Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:41:33.900Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Fighting Ships that Require Knowledge and Experience: Industrial Mobilization in American Naval Shipbuilding, 1940–1945

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2014

Abstract

Wartime naval builders in the United States constructed the world's largest fleet that defeated the Japanese Imperial Navy, aided the Allied victory during the Battle of the Atlantic, and projected American naval power into all corners of the globe. Many naval combatants were built by highly experienced shipbuilders who possessed advanced design skills and production capabilities that had been years in the making. The present study examines the structures and dynamics of American naval shipbuilding and compares them to their foreign counterparts; it argues that extant capabilities were vital to the success of the U.S. war economy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Lane, Frederic C., Ships for Victory: A History of Shipbuilding under the U.S. Maritime Commission in World War II (Baltimore, 1951)Google Scholar.

2 On design, see Friedman, Norman, U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History (Annapolis, Md., 1984)Google Scholar; on naval policymaking, see Connery, Robert H., The Navy and Industrial Mobilization in World War II (Princeton, 1951)Google Scholar; Albion, Robert G. and Connery, Robert H., Forrestal and the Navy (New York, 1962)Google Scholar; Davidson, Joel, The Unsinkable Fleet: The Politics of U.S. Navy Expansion in World War II (Annapolis, Md., 1996)Google Scholar.

3 Carew, Michael G., Becoming the Arsenal: The American Industrial Mobilization for World War II, 1938–1942 (Lanham, Md., 2010)Google Scholar, 32, 264. See also Hyde, Charles K., Arsenal of Democracy: The American Automobile Industry in World War II (Detroit, 2013)Google Scholar.

4 Overy, Richard, Why the Allies Won (New York, 1996), 191–92Google Scholar.

5 Hooks, Gregory and McLauchlan, Gregory, “The Institutional Foundation of Warmaking: Three Eras of U.S. Warmaking, 1939–1989,” Theory and Society 21 (Dec. 1992): 770Google Scholar.

6 Overy, Why the Allies Won, 193.

7 Ferguson, Homer L., “Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company,” Historical Transactions, ed. Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (1945): 221Google Scholar.

8 Hooks and McLauchlan, “Institutional Foundation of Warmaking,” 770.

9 Ferguson, Robert G., “One Thousand Planes a Day: Ford, Grumman, General Motors and the Arsenal of Democracy,” History and Technology 21 (June 2005): 149–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zeitlin, Jonathan, “Flexibility and Mass Production at War: Aircraft Manufacture in Britain, the United States, and Germany, 1939–1945,” Technology and Culture 36 (Jan. 1995): 4679Google Scholar; Holley, Irving B. Jr., Buying Aircraft: Material Procurement for the Army Air Forces (Washington, D.C., 1964)Google Scholar; Holley, Irving B. Jr., “A Detroit Dream of Mass-Produced Fighter Aircraft: The XP-75 Fiasco,” Technology and Culture 28 (July 1987): 578–93Google Scholar; Hyde, , Arsenal of Democracy, 80–110Google Scholar.

10 Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, The Use and Disposition of Ships and Shipyards at the End of World War II (Washington, D.C., 1945), 161Google Scholar.

11 Bureau of Ships, “An Administrative History of the Bureau of Ships during World War II, vol. 2,” 167, n. d., Navy Department Library, Rare Book Room, Washington Navy Yard (hereafter NDL).

12 Williams, William J., The Wilson Administration and the Shipbuilding Crisis of 1917: Steel Ships and Wooden Steamers (Lewiston, N.Y., 1992)Google Scholar; “The Properties and Plants of Bethlehem Steel Corporation,” 1925, Box 18; “Yard Control for West Coast Destroyers Hulls 5355 & 5356,” 21 Nov. 1935, Box 117, both boxes in Bethlehem Steel Collection, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del.; Hutchins, John G. B., “History and Development of the Shipbuilding Industry in the United States,” The Shipbuilding Business of the United States of America, vol. 1, ed. Fassett, F. G. (New York, 1948), 4757Google Scholar; McBride, William M., Technological Change in the United States Navy, 1865–1945 (Baltimore, Md., 2000), 157–81Google Scholar; Heinrich, Thomas, Ships for the Seven Seas: Philadelphia Shipbuilding in the Age of Industrial Capitalism (Baltimore, Md., 1997), 165217Google Scholar.

13 United States Navy Yards,” Historical Transactions, 1893–1943, ed. Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (New York, 1945), 935Google Scholar; Watterson, Rodney K., 32 in ’44: Building the Portsmouth Submarine Fleet in World War II (Annapolis, Md., 2011), 25Google Scholar; Heinrich, Thomas, “We Can Build Anything in Navy Yards: Warship Construction in Government Yards and the Political Economy of American Naval Shipbuilding, 1928–1945,” International Journal of Maritime History 24 (Dec. 2012): 155–81Google Scholar. On Philadelphia, see “Annual Estimates for Public Works Projects and Other Objects under the Bureau of Yards and Docks, April 13, 1939,” Box 190, Central Subject Files, 1910–1957, RG 181, National Archives Mid-Atlantic Region, Philadelphia; and Lewis B. Combs to Hughes-Foulkrod Company, 21 Dec. 1940, Box 834, and Morreel to Bureau of Ships, 17 Mar. 1941, Box 847, both in entry 1266, Bureau of Ships General Correspondence, 1940–1945, Record Group 19, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md. (hereafter BSGC 1940–1945, RG 19, NARA).

14 “Final Report of the Navy Manpower Survey Board,” 28 June 1944, Box 1, entry 261, General Records of the Department of the Navy, 1798–1947, RG 80; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Newark Field Office, “New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey,” 12 Nov. 1940, 3–5, Box 801; John Metten to Supervisor of Shipbuilding Camden, 9 Feb. 1942, Box 798, both boxes in entry 1266, BSGC 1940–1945, RG 19, NARA; U.S. Congress, Senate, Special Subcommittee Investigating the National Defense Program, Hearings Part 17, 78th Cong., 2nd sess., 8 Mar. 1943, 6975–78; Homer, Arthur B., “Shipyard Organization, Section 1: Standard Yards,” The Shipbuilding Business of the United States of America, vol. 1, ed. Fassett, F. G. (New York, 1948), 258–60Google Scholar; Bureau of Ships, General Specifications—Appendix 5: Specifications for Welding, Part I: General. For Welding Vessels of the United States Navy (Washington, D.C., 1940)Google Scholar.

15 John F. Sonnett, “Report for the Under Secretary on Gibbs & Cox,” n. d. [1944], 8–16, Box 156, Entry 261, Commercial Plants File, Records of Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, 1940–1947, General Records of the Department of the Navy, RG 80, NARA; Alexander H. Van Keuren and Samuel M. Robinson, “Bureau of Construction and Repair and Engineering: Organization, Part I: Assignment of Consolidated Duties to Divisions and Officers,” 5 Oct. 1939, Box 17, Commandant's Files, 1939–1942, Headquarters Third Naval District New York, RG 181, National Archives Northeast Region, New York; McKee, Logan, “Preliminary Design,” Marine Engineering 50 (Mar. 1944): 200207Google Scholar; U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Investigation of the Progress of the War Effort, vol. 5, 78th Cong., 2nd sess., 8 May 1944 (Washington, D.C., 1944), 3940–49, 3972–79Google Scholar; Strohmeyer, Daniel D., “A History of Bethlehem Steel Company's Shipbuilding and Ship Repairing Activities,” Naval Engineers Journal 75 (May 1963): 267Google Scholar.

16 “Supplemental Completion Report of Civil Works, Equipment, Machine Tools and Appurtenances as of May 1, 1944,” Box 3, New York Shipbuilding Corporation Collection, J. Welles Henderson Archives and Library, Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia; Supervisor of Shipbuilding Newport News to Chief of the Bureau of Ships, 9 May 1942, Box 795, BSGC 1940–1945, RG 19, NARA; Metten, John F., “Section 1: Standard Yards,” The Shipbuilding Business of the United States of America, vol. 1, ed. Fassett, F. G. (New York, 1948), 201–11Google Scholar; see also Bureau of Yards and Docks, Building the Navy's Bases in World War II: History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps, 1940–1946 (Washington, D.C., 1947), 169201Google Scholar.

17 Coverdale & Colpitts, “Report on New York Shipbuilding Corporation,” 1951, 23, New York Shipbuilding Corporation Collection, J. Welles Henderson Archives and Library, Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia.

18 Watterson, 32 in ’44, 24–25; Snow, Ralph L., The Bath Iron Works: The First Hundred Years (Bath, Maine, 1987), 327–29Google Scholar; Commandant First Naval District, “History of Naval Administration, World War II, vol. 8,” 4–6, n. d., NDL; Bureau of Yards and Docks, Building the Navy's Bases, 177–79.

19 Statistics derived from “U.S. Naval Shipbuilding Contracts Volume 23 (July–Dec. 1940),” Rare Book Room, NDL; Davidson, The Unsinkable Fleet, 9–22.

20 Davidson, The Unsinkable Fleet, 35–36.

21 U.S. Congress, Senate, Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry, Part 19: Naval Shipbuilding, 74th Cong., 1st sess., 1–11 Feb. 1935, 4963–5277.

22 W. J. Butler to Inspector of Naval Material, Lynn, Mass., 25 July 1942, Box 452; New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Memorandum, 12 Feb. 1941, Box 797; Memorandum of Conference Held in Bureau of Ships, 1 Apr. 1941; O. D. Colvin, “Minutes of Conference, 12 Jan. 1942”; John J. Hyland to Sturtevant, 13 Mar. 1943, Box 970; “Contract #437—USS ‘Independence’ (CV22)—ex-CL59,” 1 Dec. 1942, Box 1234, all boxes in entry 1266, BSGC 1940–1945, RG 19, NARA; House Committee on Naval Affairs, Investigation of the Progress of the War Effort, vol. 5, 3942–44; Miller, John A., Men and Volts at War: The Story of General Electric in World War II (New York, 1948), 914Google Scholar.

23 Samuel M. Robinson, “Minutes of Conference,” 11 June 1940, Box 792 and U.S. Naval Intelligence Service, “Investigation Report Newport News Shipbuilding, July 30, 1941,” Box 796, both boxes in entry 1266, BSGC 1940–1945, RG 19, NARA; Friedman, Norman, U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History (Annapolis, Md., 1983), 133–57Google Scholar; Sumrall, Robert, Iowa Class Battleships: Their Design, Weapons and Equipment (Annapolis, Md., 1989), 2340Google Scholar.

24 New Fabricating Shop at Bath Iron Works,” Marine Engineering 46 (July 1941): 6472Google Scholar; Snow, Bath Iron Works, 327–34.

25 Heinrich, Thomas, “Jack of All Trades: Cramp Shipbuilding, Mixed Production, and the Limits of Flexible Specialization in American Warship Construction, 1940–1945,” Enterprise and Society 11 (June 2010): 275315Google Scholar; Gary E. Weir, Forged in War: The Naval Industrial Complex and American Submarine Construction, 1940–1961 (Washington, D.C., 1993), 23–27.

26 Mitchell, C. Bradford, Every Kind of Shipwork: A History of Todd Shipyards Corporation, 1916–1981 (New York, 1981), 118–27Google Scholar.

27 Sonnett, “Report for the Under Secretary on Gibbs & Cox,” 103–115C; Friedman, Norman, U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History (Annapolis, Md., 1982), 137–52Google Scholar.

28 Pratt to Navy Cost Inspector, 22 June 1945, Box 194, entry 1266, BSGC 1940–1945, RG 19, NARA.

29 Ibid.

30 Bethlehem Ship,” Fortune 32 (Aug. 1945): 222Google Scholar.

31 Ibid.

32 “Schedule of Facilities Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co. (Shipbuilding Division): Proposed Hingham, Mass. Shipyard,” enclosed with Samuel M. Robinson to Bethlehem Steel, 13 Jan. 1942, Box 204; H. B. Buse to Bureau of Ships, 26 Dec. 1942, and H. E. Mills to Bethlehem Steel, 24 Dec. 1942, both in Box 212; “Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, Inc. Escort Vessels—DE 51 to DE 98 Incl. Scheduled Ship Delivery Dates,” 25 Apr. 1942, Box 1285, all boxes in Entry 1266, BSGC 1940–1945, RG 19, NARA; “William H. Collins,” Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers 56 (1948): 578–80Google Scholar. On Philadelphia, see H. A. Seiller, Memorandum [Farming-Out Board for Structure and Structural Fittings for New Construction], 21 Oct. 1942 and H. A. Seiller, Production Division Memorandum [Farming-Out Structural, Piping, Electrical, and Sheet Metal Work], 4 Mar. 1943, both in Box 42, Central Subject Files, 1910–1957, RG 181, National Archives Mid-Atlantic Region, Philadelphia.

33 “Contract Nobs-396 (in part superseding NOd-1544) for Shipbuilding Facilities,” 27 Jan. 1942; Raleigh to Navy Department, 23 Nov. 1941, both in Box 319, entry 1266, BSGC 1940–1945, RG 19, NARA; U.S. Congress, House, Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Investigation of Shipyard Profits, 79th Cong., 2nd sess., 26 Sept. 1946, 299–306; Pratt, Joseph A. and Castaneda, Christopher J., Builders: Herman and George R. Brown (College Station, Tex., 1999), 7492Google Scholar; Friedman, U.S. Aircraft Carriers, 174–75; Lane, Ships for Victory, 608–17.

34 Calculated from Gardiner, Robert, ed., Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922–1946 (New York, 1980)Google Scholar; Mooney, James L., ed., Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, 7 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1959–1981)Google Scholar.

35 Warren, Kenneth, Ships, Steel and Men: Cammell Laird, 1824–1993 (Liverpool, 1998), 272Google Scholar; Moss, Michael S. and Hume, John R., Shipbuilders to the World: 125 Years of Harland & Wolff (Belfast, 1986), 335–38Google Scholar; Johnman, Lewis and Murphy, Hugh, British Shipbuilding and the State since 1918: A Political Economy of Decline (Ithaca, N.Y., 2002), 6093Google Scholar; Brown, D. K., “Early Welding for the Royal Navy,” Journal of Naval Engineering 34 (Dec. 1992): 220–22Google Scholar.

36 Johnman and Murphy, British Shipbuilding and the State since 1918, 60–93.

37 Data compiled from Gardiner, ed., Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships; Mooney, ed., Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships; see also Fukasaku, Yukiko, Technology and Industrial Growth in Pre-War Japan: The Mitsubishi-Nagasaki Shipyard, 1884–1934 (London, 1992)Google Scholar; Evans, David C. and Peattie, Mark R., Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887–1941 (Annapolis, Md., 1997), 243–44Google Scholar.

38 U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Military Supply Division, Japanese Naval Shipbuilding (Washington, D.C., 1946), 4Google Scholar.

39 U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Military Supply Division, Japanese Merchant Shipbuilding (Washington, D.C., 1947), 1315Google Scholar.

40 U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Japanese Naval Shipbuilding, 7–14; Strohmeyer, “Bethlehem Steel,” 269–72; Lindberg, Michael and Todd, Daniel, Anglo-American Shipbuilding in World War II: A Geographical Perspective (Westport, Conn., 2004), 142–43Google Scholar; Bureau of Ships, “An Administrative History of the Bureau of Ships during World War II, vol. 2,” 179.

41 Weir, , Forged in War, 1735Google Scholar; Watterson, 32 in ’44, 76–80; Kuckuk, Peter and Pophanken, Hartmut, “Die AG ‘Weser’ 1933–1945: Handels- und Kriegsschiffbau im Dritten Reich,” Bremer Großwerften im Dritten Reich, ed. Kuckuk, Peter (Bremen, 1993), 59Google Scholar; Meyhoff, Andreas, Blohm & Voss im “Dritten Reich”: Eine Hamburger Großwerft zwischen Geschäft und Politik (Hamburg, 2001)Google Scholar; Rössler, Eberhard, Geschichte des deutschen Ubootbaus: Entwicklung, Bau und Eigenschaften der deutschen Uboote von den Anfängen bis 1943, vol. 1 (Koblenz, 1986), 213–17Google Scholar.

42 Schade, Henry, “German Wartime Technical Developments,” Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers 54 (1946): 8490Google Scholar; U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Submarine Branch, German Submarine Industry Report (Washington, D.C., 1947)Google Scholar.

43 On Hog Island, see Heinrich, Ships for the Seven Seas, 180–89.

44 Ferguson, “One Thousand Planes a Day,” 168; Zeitlin, “Flexibility and Mass Production,” 58; Holley, Buying Aircraft.

45 Koistinen, Paul A. C., Planning War, Pursuing Peace: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1920–1939 (Lawrence, Kans., 1998), 3Google Scholar.