North Carolina Shipbuilding Company was a

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 ...

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is the ...

, created as part of the U.S. Government's

Emergency Shipbuilding Program The Emergency Shipbuilding Program (late 1940 – September 1945) was a United States government effort to quickly build simple cargo ships to carry troops and materiel to allies and foreign theatres during World War II. Run by the U.S. Maritime ...

in the early days of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. From 1941 through 1946, the company built 243

ships A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

in all, beginning with the

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass ...

SS ''Zebulon B. Vance'', and including 54 ships of 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 ...

. Most of the latter were

attack cargo ship Attack may refer to: Warfare and combat * Offensive (military) * Charge (warfare) * Attack (fencing) * Strike (attack) * Attack (computing) * Attack aircraft Books and publishing * ''The Attack'' (novel), a book * '' Attack No. 1'', comic an ...

s (AKA), amphibious force flagships (AGC) and

ammunition ship An ammunition ship is an auxiliary ship specially configured to carry ammunition, usually for naval ships and aircraft. An ammunition ship's cargo handling systems, designed with extreme safety in mind, include ammunition hoists with airlocks bet ...

s (AE). A list of all 54 Navy ships appears at the end of this article, as does a link to a detailed record of all ships built by the company.

History

The company's history began in 1940, when the U.S. government saw the acute need to build a large fleet of

Merchant ships A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are us ...

, both to fulfill commitments to the British and, if

The United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

fell, to strengthen its position for war. The

Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 195 ...

decided to allow established shipyards to build new facilities and operate them for the government.

Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the largest industrial employer in Virginia, and sole designer, builder and refueler of United States Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy ...

agreed to build a shipyard in Wilmington, adequate to deliver 25 Liberty ships by 15 March 1943. The new company was organized with Newport News executives at its head.

Production

A location about three miles (5 km) south of Wilmington on the east bank of the

Cape Fear River The Cape Fear River is a long blackwater river in east central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River (North Carol ...

was selected, and a tract of was purchased. It was considered an ideal site with the physical properties of deep fresh water, ample space, adequate feeder

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

s and good

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

. In addition, it was convenient to the parent company and had a large, high quality

labor force The workforce or labour force is a concept referring to the pool of human beings either in employment or in unemployment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic regio ...

close by. Construction of a yard with six shipways began on February 3, 1941. On March 18, the Maritime Commission announced that the first contract, for 25 Liberty ships, had been awarded to the company. Shipbuilding got underway with the first two keels being laid on May 22. As world tensions increased, the order for ships was increased from 25 to 37, all to be completed by March 1943. Twenty-four acres of additional land were acquired and three more shipways were added. Work proceeded rapidly, and the first Liberty ship was launched on 6 December 1941, just hours before the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

. The war enormously increased the nation's shipbuilding program, and in early 1942 the company accepted a contract for 53 additional Liberty ships, to be completed by 29 January 1944. Eighty more acres were purchased, and more large buildings were built. Fifty-one vessels were completed in 1942, and by the contract completion date of the original 25 in March, 1943, seventy-three ships had been delivered. Eventually, 126 Liberty ships were built at the yard. As the war progressed, the company was offered a contract for 60 larger ships, to be completed by the end of 1944. In the spring of 1944, the Navy ordered 24 new ships of type AKA, to be delivered by the end of the year. Additional orders followed. The peak building activity came in May 1943, when 11 vessels were delivered from the company's nine shipways. At the end, the yard covered and had nine shipways, three piers, and of mooring bulkheads. There were of waterfront, over five miles (8 km) of paved roadway, nineteen miles (30 km) of railroad track, and 67 cranes. Employment reached its peak of 21,000 in 1943. During the war, 6,813 employees of the company terminated to enter the

Armed Forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

and Merchant Marine. Of that number, at least 33 made the supreme sacrifice for their country. During its five years of production, the yard produced 126 Libertys and 117 larger ships, for a total of 243. Twenty-eight of them were lost in the war: 23 to enemy action, four scuttled to form part of the breakwater used during the

Normandy invasion Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norma ...

, and one ammunition ship that exploded in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. The others remained in commercial or Navy service, many of them until the early 1970s. Collectively, the company's employees won every award of the United States Maritime Commission. They took pride in the fact that in five years, thousands of willing but non-professional shipbuilders built a modern plant, solved the problems of training, changing requirements, and manpower drains, and built ships of a quality recognized throughout the world. On 1 May 1946, the president of the company wrote "We have accomplished our tasks and may forget the hardships and headaches in connection with it and enjoy the feeling that it has been a job well done. The combination of a few Newport News shipbuilders and a good supply of intelligent, willing North Carolina men and women has accomplished the task. We shall never have to apologize for the way it was done." After the war, the yard was held in reserve as a stand-by yard until the 1950s, when it was liquidated. Today it is the site of a North Carolina state port.

List of Ships Built

all

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 ...

ship classes are complete, no other yard built ships of these classes. * 117 of 328

Type C2 ship Type C2 ships were designed by the United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) in 1937–38. They were all-purpose cargo ships with five holds, and U.S. shipyards built 328 of them from 1939 to 1945. Compared to ships built before 1939, the C2s we ...

s ** all 10 C2-S-AJ5 ** all 6 C2-S-AJ4 ** all 32 C2-S-AJ3 *** 32 s **** ... **** ... ** all 5 C2-S-AJ2 ** all 64 C2-S-AJ1 *** 8 s **** ... *** 3 s **** , , *** 8 s **** , , ... *** 2 s **** , * 126 of M EC2-S-C1

Liberty Ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass ...

s ** MC-145 ... MC-169 ** MC-217 ... MC-228 ** MC-860 ... MC-912 ** MC-1967 ... MC-2002 *** USS ''YAG-175'' Alphabetical List: * USS ''Adirondack'' (AGC-15) * USS ''Alamance'' (AKA-75) * USS ''Auburn'' (AGC-10) * USS ''Caswell'' (AKA-72) * USS ''Diamond Head'' (AE-19) * USS ''Duplin'' (AKA-87) * USS ''Eldorado'' (AGC-11) * USS ''Estes'' (AGC-12) * USS ''Firedrake'' (AE-14) * USS ''Great Sitkin'' (AE-17) * USS ''Lenoir'' (AKA-74) * USS ''Mount Hood'' (AE-11) * USS ''Mount Katmai'' (AE-16) * USS ''Mount McKinley'' (AGC-7) * USS ''Mount Olympus'' (AGC-8) * USS ''New Hanover'' (AKA-73) * USS ''Ottawa'' (AKA-101) * USS ''Panamint'' (AGC-13) * USS ''Paricutin'' (AE-18) * USS ''Pocono'' (AGC-16) * USS ''Prentiss'' (AKA-102) * USS ''Rankin'' (AKA-103) * USS ''Seminole'' (AKA-104) * USS ''Shoshone'' (AKA-65) * USS ''Skagit'' (AKA-105) * USS ''Southampton'' (AKA-66) * USS ''Starlight'' (AP-175) * USS ''Starr'' (AKA-67) * USS ''Stokes'' (AKA-68) * USS ''Storm King'' (AP-171) * USS ''Suffolk'' (AKA-69) * USS ''Taconic'' (AGC-17) * USS ''Tate'' (AKA-70) * USS ''Teton'' (AGC-14) * USS ''Todd'' (AKA-71) * USS ''Tolland'' (AKA-64) * USS ''Torrance'' (AKA-76) * USS ''Towner'' (AKA-77) * USS ''Trego'' (AKA-78) * USS ''Trousdale'' (AKA-79) * USS ''Tyrrell'' (AKA-80) * USS ''Union'' (AKA-106) * USS ''Valencia'' (AKA-81) * USS ''Venango'' (AKA-82) * USS ''Vermilion'' (AKA-107) * USS ''Vesuvius'' (AE-15) * USS ''Vinton'' (AKA-89) * USS ''Wasatch'' (AGC-9) * USS ''Washburn'' (AKA-108) * USS ''Waukesha'' (AKA-84) * USS ''Wheatland'' (AKA-85) * USS ''Woodford'' (AKA-86) * USS ''Wrangell'' (AE-12) * USS ''YAG-175''

External links

Detailed Record of All Ships Built at North Carolina Shipbuilding Company
* ttp://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/0062/ North Carolina Shipbuilding Collection (#62), Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.

Sources

*Five Years of North Carolina Shipbuilding, 1946, by North Carolina Shipbuilding Company *Ships for Victory: A History of Shipbuilding under the U.S. Maritime Commission in World War II, by Frederic C. Lane *The Wilmington Shipyard: Welding a Fleet for Victory in World War II, by Ralph Scott {{coord, 34.229479, N, 77.982916, W, region:US-WA, display=title Shipyards of the United States Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States Defunct manufacturing companies based in North Carolina Manufacturing companies established in 1940 History of Wilmington, North Carolina Industrial buildings and structures in North Carolina

History

Production

List of Ships Built

See also

External links

Sources