Shipbuilding in the Fifth District

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Shipbuilding in the Fifth District February 1944 4 MONTHLY REVIEW North Carolina, will be governed largely by public policy necessarily provide a basis for the permanent creation of in the years following the war’s end, both with respect to existing levels of income in the area. The important maritime activities and to the strength of the Navy which the Government wishes to maintain. question with regard to these expansions is how much In all cases, however, it should be remembered that the will they raise the peacetime level of income of the Dis­ actual cost of construction of these war facilities does not trict. Shipbuilding in the Fifth District The fall of France to the German Army and the near The first ship launched under the emergency program invasion of England in the Spring o f 1940 did not find was the Patrick Henry, which went down the ways of the the United States ready psychologically to prepare for Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard at Baltimore on Septem­ war. Shortly thereafter this nation did embark on what ber 27, 1941, and during October, 1941, seven ships of then appeared to be a substantial defense program, though 75,714 deadweight tons were delivered to the Maritime war was still considered to be a thing that could be Commission. Progress on the completion of a bridge of avoided. Since our best defense in 1940 appeared to be ships thereafter was rapid and phenomenal up to the to hold the Axis powers on the continent of Europe, one middle o f 1943, when all yards in full production turned of our first major moves was to expand our shipbuilding out 176 ships of 1,782,836 deadweight tons in May, 1943. facilities to supplant those of other nations, which were Man-power shortages, diversion of some yards to the being diverted from regular trade routes to war purposes, production of military craft, and the conversion of others as well as to augment the movement o f material to to the production of the faster C-type ships in the six England. months following the month o f May, 1943, resulted in a Early in 1941 the President directed the Maritime leveling off in the tonnage of ships delivered. In De­ Commission to inaugurate an emergency shipbuilding cember, 1943, however, the Nation’s shipyards established program to build 200 vessels of the Liberty ship type, in an all-time high record when they delivered 208 vessels of addition to the provisions of the Merchant Marine Act 2,044,239 deadweight tons. of 1936 which called for an annual output of 50 fast merchant ships. In 1936 there were only 10 shipyards The Maritime Commission reports that United States with 46 ways in this country which were capable of pro­ shipyards have productive capacity sufficient to use in ducing ocean-going vessels of more than 400 feet. By 1944 the same quantity of steel plates and shapes which the time of the President’s directive, some expansion had they used in 1943. The Commission says, however, that been effected in some of the yards and seven new emer­ the emphasis this year is changing to ship speed and gency yards had been built with Government funds. efficiency rather than construction speed, and adds that On September 27, 1941, the first o f the Liberty ships tonnage delivered in 1944, will probably be less than in 1943. was launched at the Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore and at that time some 200,000 workers were F i f t h D ist r ic t employed on 100 ways and in the shops of about 21 ship­ The war economy of the Fifth Federal Reserve Dis­ yards. Tw o years later, on September 27, 1943, almost trict, exclusive of agriculture, is in large part predicated three-quarters of a million workers were turning out on the shipbuilding industry. There are five shipyards ships on more than 300 ways in 81 shipyards scattered engaged in producing merchant shipping of one sort or over the Nation with a productive capacity of 20 million another, but the largest number of shipyard workers in deadweight tons of shipping annually. The U. S. Mari­ this District are devoting their efforts toward the con­ time fleet at the end o f 1943 was two and one-half times struction of naval craft, information on which is mostly larger than it was at the time Pearl Harbor was bombed. secret. In January, 1942, shortly after the United States had O f the increase o f nearly 200,000 in employment in entered the war, the President in his address to Congress establishments covered by unemployment insurance in qn the “ State o f the Union” announced a shipbuilding Maryland from the fourth quarter of 1939 to the fourth program of 18 million deadweight tons of shipping for the quarter of 1942, the shipbuilding and repair industry years 1942 and 1943, raising the goal from 12 million accounted for about one-third; while 56 per cent of the tons which had been established a short time before. A total pay roll increase in Virginia from the first quarter month later, 6 million deadweight tons were added to the of 1939 to the first quarter o f 1942 was caused by the already staggering total, and a further directive given to expansion in shipyard employment. Expansion in ship­ the Maritime Commission for 2,890,000 deadweight tons yard employment has accounted for well over a third of brought the total for the two years to 26,890,000 dead­ the total increase in North Carolina employment since weight tons, of which 8,000,000 deadweight tons were to 1940, and has contributed upwards of 30,000 toward an be delivered in 1942 and 18,890,000 deadweight tons in unknown total gain in South Carolina. 1943. That American shipyards dispatched the foregoing ship­ Prior to 1941, merchant shipbuilding in the Fifth Dis­ building program is a matter o f record. In 1942. 746 trict was done by the Newport News Shipbuilding and ships o f 8,090,000 deadweight tons were delivered to the Dry Dock Company at Newport News, and the Bethle­ Maritime Commission. In 1943 the 1,896 ships com­ hem Sparrows Point Shipyard in Baltimore. At that pleted arid delivered exceeded those in 1942 by 154 per time the locations that are nowT the Bethlehem-Fairfield cent, while the deadweight tonnage of 19,238,626 was Shipyard and the North Carolina Shipyard were still in greater than in 1942 by 138 per cent. swamp land. Early in 1941 these two yards were put Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis February 1944 MONTHLY REVIEW 5 under construction and by the Fall of 1941 ships were yards are still doing the bulk of the naval construction going down their ways. Thirteen shipways were orig­ in the District, but in addition numerous small yards, inally designed at the Fairfield yard in Baltimore and mostly on the seacoast o f North Carolina, Virginia, and these were later increased to sixteen, most of which were Maryland, are turning out mine layers, mine sweepers, in service at the end of 1941. Nine shipways were built wooden destroyers and other small naval craft. Yards at the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company at Wilming­ engaged on this work are located at Salisbury, Crisfield, ton, North Carolina, during 1941; while four additional and Cambridge, Maryland; Newport News, Virginia; and ways at Sparrows Point brought that yard to eleven early Elizabeth City, New Bern, Manteo, Morehead City, and in 1942. Washington, North Carolina; Charleston and George­ The Bethlehem-Fairfield and North Carolina Ship­ town, South Carolina; and Point Pleasant, West Vir­ building Yards have accounted for the greater part of ginia. the merchant ship tonnage delivered from the Fifth Dis­ At the beginning o f 1939 the N orfolk Navy Yard had trict, with the Bethlehem-Sparrows Point Yard at Balti­ 5,000 employees and by November, 1943, the number more, the Welding Shipyard at Norfolk, and the Lan­ had been increased to 42,509. The Newport News Ship­ caster Iron Works at Perryville, Maryland, accounting building and Dry Dock Company, whose effort has been for the remainder. In 1942, the Bethlehem-Fairfield yard confined to naval craft since late in 1941, employed 7,000 delivered 77 Liberty ships of 830,400 deadweight tons to in 1939; 29,408 at the end o f 1942; and 28,000 at the end the Maritime Commission. More than 100 ships would of 1943. The peak of this yard's employment in W orld have been delivered from this yard except for the fact W ar I was 12,000. This yard launched the USS Indiana that the greater portion of its facilities was diverted to on November 21, 1941, and since that time the Mobile, a special type o f construction for the armed forces late Essex, Biloxi, Intrepid, Birmingham, Houston, Hornet, in the year. In 1943 this yard delivered 211 Liberties Franklin, Vicksburg, and Yorktown have been launched. and Landing vessels with a deadweight tonnage of 2,120,- The Charleston, South Carolina, Navy Yard normally 000. These figures in 1943 were, respectively, 11 per cent employed about 1,000 prior to the defense program. By and 10 per cent o f the United States total. the end of 1941, 13,000 were employed and by September, 1943, 27,000 were employed. The Annual Report o f the The North Carolina Shipbuilding Company delivered Secretary of the Navy for 1941 revealed the information 51 Liberty ships during 1942 and 85 ships in 1943.
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