California Shipbuilding Corporation
Encyclopedia
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
and Victory ship
Victory ship
The Victory ship was a type of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace shipping losses caused by German submarines...
s during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, including Haskell-class
Haskell class attack transport
Haskell-class attack transports were amphibious assault ships of the United States Navy created in 1944. They were designed to transport 1,500 troops and their combat equipment, and land them on hostile shores with the ships' integral landing craft....
attack transport
Attack transport
Attack Transport is a United States Navy ship classification.-History:In the early 1940s, as the United States Navy expanded in response to the threat of involvement in World War II, a number of civilian passenger ships and some freighters were acquired, converted to transports and given hull...
s. California Shipbuilding Corporation was often referred to as Calship. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships is the official reference work for the basic facts about ships used by the United States Navy...
sometimes refers to this shipyard as California Shipbuilding Co., but Co
The Calship shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
was created at Terminal Island
Terminal Island
Terminal Island is an island located in Los Angeles County, California between Los Angeles Harbor and Long Beach Harbor. Originally a mudflat known to the Spanish as Isla Raza de Buena Gente, and later called Rattlesnake Island, it has officially been Terminal Island since 1918...
in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, USA as part of America's massive shipbuilding effort of World War II. As of 1940, Los Angeles shipyards had not built a large ship in 20 years. By late 1941 though, shipbuilding had become the second largest manufacturing industry in the Los Angeles area.
Calship was created from scratch and began production of Liberty Ship
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
s in May 1941. The yard was located on 175 acres on the east side of Terminal Island, north of Dock Street, near present-day berths 212 and 213. It initially had 8 ways
Slipway
A slipway, boat slip or just a slip, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats. They are also used for launching and retrieving small boats on trailers and flying boats on their undercarriage. The...
, and later increased this to 14. Thirteen months after commencing production, the yard broke the record by delivering 15 Liberty Ships in June 1942. It delivered 111 ships in 1942, more than any other yard in the United States. In June 1943, it broke the record again by delivering 20 ships for the month, and yet again in December 1943, delivering 23 ships.
The Kaiser Steel
Kaiser Steel
Kaiser Ventures is an American corporation, headquartered in Ontario, California. It was founded by Henry J. Kaiser to provide steel plate for the Pacific Coast shipbuilding industry, which expanded during World War II, then shrank, then expanded again during the Korean War...
plant in Fontana, California was completed in August 1943, which enabled further production increases at Calship. Between Sept. 27, 1941 and Sept. 27, 1945, the yard launched 467 ships.
The Calship yard was known as "the city built on invisible stilts." It was situated on marshy ground, and was built on artificial earth supported by 57,000 piles driven into the mud. The yard's workers came from every region of the United States, reaching a force of 40,000 men and women, only 1% of whom had any shipbuilding experience whatsoever.
Calship closed in September 1945, after launching the last Victory ship, "four years to the minute after the first slid into the water."
| Quantity | Design | Type | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 306 | EC2-S-C1 | Liberty ship | cargo transport |
| 30 | Z-ET1-S-C3 | Liberty ship | tanker |
| 32 | VC2-S-AP3 | Victory ship | cargo transport, 8,500 hp |
| 30 | VC2-S-AP5 | USN attack transport Attack transport Attack Transport is a United States Navy ship classification.-History:In the early 1940s, as the United States Navy expanded in response to the threat of involvement in World War II, a number of civilian passenger ships and some freighters were acquired, converted to transports and given hull... |
|
| 69 | VC2-S-AP2 | Victory ship | cargo transport, 6,000 hp |
The surviving museum ship
Museum ship
A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...
s: SS American Victory
SS American Victory
SS American Victory is a Second World War Victory ship which has been preserved as a museum ship in Tampa, Florida. The ship is the main feature of the American Victory Ship & Museum, also known as the American Victory Mariners Memorial & Museum Ship.-History:Named after American University in...
and SS Lane Victory
SS Lane Victory
SS Lane Victory is a Second World War Victory ship which is preserved as a museum ship in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, California. As a rare surviving Victory ship, it is a U.S...
, were built in the Calship yard. The SS American Victory
SS American Victory
SS American Victory is a Second World War Victory ship which has been preserved as a museum ship in Tampa, Florida. The ship is the main feature of the American Victory Ship & Museum, also known as the American Victory Mariners Memorial & Museum Ship.-History:Named after American University in...
is in Tampa, Florida and the SS Lane Victory
SS Lane Victory
SS Lane Victory is a Second World War Victory ship which is preserved as a museum ship in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, California. As a rare surviving Victory ship, it is a U.S...
is in Los Angeles. They are open to the public for dockside tours and also sail periodically.
Further reading
- Collins, James H. All Aboard! All Aboard! But Where Are the Passengers? Public Utilities Fortnightly, June 24, 1943.
- Nugent, Walter; Ridge, Martin. The American West: The Reader, Indiana University Press, 1999.
- Our New West, Popular Mechanics, October 1944.
- Shipbuilding: Speed on Terminal Island, Time, July 13, 1942.