plants for large and small waterworks, and steam plants for all the variety of uses to which steam was put. They manufactured their own boilers. They were also manufacturing oil-boring tools and rigs, and constructing elevators—both passenger and freight—in all varieties: hydraulic steam or hand. It was claimed by the newspaper that Baker had installed nearly all the first class passenger elevators in Southern California. The article said they manufacture street-cars and did other railroad work to order and claimed to make the best gang plows and road and field rollers that could be obtained anywhere. They also installed heating and ventilating plants for public buildings, both steam, hot water and hot air. And they did architectural iron-work. Milo S. Baker was then President, J.E. Sills was Vice-President and Treasurer, and Fred L. Baker (Milo's son) was Secretary and Plant Superintendent. In 1891, Baker was awarded the contract to build the Santa Ana Water Works. In six months, for a total price of $58,000, Baker put in of street mains, sixty fire hydrants and gates valves, one reservoir , build one fire-proof power house, two boilers and brick stock, two compound condensing engines of capacity every 24 hours, All this complete and functioning: truly a "turn-key" operation. After the turn of the 20th century, Baker seems to have specialized in steel fabrication and elevator building. Over the next 30 years they did the steel work and/or elevators for—among many others— Los Angeles' first

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...

, the twelve-story Union Trust Building, the Public Service Building, the Queen of Angels Hospital, the YWCA Hotel, the United Artists-California Petroleum Building, the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Fran ...

at Westwood, The

Masonic Temple A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting. Development and history I ...

at Glendale, the Los Angeles-First National Bank at Glendale, the Los Angeles-First National Bank at Hollywood and the University of Redlands at Redlands.

External links

youtube.com, World War II Shipyards: Orange, Texas

Footnotes

References

{{Commons category, Consolidated Steel Corporation Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States Defense companies of the United States Shipyards building World War II warships