J. A. Jones
Panama City, Florida
source: Sawyer & Mitchell

©
Florida

This yard - another one with six slipways - was established under similar circumstances to the Brunswick yard, but here the Jones Company had, in the first instance, wished to set up its facilities in South Carolina. It was 'persuaded' by the Maritime Commission that Panama City offered the better site.

In 1940, and before the advent of the shipyard, the whole of the Panama City community numbered some 20,000 persons. By 1943 wartime expansion had increased this figure threefold. The company built not only the shipyard and the ships, but also constructed essential houses, restaurants and other facilities with which to attract the workers. It also delivered the milk to the community and supplied to them tools, trucks and furniture, on credit. Any losses so incurred while performing these services were permitted to be offset against profits from the company's other activities.

In October 1943 the yard interrupted its standard Liberty ship program and commenced the construction of a special type of Liberty for the carriage of army tanks (Z-EC2-S-C2 type). Later it reverted to its normal program with Yard No 24.

Fifteen months later it turned to the production of a further special Liberty type, that for the transport of boxed aircraft (Z-EC2-S-C5 type), but even this new program was itself interrupted in May 1945 by the building of six TI type tankers.

The Wainwright yard was acquired by a firm of shipbreakers and it is here that work was carried out in the rolling and reshaping of plates taken from scrapped Libertys, for their inclusion in new barge construction.

Liberty ship output: 66 vessels at an average cost of 2,020,000 dollars each, plus 8 for the transport of army tanks and 28 for the transport of boxed aircraft.

USMC Numbers	Yard Numbers
1519-1533	1-15
1542-1551	24-33
2293-2333	34-74

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World War II Construction Records of J. A. Jones Construction Company, Panama City, Florida

See copies of The Wainwright Liberator, published by the J. A. Jones Construction Company