The Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation (also operating as Todd Pacific) was an American corporation which built

escort carrier The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slower type of aircraf ...

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

s, cargo ships and auxiliaries for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

and merchant marine during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in two yards in

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ; ) is a complex estuary, estuarine system of interconnected Marine habitat, marine waterways and basins located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As a part of the Salish Sea, the sound ...

, Washington. It was the largest producer of destroyers (45) on the West Coast and the largest producer of escort carriers of various classes (56) of any United States yard active during World War II.

History

The

Todd Corporation The Todd Corporation Limited is a privately held conglomerate based in New Zealand, owned and controlled by the Todd family and headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand. The corporation is currently led by board chair, Nick Olson, and group chi ...

, just having established itself in New York, acquired the

Seattle Construction and Drydock Company The Seattle Construction and Drydock Company was a shipbuilding company based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Between 1911 and 1918, it produced a substantial number of ships for both commercial and military uses. In the beginning of ...

(a.k.a. ''The Moran Brothers Shipyard'' of Klondike Gold Rush fame) in Seattle Harbor during World War I some time in 1916. The yard was acquired in 1918 by

Skinner & Eddy The Skinner & Eddy Corporation, commonly known as Skinner & Eddy, was a Seattle, Washington-based shipbuilding corporation that existed from 1916 to 1923. The yard is notable for completing more ships for the United States war effort during World ...

, which had quickly risen to become a major force in Northwest Pacific shipbuilding. Todd moved his Seattle operation to nearby Harbor Island where a repair facility was constructed. In 1917 the company also set foot in Tacoma, where the first work on facilities of an entirely new yard was underway in January 1917 and the first ship, the ''

Tacoma Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, northwest of Mount ...

'', was launched on March 28, 1918. 3 of 10 light cruisers and 23 cargo ships of 7,500dwt were built in the Tacoma yard (including , which survived till at least 1971), the and the ''N''-class submarines , and as well as 14 cargo ships of mostly 7,500dwt also were built in Seattle. In addition to the government contracts, the Tacoma yard built 2 cargo ships (named '' Red Hook'' and ''

Hoboken Hoboken ( ; ) is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's popula ...

'' after 2 of Todd's

New York Harbor New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay, ...

locations), 1 diesel freighter, 2 passenger ships and 6 barges. The ''Red Hook'' found its way into

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

service as ''Naruo Maru'' and was sunk in 1944. Shipbuilding ceased in the Seattle yard in 1920 and in the Tacoma yard in 1924. William H. Todd died May 15, 1932. John D. Reilly became president of Todd Shipyards. In 1939, the old Tacoma shipyard in

Commencement Bay Commencement Bay is a bay of Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington. The city of Tacoma is located on the bay, with the Port of Tacoma occupying the southeastern end. A line drawn from Point Defiance in the southwest to Browns Point in t ...

was revived (from scratch) by Todd and Kaiser Shipbuilding, initially with two slipways, with the aid of some $15 million in capital provided by the U.S. Government this was eventually increased to eight. Following the enactment of the

Two-Ocean Navy Act The Two-Ocean Navy Act, also known as the Vinson–Walsh Act, was a United States law enacted on July 19, 1940, and named for Carl Vinson and David I. Walsh, who chaired the Naval Affairs Committee in the House and Senate respectively. In what ...

, Seattle-Tacoma was awarded contracts to build 25 destroyers. The government invested $9 million in a new destroyer construction facility on Harbor Island which was then built starting October 15, 1940 next to the existing repair dock founded in 1918. In February 1942 Todd bought out Kaiser's holding and sold the companies own interests in ''Permanente Metals'' and on June 1, 1944 the ''Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation'' was renamed to Todd Pacific Shipyards, Inc.. Todd sold the Tacoma shipyard to the Navy after the war ended, which in turn sold the site to the Port of Tacoma in 1959. Today the site is set for redevelopment as part of the Port's Commencement Bay Industrial Development District. Robert Moran, great-granduncle of the company, died in 1943. The "Plant A" destroyer facility produced a single civilian ship, the luxury ferry

Chinook Chinook may refer to: Chinook peoples The name derives from a settlement of Indigenous people in Oregon and Washington State. * Chinookan peoples, several groups of Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest ** Chinook Indian Nation, an organiza ...

, launched in 1947, but by 1952 oil terminals had been established in the spot. The original repair yard continued to be part of the Todd Corporation, now building new civilian and military ships and it remains active to this day as a facility of

Vigor 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 ...

Ships built

Tacoma yard

()

Escort carrier The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slower type of aircraf ...

s (56) * 37 of 45 s ( C3-S-A1) ** several were completed / fitted out at

Willamette Iron and Steel Works Willamette Iron Works (also known as Willamette Iron and Steel Company or WISCO) was a general foundry and machine business established in 1865 in Portland, Oregon, originally specializing in the manufacture of steamboat boilers and engines. In ...

, Portland, Oregon * 19 of 19 s ** ... ** 3 completed at

Commercial Iron Works Commercial Iron Works was a manufacturing firm in Portland, Oregon, United States. Established in 1916, the company is best remembered today for its contribution to America's Emergency Shipbuilding Program during World War II. The company was fo ...

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

(CVE-110, CVE-126, CVE-121) ** 1 completed at

(CVE-108) Auxiliaries (14) * 2 of 2 s ( C3-S1-A3) ** , ** ordered October 23, 1940 * 4 of 4 s (C3 Mod.) ** ... * 5 of 23 s ( T1-MT-M1) ** ... * 3 of 6 s ** , , Cargo (5) * 5 of 95

C1-B Type C1 was a designation for 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 Maritim ...

(5 of 10 diesel variant C1-B) ** ordered: 10 September 1939 ** first keel laying on 5 March 1940 ** (MC-119) launched August 1, 1940, delivered to American Mail Lines April 3, 1941 ** (MC-120) launched September 28, 1940, delivered to American Mail lines May 29, 1941 ** ''Cape Cleare'' (MC-121) launched November 29, 1940, renamed , delivered to Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Corporation, sunk 1941 ** (MC-122) launched April 11, 1941 ** ''Cape Douglas'' (MC-123) launched June 10, 1941, renamed delivered to Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Corporation ** 2 Hooven-Owens-Rentschler 6-cylinder diesel engines with

magnetic coupling A magnetic coupling is a component which transfers torque from one shaft to another using a magnetic field, rather than a physical mechanical connection. They are also known as magnetic drive couplings, magnetic shaft couplings, or magnetic disc co ...

and single reduction gears (2.55:1) ** 2

Washington Iron Works The Washington Winch sits in the forests of eastern Victoria (Australia), Victoria near Swifts Creek and is also known as the Washington Iron Works Skidder. Its rusting relics are close to Bentley Plain and the Moscow Villa hut which was built ...

auxiliary diesels Ships of World War II produced before 1924 (incomplete) ** – torpedoed November 1942 on Atlantic convoy duty ( SC 107) **

Empire Wagtail An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred t ...

– torpedoed December 1942 on Atlantic convoy duty ( ON 154) ** – torpedoed September 1941 on Atlantic convoy duty ( SC 42) ** – torpedoed off the coast of Virginia April 1942 ** – sunk by aerial torpedo as part of an Italian convoy ** ''El Coston'' ** '' Empire Mallard'' ** '' Empire Tiger'' ** '' Empire Elk'' – survived ** '' Willimantic'' (built in Seattle) ** '' Empire Gazelle'' – survived Description of the plant as of January 1940:
Photograph of the plant in the initial 2-ways stage (launch of the ''Cape Alava''):

Seattle yard

Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding-destroyer plant harbor island 1945 01

Harbor Island Harbor Island is an artificial island in the mouth of the Duwamish River in Seattle, Washington, United States, where it empties into Elliott Bay. Built by the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company, it was completed in 1909 and was then th ...

() in 2 separate facilities at the north end of the island. In 1918 Todd moved out of the seattle waterfront and opened a repair facility on the northwestern corner. In 1940 additional slipways were added on the northeastern end. The expansion had all 5 building ways upon initial completion (2 destroyers each). In June 1945, 5 destroyers were building, the unfinished was about to be laid down and 2 destroyer tenders ( and - eventually aborted) were using up 1 full slipway each. Although the Seattle yard produced the largest number of destroyers on the West Coast,

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. ...

was slightly more productive overall with 4 s, 9 s, 18 ''Fletchers'', 6 ''Sumners'', 3 ''Gearings'' and 12 s. Map of WW2 Shipyards building DD

Contracts awarded * NOD1502 7/40 destroyers $29,406,000 (= 5 Gleaves) * NOD1511 9/40 destroyers $109,726,000 (= 15 Fletcher) * NOD1502S 12/40 destroyers $29,406,000 (= 5 Gleaves) * NOD1760 3/41 gasoline tankers aog $10,700,000 (= 5 Patapsco, built in Tacoma) * OBS315 8/42 destroyers $40,799,000 (= 6 Fletcher) * OBS329 8/42 destroyers $107,535,000 (= 15 Sumner) * OBS10215 8/44 ship repairs $2,081,000 * total: $329,653,000 45 of 415

destroyers In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

* 10 of 66 ** (May 1, 1941 - September 7, 1942) ** ... ** ... * 21 of 175 ** (March 8, 1942 - June 6, 1944) ** ... ** ... * 5 of 58 (as ''Todd Pacific'' according to some sources) ** ... * 9 of 98 (as ''Todd Pacific'' according to some sources) ** ... ** 1 additional, , was launched incomplete and never commissioned 1 of 6 s * * - canceled incomplete For the first 30 ships the allocation based on keel laid and launch dates can only be * Slip A: , * Slip B: , * Slip C: , * Slip D: , * Slip E: , * Slip F: , * Slip G: , * Slip H: , * Slip I: , * Slip J: , None of the 10 Gearings could have occupied the slip where Isle Royale was built. None of the 5 Sumners or Rooks could have been built at G, H, I, J. Rowan must have been built on G. At least 2 Gearings must have been built following a Gearing and no 3 Gearings could have been built on the same slip. Assuming a slip was not left unoccupied for 82 days only to build another destroyer, no more destroyers were built on H. The same is true for I (54 days gap) and J (40 days gap). Even then Gurke must have followed Rooks with a 25-day gap and the purely analytical approach can't account for that. Ship repairs may be responsible and could cause any length of gap. What is certain is that destroyer production slowed down in 1944. In the

yard, no new keels were laid after April 1944 and slipways apparently went unused by September 1944.

Todd Dry Dock, Inc.

TODO: this facility was very active in the interwar period, including some big conversion jobs. WW2 conversions of ... (incomplete) * , ** see also Two-Ocean Navy Act#AUX ANV * * * * ''SS Cape Cleare'' to troop transport (1943) (a different ''Cape Cleare'' from the one launched in Tacoma in 1940) TODO: this yard became one of two big cold war era shipyards in Seattle, the other being Lockheed.

Todd Dry Dock and Construction Company

Of the 6 steel shipyards building for the Shipping Board in Puget Sound, Todd Construction was the only one not located in

Elliott Bay Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is in the U.S. state of Washington, extending southeastward between West Point in the north and Alki Point in the south. Seattle was founded on this body of water in the 1850s ...

. This yard was located in the same rectangular area on the Hylebos Waterway as the World War II era yard and it also had 8 slipways. Description of the plant including a map: Historical trivia: Five ships (listed below) built in the yard where acquired from the USSB in the early 30s by Swayne & Hoyt and given ''Point'' names, In addition, ''Point Ancha'' (ex-''Delight''), ''Point Bonita'' (ex-''Sacramento''), which were built in Seattle. The ''Red Hook'' and ''Hoboken'' were never USSB property though. TODO: Show how this naming scheme started in Portland by Albina Engine & Machine Works, from where Swayne & Hoyt picked it up. The ''Kennecott'' was somewhat unusual for its time and one of only 7 diesel motor ships of more than 1,000 tons built in the United States in 1921 and one of 82 built or newly converted worldwide. In 1920 the yard took part in a program to convert Japan-built ships to oil burners on USSB account: , , , , , for a total of $384,352.

Pacific Reserve Fleet, Tacoma

After the war the

took over the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding shipyard and for use as part of the

United States Navy reserve fleets The United States Navy maintains a number of its ships as part of a reserve fleet, often called the "Mothball Fleet". While the details of the maintenance activity have changed several times, the basics are constant: keep the ships afloat and s ...

, also called a ''mothball fleet''. The Pacific Reserve Fleet, Tacoma was used to store the now many surplus ships after

. Some ships in the Commencement Bay Reserve Fleet were reactivated for the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. The Navy sold the shipyard to the

Port of Tacoma The Port of Tacoma is an independent seaport in Tacoma, Washington. The port was created by a vote of Pierce County citizens on November 5, 1918. The ''Edmore'' was the first ship to call at the port in 1921. The port's marine cargo operations, am ...

in 1959. The ships stored at Pacific Reserve Fleet, Tacoma were either scrapped or moved to other

reserve fleet A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed; they are partially or fully Ship decommissioning, decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothba ...

s. * Example ships: * USS Lunga Point was placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Tacoma in 1946 and removed in June 1955 and recommissioned as CVU-94. * USS Kwajalein was placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Tacoma in 1946 and removed in June 1955 and recommissioned as CVU-98 a utility aircraft carrier. * USS Tinian (CVE-123) a Commencement Bay-class escort carrier, was stored at Reserve Fleet, Tacoma, being completed in 1946, too late for World War II. On June 12, 1955, the ship was reclassified as an escort helicopter aircraft carrier and re-designated CVHE-123.

Shipbuilding in Puget Sound

* Elliott Bay ** Seattle waterfront ***

No. 1 *** Moran Brothers Shipyard **** Moran Company **** Seattle Construction and Drydock Company **** Skinner & Eddy No. 2 *** Nielson & Kelez ** West Seattle *** Seattle North Pacific Shipbuilding Corporation *** Ames Shipbuilding and Drydock Company ** Harbor Island *** Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding ***

Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company was a major shipbuilding and construction company, located in Seattle, Washington, on the southwestern corner of Harbor Island, an artificial island in Elliott Bay. The Bridge and Dredging Company created ...

**** Associated Shipbuilders ****

Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company (a.k.a. Lockheed Shipbuilding), was a shipyard in Seattle, Washington with Yard 1 on Harbor Island and Yard 2 at what is now Jack Block Park at Seattle Terminal 5, both at the mouth of the West Wat ...

*** J. F. Duthie & Company * Commencement Bay ** Todd Construction and Drydock Company *** Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding **

Western Boat Building Co Western Boat Building Company was a company based in Tacoma, Washington from 1916 until 1982. The company was founded by Martin Petrich, Joe M. Martinac and William Vickart. Within a few years, Joe Martinac left the partnership to go to the Tacoma S ...

Tacoma Boatbuilding Company Tacoma Boatbuilding Company (sometimes Tacoma Boat) was a shipyard at 1840 Marine View Drive, Tacoma, Washington, in the United States. It was established in 1926 and closed in 1992. History Tacoma Boat was established in 1926 and built man ...

* Bainbridge Island **

Winslow Marine Railway and Shipbuilding Company Winslow Marine Railway and Shipbuilding Company was a shipyard in Puget Sound that operated from 1903 until 1959 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, United States. The shipyard was built as an expansion of Hall Bros. Marine Railway & Shipbuilding C ...

* Bremerton **

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, officially Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF), is a United States Navy shipyard covering 179 acres (0.7 km2) on Puget Sound at Bremerton, Washington in uninterrupted ...

* Everett ** Everett-Pacific Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company * Lake Union ** Lake Union Dry Dock Company * Lake Washington ** Lake Washington Shipyard