Wilmington Boat Works, Inc. or WILBO was a shipbuilding company in Wilmington, California. To support the World War 2 demand for ships Victory Shipbuilding built: Tugboats, crash rescue boats and sub chasers. Wilmington Boat Works opened in 1920 building Fishing boat and yachts, by Hugh Angelman, Willard Buchanan and Tom Smith. After the Korean War the shipyard closed in 1958. The shipyard was located at 400 Yacht Street, Wilmington, the site of the current USC boatyard.

Tugboats

Wilmington Boat Works built tugboats for the US Army in 1943 and 1944. The small tugs had a length of , a depth of , a

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of , a , and a . They were wooden-hulled and diesel-powered. After the war they were sold for commercial use. The tugs were numbered TP 126 to TP 131, TP for "Tug/Passenger".

Submarine chaser

Wilmington Boat Works Company built two

submarine chaser A submarine chaser or subchaser is a small naval vessel that is specifically intended for anti-submarine warfare. Many of the American submarine chasers used in World War I found their way to Allied nations by way of Lend-Lease in World War II. ...

s for the United States Navy that were of the design with a displacement of 94 tons, a length of , a beam of , a draft of , and a top speed of . They had a crew of 28. Power was provided by two

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, Electro-Motive Division, 16-184A diesel engines, and two propellers. They were armed with one Bofors 40 mm gun, two Browning M2 .50 cal. machine gun, two

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...

projector "Y guns", and two depth charge tracks. Some of the submarine chasers were lent to

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of the United States as part of the

Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

program. The submarine chasers were converted to ''PGM-1''-class motor gunboats six months after completion in 1943. * *

Crash boats

For the US Army built 85 foot Crash boats

''Agile''-class minesweeper

Wilmington Boat Works in 1954 built s for the United States Navy with a displacement of 853 tons full, a length of , a beam of , a draft of . They were powered by four

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ID1700 diesel engines, with and two controllable pitch propellers. The ships had a top speed of . The ship crew was 7 officers and 70 enlisted men. They were armed with one Bofors 40 mm gun and two .50 cal (12.7 mm) twin machine gun. Notable ships include and . * * * * * * * *

Notable boats

* The ''Sobre Las Olas'', a yacht built in 1929 was used by the US Navy in 1941 as ''YP-131''. In 1945 it was sold to

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. Getty sold the boat in 1932. She has a beam of and a draft of . ''Sobre Las Olas'' was the setting of the 1957 movie ''Pal Joey'' with

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and Rita Hayworth. The vessel was also used in the 2012 movie ''

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'' with

Lindsay Lohan Lindsay Dee Lohan ( ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress and singer. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera '' An ...

playing

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

. * ''Chubasco'' is a sailboat built in 1939, that won the 2016 Show Awards for Best of Show at the Marina in Newport.newportbeachwoodenboatfestival.com, Chubasco, WINNER – 2016 Show Awards Best of Show – Rodheim Perpetual Award
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Notable incident

* a wooden luxury yacht built in 1931 was found wrecked off Vanua Levu and 25 passengers and crew mysteriously disappeared in October 1955. Life rafts were missing, but no one was found. She was repaired and sold.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilmington Boat Works American Theater of World War II 1940s in California American boat builders