Kaiser Company
Vancouver, Washington
source: Sawyer & Mitchell

©
Washington

In the United States, in January 1942, there occurred a sudden need for additional shipyards for the construction of major types of ships to meet an increase of one-third in the previous objectives. One of these new yards was set up by the Kaiser group at Vancouver, across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, and in the following month the decision was taken to increase the original plans to a total of twelve slipways.

The yard was constructed on land owned by the local ports authority; it was leased at the nominal fee of $300 per year, and the final terms of leasing required the premises to be restored to 'as good a condition as before.'

In mid-1942, with the yard itself still under construction, the first ship on the stocks and the local labor supply almost exhausted, a big recruiting drive was directed not only to the mid-West and to the mountain states, but even to places as distant as New York. The subsequent influx of personnel tended, at first, to outstrip the available facilities and one service the commission was forced to provide was a private railway to carry workers to the shipyard.

The yard was awarded a large contract for Liberty ships, but soon this was changed to one for military types. More than a hundred Liberty contracts were cancelled and this gave a large surplus of Liberty material, which was transferred to the Oregon shipyard. Nevertheless, included in the yard's facilities was a 'deckhouse' slip, situated between the slipways and the outfitting dock. Thus, while in transit between these two points, ships would pause to have previously completed 210-ton deckhouses installed. The deckhouses were complete, even to the installation of the funnel, before they emerged for fitting. This system, in fact, set another trend in assembly line methods, but was of no real importance to the Liberty program, being mainly used on military constructions. It also gained unfavorable publicity when, in October 1942, the first deckhouse assembly was accidentally dropped twenty feet onto a waiting hull!

The first of the military types (LSTs), were ordered in May 1942 and for these new buildings the yard ceased work on Libertys after launching and completing only two and clearing away two more that were only half-built. Immediately afterwards fifty escort carriers were ordered, yard facilities were again improved and it became one of the best emergency yards in both its equipment and its layout.

In early 1943 the yard was able to revert to Liberty building long enough to construct eight more vessels, but with these ships the propelling machinery was installed at Portland by the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation. Later still the yard turned its production to military transports.

After the war the leasing arrangements were revised and the yard became one of the Maritime Commission's four stand-by yards for use in future emergencies. In 1960 it was sold to the Gilmore Steel Corporation for some $3 million.

Liberty ship output: 10 vessels.

USMC Numbers	Yard Numbers
353-356	1- 4
357-392	cancelled
393-400	41-48

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World War II Construction Records of Kaiser Company, Vancouver, Washington