Todd Pacific Shipyards, Los Angeles Division 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 ...
in
San Pedro, Los Angeles
San Pedro ( ; Spanish: " St. Peter") is a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909. The Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located wi ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. Before applying its last corporate name, the shipyard had been called Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company and Todd Shipyards, Los Angeles Division. Under those three names, the San Pedro yard built at least 130 ships from 1917 to 1989.
The yard opened during the
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
shipping boom, survived
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
in the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
and built
Auxiliary ship
An auxiliary ship is a naval ship designed to support combatant ships and other naval operations. Auxiliary ships are not primary combatant vessels, though they may have some limited combat capacity, usually for purposes of self-defense.
Auxil ...
s during
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 ...
. The yard was seized by the Navy in late 1943 and given to Todd Shipyards to manage for the remainder of the war. The yard struggled through the post war period and surged again with commercial work in the 1960s to mid-1970s. The yard peaked again in 1983 during a Navy
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
contract, but was closed in 1989 after failing to secure a
DDG-51 contract. The former site was a
container terminal
A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...
in 2015.
Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company (1917–1943)
The Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company was founded in April 1917 for the purpose of establishing a shipbuilding and repair facility in
Los Angeles Harbor during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
with
Fred L. Baker as president. of marsh land on Smiths Island were used for the original construction. The yard received 35 contracts to build
cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...
s for the
Emergency Fleet Corporation
The Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) was established by the United States Shipping Board, sometimes referred to as the War Shipping Board, on 16 April 1917 pursuant to the Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729) to acquire, maintain, and operate merchant shi ...
(EFC) of the
United States Shipping Board
The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War ...
. 30 of the ships were to be 8,800
DWT Design 1013 ships and 5 were 11,500 DWT. The first
keel was laid 23 July 1917 for SS ''Accomac''. By 1920, the yard had a 12,000 ton
floating dry dock
Floating may refer to:
* a type of dental work performed on horse teeth
* use of an isolation tank
* the guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and ...
, which cost $1.25 million ($ today) to build.
The first four freighters were delivered in July 1918 and another four were delivered before the war ended.
Delivered in November 1921, SS ''West Chopaka'' was the 35th and final ship built for the US Shipping Board at San Pedro. In total, the contracts cost $72 million ($ today) for around 320,000 DWT of cargo freighters.
Around 5 May 1919, 6,000 workers at Los Angeles SB&DDC went on strike after demands for a
closed shop
A pre-entry closed shop (or simply closed shop) is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times to remain employed. This is different fro ...
were not met. On 31 May 1919, federal mediation was sought with mediator Captain Charles T. Connell listed as a potential mediator. The yard was reopened on 10 July 1919, without resolving the dispute, Many of the workers did not return and had found other work elsewhere. Around 70 of the 6,000 returned in the first days with about 1,500 back by the end of July 1919.
For the remainder of the 1920s, after the US Shipping Board projects finished, Los Angeles SB&DDC built a number of tank
barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
s. Additionally, the yard built in 1924 and in 1925, Los Angeles City #2
fireboat
A fireboat or fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipmen ...
, which later was known as
''Ralph J. Scott''.
Los Angeles SB&DDC mainly did ship repairs in the 1930s until the yard received Navy contracts for several
auxiliary ship
An auxiliary ship is a naval ship designed to support combatant ships and other naval operations. Auxiliary ships are not primary combatant vessels, though they may have some limited combat capacity, usually for purposes of self-defense.
Auxil ...
s in the lead up to World War II. By the time the war broke out, management had changed a number of times at the yard. Los Angeles SB&DDC had entered
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
and several
corporate reorganization
Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Other reasons ...
s resulted in several changes in management. The original shareholders of Los Angeles SB&DDC were also frozen out by a Supreme Court decision that gave precedence to bondholders over the shareholders. Los Angeles SB&DDC had become a wholly owned subsidiary of Los Angeles Lumber Products, which was a party in ''Case v. Los Angeles Lumber Products''. That case was decided in 1939 and became a landmark decision in corporate bankruptcy law.
In the 1930s, the yard made some attempts to get oil tanker contracts and a Navy destroyer contract, but lost bids to east coast shipyards. Beginning 14 November 1936, there was an 87-day labor strike by 500 workers at several Los Angeles area yards, including Los Angeles SB&DDC. The strike ended 9 February 1937 with a $.06 raise, making the top hourly rate $0.95 an hour.
Navy seizure and operation by Todd Shipyards (1943–1946)
![Todd Pacific Shipyards Los Angeles Div 1983 MARAD](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Todd_Pacific_Shipyards_Los_Angeles_Div_1983_MARAD.png)
On 27 September 1943 a special Naval Board of Investigation was convened in San Pedro to look into the conditions at Los Angeles SB&DDC. The Navy had invested around $64 million in equipment and construction contracts at the company and had a number of concerns regarding management of those assets. According to Admiral
Harold G. Bowen, Sr.
Harold Gardiner Bowen Sr. (6 November 1883 – 1 August 1965) was a United States Navy Vice admiral, former head of the Office of Naval Research and a mechanical engineer. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal and he was the ...
the yard had no
cost accounting
Cost accounting is defined as "a systematic set of procedures for recording and reporting measurements of the cost of manufacturing goods and performing services in the aggregate and in detail. It includes methods for recognizing, classifying, al ...
system other than a system set up to bill and receive funds from the Navy. There were no modern industrial lines to increase production efficiency. The committee found that between $5 and $7 million were unaccounted for on the repair ship ''Ajax'' which was under construction at the yard. They attributed it to "inefficient management and a poorly organized labor union" rather than fraud.
The Navy made attempts to get management to correct the problems, but negotiations failed.
On 8 December 1943, the US Navy seized control of Los Angeles SB&DDC under an executive order signed by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
. Bowen found the yard to be in worse condition than the investigating board realized. Management was turned over to Todd Shipyards, which operated a number of other shipyards around the country. Todd would manage the yard for the Navy until the war ended after which Todd purchased the yard outright.
Admiral Bowen described the situation at the yard in detail in his 1954 memoir, ''Ships, Machinery and Mossbacks''. According to Bowen, the seizure saved the government over $13 million.
For example, , built in San Pedro, cost $24.8 million, but sister ship , constructed in Camden, cost only $12.8 million.
It also took nearly a year longer to construct ''Ajax''.
During the war, the yard built three of the four s, three of the four s and all four s.
According to ''The American West: The Reader'', under Todd's management, the yard converted 2,376 ships in the final years of the war.
See also:
Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
The Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation (also operating as Todd Pacific) was an American corporation which built escort carriers, destroyers, cargo ships and auxiliaries for the United States Navy and merchant marine during World War II i ...
, much larger shipyard in
Puget Sound
Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...
mostly owned by Todd producing escort carriers and destroyers during World War II
Operating as Todd Shipyards, Los Angeles Division (1946–1977)
![USS Fox (DLG-33) ready for launching, 21 November 1964](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/USS_Fox_%28DLG-33%29_ready_for_launching%2C_21_November_1964.jpg)
Todd Shipyards purchased the Los Angeles SB&DDC after World War II and began to operate this shipyard as the Todd Shipyards, Los Angeles Division beginning in November 1946. Wartime labor at the LA division peaked at around 20,000 workers.
![LosAngelesShipbuilding](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/LosAngelesShipbuilding.jpg)
After the war ended the LA division turned to ship repair and conversions, and to machine work and fabrication for other industries. Business volume declined until the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
, but then dropped even lower after it ended in 1953. The LA division had projects in the early 1950s for
Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
as well. They built the replica of the sternwheel riverboat
''Mark Twain''. Todd's
Hoboken
Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,69 ...
,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, operation built two sternwheel riverboats for
Freedomland U.S.A.
Freedomland U.S.A. (usually called Freedomland) was a theme park dedicated to American history in the Baychester section of the northeastern Bronx in New York City. Operating from 1960 to 1964, Freedomland was built on marshland owned by the W ...
, a theme park in New York City that existed from 1960 to 1964. Todd's contributions to the park and the sternwheelers are documented in ''Freedomland U.S.A.: The Definitive History'' published by Theme Park Press (2019). One boat was destroyed during 2005 and the other during 2018. The LA division also constructed eight 52-foot tourist submarines and the masts, rigging, spars and sails of
Sailing Ship ''Columbia'' after the Korean War.
According to their long range facilities plan, Todd reported that no major ships were built in California following World War II until the state property tax structure was changed in 1958.
Todd invested heavily into the LA division in the years following the 1958 tax changes and built a number of cargo ships for various companies. The LA division built two cruisers, ''England'' and ''Fox'' in the 1960s and seven s in the late 1960s. It also converted and .
The LA division manufactured "thousands of feet of special piping for the
Atomic Energy Commission." They also did work fabricating test missiles for the
Polaris missile
The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1980.
In the mid-1950s the Navy was involved in the Jupiter missile ...
program and a base for a tracking antenna used by NASA.
In the early 1970s, the LA division built four
handysize
Handysize is a naval architecture term for smaller bulk carriers or oil tanker with deadweight of up to 50,000 tonnes, although there is no official definition in terms of exact tonnages. Handysize is also sometimes used to refer to the span of ...
25,000 DWT tankers
for Marine Transport Lines and four 35,000 DWT tankers for Zapata Marine, but contracts for eight 90,000 DWT tankers were cancelled in 1975
during the
1970s energy crisis
The 1970s energy crisis occurred when the Western world, particularly the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, faced substantial petroleum shortages as well as elevated prices. The two worst crises of this period wer ...
and in the wake of the
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
.
Operating as Todd Pacific Shipyards, Los Angeles Division (1977–1989)
![USS Wadsworth (FFG-9) in the Todd Pacific](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/USS_Wadsworth_%28FFG-9%29_in_the_Todd_Pacific.jpg)
On 1 October 1977, Todd Pacific Shipyards Corporation was formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of Todd Shipyards Corporation. Todd's Seattle and Los Angeles divisions were spun off into Todd Pacific Shipyards. Eighteen s were built at the San Pedro yard. In 1983 the yard employed 5,600, by 1989 it employed only 400. The yard occupied of land, leased from the Port of Los Angeles, at its close in 1989.
Parent company Todd Shipyards entered
Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...
in August 1987. The LA division closed in 1989 following completion of its last , .
Todd had failed to win an contract. The property where at least 130 ships were built in just over 70 years was returned to the
Port of Los Angeles
The Port of Los Angeles is a seaport managed by the Los Angeles Harbor Department, a unit of the City of Los Angeles. It occupies of land and water with of waterfront and adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach. Promoted as "America's Port", t ...
. As of 2015, it was known as Berth 100 / West Basin Container Terminal.
See also
*
1983 Todd Shipyard Strike (Pacific Coast Metal Trades Union Strike), a strike which affected the parent company of the Los Angeles Division.
*
Vigor Shipyards
Vigor Shipyards is the current entity operating the former Todd Shipyards after its acquisition in 2011. Todd Shipyards was founded in 1916, which owned and operated shipyards on the West Coast of the United States, East Coast of the United St ...
: Successor in Seattle.
References
Further reading
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* Notes Chapter 11 was filed in August 1987.
*
External links
*
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* Includes production list
{{Los Angeles SB&DDC and Todd, Los Angeles ships
Shipbuilding companies of California
Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States
Maritime history of California
1917 establishments in California
1989 disestablishments in California
Defunct manufacturing companies based in Greater Los Angeles
Shipyards in California
Vigor Shipyards