Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation was a

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 ...

emergency

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 ...

located along the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

in Portland, Oregon, United States. The shipyard built nearly 600

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

and

Victory ship The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace losses caused by German submarines. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were slight ...

s between 1941 and 1945 under the

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 ...

. It was closed after the war ended. The shipyard, one of three

Kaiser Shipyards The Kaiser Shipyards were seven major shipbuilding yards located on the West Coast of the United States, United States west coast during World War II. Kaiser ranked 20th among U.S. corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. The s ...

in the area, was in the St. Johns neighborhood of North Portland. The two others were the

Swan Island Shipyard The Swan Island Shipyard was a shipyard on Swan Island (Oregon), Swan Island in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was constructed by the industrialist Henry J. Kaiser in 1942 as part of the U.S. Maritime Commission's Emergency Shipbuilding Progr ...

, located several miles upriver on Swan Island; and the

Vancouver Shipyard The Vancouver Shipyard was an emergency shipyard constructed along the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington, to help meet the production demands of the U.S. Maritime Commission in World War II. The shipyard was one of three Kaiser Shipyards i ...

, located across the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

from Portland in

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...

. Among the ships built by Oregon Shipbuilding was the '' Star of Oregon'', which was launched on Liberty Fleet Day, September 27, 1941. The rapid expansion of Portland area shipyards during World War II and contraction afterward caused similar expansion and contraction of the population of

Vanport City, Oregon Vanport, sometimes referred to as Vanport City or Kaiserville, was a city of wartime public housing in Multnomah County, Oregon, United States, between the contemporary Portland city boundary and the Columbia River. It was destroyed in the 1948 ...

, which was also built by

Henry J. Kaiser Henry John Kaiser (May 9, 1882 – August 24, 1967) was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. Prior to World War II, Kaiser was involved in the construction industry; his company was one of ...

to house the workers of the three area shipyards. The former site of Oregon Shipbuilding in St. Johns is now

Schnitzer Steel Industries Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. is a steel manufacturing and scrap metal recycling company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. History Schnitzer Steel was founded by Russian immigrant Sam Schnitzer in 1906 as a one-person scrap metal recycler. B ...

References

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* Shipbuilding companies of Oregon Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States Henry J. Kaiser . United States home front during World War II Companies based in St. Johns, Portland, Oregon American companies established in 1941 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1941 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1946 1941 establishments in Oregon 1946 disestablishments in Oregon Defunct companies based in Oregon Vigor Shipyards {{Oregon-company-stub

See also

References

External links