New York Shipbuilding Corporation

The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short) was an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United States Coast Guard, and other maritime concerns. At its peak during World War II, NYSB was the largest and most productive shipyard in the world. Its best-known vessels include the destroyer , the cruiser , the aircraft carrier , the nuclear-powered cargo ship , and a quartet of cargo-passenger liners nicknamed the 4 Aces.

History

It was founded in 1899 by Henry G. Morse (1850–2 June 1903), an engineer noted in connection with bridge design and construction and senior partner of Morse Bridge Company.Template:Sfn The original plan was to build a shipyard on Staten Island, thus the name of the company,Template:Sfn but plans to acquire a site there failed. The company then explored other potential sites as far south as Virginia, particularly in the Delaware River area, and ultimately chose a location in the southern part of Camden, New Jersey.Template:Sfn Site selection considered the needs of the planned application of bridge-building practices of prefabrication and assembly-line production of ships in covered ways.Template:Sfn Construction of the plant began in July 1899; the keel of the first ship was laid in November 1900.Template:Sfn That ship, contract number 1, was M. S. Dollar, which was later modified as an oil tanker and renamed J. M. Guffey.Template:Sfn Two of the first contracts were for passenger ships that were among the largest then being built in the United States: #5 for and #6 for .Template:Sfn Morse died after securing contracts for 20 ships. He was followed as president by De Coursey May.Template:Sfn

On November 27, 1916, a special meeting of the company's stockholders ratified sale of the "fifteen million dollar plant" to a group of companies composed of American International Corporation, International Mercantile Marine Co., W. R. Grace and Company and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.Template:Sfn From about 1933 to 1937 the shipyard was part of Errett Lobban Cord's business empire.

New York Ship's unusual covered ways produced everything from aircraft carriers, battleships, and luxury liners to barges and car floats.

File:Air view, Yorkship Village ca 1920.png

Air view of Yorkship Village

File:Camden Shipyard 1919.jpg

Eight destroyers of the , New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, 1919

During World War I, New York Ship expanded rapidly to fill orders from the U.S. Navy and the Emergency Fleet Corporation. A critical shortage of worker housing led to the construction of Yorkship Village, a planned community of 1,000 brick homes designed by Electus Darwin Litchfield and financed by the War Department. Yorkship Village is now the Fairview section of the City of Camden.

New York Ship's World War II production included all nine light carriers (CVL), built on light cruiser hulls; the 40,000-ton battleship ; all three of the six 30,000-ton Alaska-class cruisers that were built (, , and ), four 15,000-ton Baltimore-class heavy cruisers, and 98 LCTs (Landing Craft, Tank), many of which took part in the D-Day landings at Normandy.

After World War II, a much-diminished New York Ship subsisted on a trickle of contracts from the United States Maritime Administration and the U.S. Navy. In 1959, the yard launched the NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered merchant ship. The yard launched its last civilian vessel () in 1960, and its last naval vessel, , was ordered in 1967. The company's final completed submarine was , which had been ordered in the early 1960s, but construction was halted from 1963 to 1965 because of the loss of the . Guardfish was commissioned in December 1967.

In 1968, lacking new naval orders, NYS ceased operations. , then under construction, was towed to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, for completion.

The yard's site is now part of the Port of Camden. The caisson previously used in NYS's graving dock is still in use today in the former Philadelphia Navy Yard's dry dock number 3.

World War II Slipways

Slipway	Width	Length	Date	Notes
J			1900-41	Length originally 600 ft, lengthened to 840 ft for construction of Alaska-class cruisers
K			1900-41
L			1900-41
M			1912-41	Length originally 700 ft, lengthened to 840 ft for construction of Alaska-class cruisers
O			1915
T			1941
U1			1941	Could be extended up to 1,000 ft
U2
U3			1941	Could be extended up to 1,000 ft
U4

Ships built

Ships built by New York Ship include:

• Aircraft carriers
  • 1 of 2
    • , launched 7 April 1925
  • 9 of 9 light carriers
    • , , , , , ,
  • 2 of 2 light carriers
    • ,
  • 1 of 4
    • , launched 21 May 1960
• Battleships
  • 1 of 3
  • 1 of 3
  • 1 of 2
  • 1 of 4
• Colliers
  • SS Plymouth served as USS Plymouth from 1918 to 1919, as an auxiliary cargo ship, then returned to civilian service as SS Plymouth
  • SS Fairmont served as USS Fairmont from 1918 to 1919, as an auxiliary cargo ship, then returned to civilian service again as the SS Fairmont. In 1922 she was renamed Nebraskan. For World War II she was renamed SS Black Point and was the last ship sunk by a U-boat on May 5, 1945.
  • SS Winding Gulf
  • SS Tidewater did not serve in the US Navy. Renamed SS Isaac T. Mann in 1923 and was scrapped at Baltimore in 1954.
  • SS Glen White served as USS Glen White from 1918 to 1919 then returned to civilian service as SS Glen White.
  • SS Sewalls Point did not serve in the US Navy.
  • SS Franklin did not serve in the US Navy, became SS Nevadan in 1921, then SS Oakey L. Alexander in 1926. Was wrecked on the Maine coast on 3 March 1947.
  • SS William N. Page
• Cruisers
  • 1 of 2 heavy cruisers
    • launched 7 November 1931
  • 3 of 9 light cruisers
    • launched 8 May 1937
    • 2 October 1937
    • 19 March 1938
  • 4 of 14 heavy cruisers
    • launched 2 July 1944
    • 13 August 1944
    • 15 October 1944
    • 6 May 1945
  • 3 of 3 large cruiser
    • , ,
  • 8 of 27 light cruisers
  • 1 of 1 nuclear-powered guided missile cruisers
    • launched 23 June 1962
• 4 of 8 s
• Fast combat support ship
• Oil tankers
  • SS Gulfoil
  • Gulflight launched 1914. Center of a diplomatic incident when torpedoed in World War I.
  • SS Sylvan Arrow, launched 1918
  • (1921) sunk by Japanese submarine I-25 in 1942
  • SS Dixie Arrow
  • launched 1922
• Submarine
  • Thresher/Permit-class fast attack submarine (nuclear)
  • fast attack submarine (nuclear)
    • (completed at Ingalls Shipbuilding)
  • Barbel-class fast attack submarine (diesel):
• Nuclear-powered merchant ship
• Passenger/cargo ship
  • SS Panhandle State: Also named: President Monroe, President Buchanan, (Iris), and Emily H. M. Weder.
  • SS Munargo: Also named Arthur Murray (Army but never used), USS Munargo (Navy), USAT Thistle, USAHS Thistle (Army hospital). [1]
• Other ships and boats
  • • —the biggest passenger-carrying riverboat (paddle steamer) ever built.

Athletic

An athletic team for the 16,000 employees was created in the 1910s.

See also

• New York Shipbuilding strike

Bibliography

• Template:Cite periodical
• Template:Cite periodical
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External links

• New York Shipbuilding Company Historical Sites
• A Tribute to a Place Called Yorkship
• New York Shipbuilding, Camden NJ Template:Webarchive
• A web exhibit of ship christening photos that includes twenty images of launching ceremonies at New York Shipbuilding