National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, commonly referred to as NASSCO, is an American shipbuilding company with three

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

s located in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and Mayport. It is a division of

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

. The San Diego shipyard specializes in constructing commercial cargo ships and auxiliary vessels for the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

and

Military Sealift Command Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all US m ...

; it is the only new-construction shipyard on the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

. The Virginia shipyard primarily performs ship repairs and conversions for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

History

The origin of NASSCO traces to 1905 and a small machine shop and foundry known as California Iron Works. In 1922 California Iron Works was taken over by U.S. National Bank and renamed National Iron Works. In 1944 National Iron Works moved to its present location at 28th Street and Harbor Drive on

San Diego Bay San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port located in San Diego County, California near the U.S.–Mexico border. The bay, which is long and wide, is the third largest of the three large, protected natural bays on California's of c ...

, and in 1949 the company was renamed National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. to reflect its expansion into ship construction. In 1959 the company was acquired by four corporations, including Kaiser Industries and Morrison-Knudsen. In 1979 Morrison-Knudsen bought out Kaiser's share, and in 1989 management acquired the company from Morrison-Knudsen via an employee stock ownership plan. In 1940 the company's ironworkers organized into a

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

. By 1979 the company had 7,900 employees organized into six unions. There was a

labor strike Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became common during the I ...

in 1988 in which employees demanded a minimal wage of $12 per hour. Another 25-day-long strike in 1992 resulted in workers returning to work without a contract. In 1996, another labor strike hit the company. Around 2,700 employees didn't show up at work while 50 marched in front of the company with picket signs. In 1998

bought NASSCO in a $415 million deal. On October 31, 2011 General Dynamics-NASSCO acquired Metro Machine Corp, a surface-ship repair company in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

, and renamed it NASSCO-Norfolk. The company had been conducting ship repairs and conversions for the U.S. Navy since 1972. The NASSCO-Norfolk shipyard had the newest

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

in the country, with two auto-start

generator Generator may refer to: * Signal generator, electronic devices that generate repeating or non-repeating electronic signals * Electric generator, a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. * Generator (circuit theory), an eleme ...

s, automated ballast control system and automated ship hauling and centering system.

Work done

NASSCO began building commercial cargo ships in 1959, eventually including large cargo ships and ''Alaska''-class oil tankers. Its most famous commercial ship was the '' Exxon Valdez'' tanker, which completed construction at NASSCO in 1986, and in 1989 returned to NASSCO for repairs after its accident and

oil spill An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...

in Alaska. In December 2012 the company signed a contract to build two container ships powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). When completed they will be the largest LNG-powered ships of any kind in the world. Beginning in the 1990s the company won

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

contracts to build AOE-10 support ships, strategic sealift ships, and TOTE Orca-class trailerships. Additional Navy contracts awarded during the 2000s included maintenance of the San Diego-based USS ''Ticonderoga'' (CG-47) and USS ''Spruance'' (DD-963) warships. In 2001 the Navy awarded NASSCO its largest order in company history, to build the ''Lewis and Clark''-class dry cargo ships (T-AKE), a 14-ship program with a contract value of $3.7 billion. The company has a contract to build at least three Mobile Landing Platform ships, a new class of ship for the U.S. Navy. Construction on the first vessel began in July 2011 and the keel was laid for the second in December 2012. In 2016, Matson, Inc ordered two Kanaloa-class freighters, to be delivered near the end of the decade.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Falls Church, Virginia General Dynamics Manufacturing companies based in San Diego San Diego Bay Shipbuilding companies of California Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1905 1905 establishments in California