Permanente Metals Corp. No 1 Yard
Richmond, California
source: Sawyer & Mitchell

©
California

In December 1940 the syndicate known as the Todd-California Shipbuilding Corporation - a division of the Permanente Metals Corporation and the very first Kaiser-managed shipyard - contracted to build thirty British 'Ocean' type vessels in a new yard to be specially constructed for the purpose. This yard was located on a swamp on the northeast shore of San Francisco Bay near Richmond, California, and the dredging, filling and construction work on the site began in January 1941. It was laid out with ample spacing between its seven slipways (each with a large assembly platform at its head) and the assembly shops, and this pattern was soon adopted as one of the basic principles of all the mass-production yards. But nevertheless, even here, more space was soon needed for expansion.

Early in 1941 the managements of both the firms building for the British (the other yard was at Portland, Maine) were given contracts to construct new yards adjacent to those already being built. At Richmond the new yard, known as Richmond No. 2 (see Permanente No. 2) was managed by the Richmond Shipbuilding Corporation, also a subsidiary of Kaiser's Permanente Metals Corporation, in which all of Kaiser's 'Six Services' group owned shares.

During November 1941 the Maritime Commission approved the leasing of the Todd-California yard by the Richmond Shipbuilding Corporation, with the intention of developing the facilities when all the 'Oceans' were launched. Soon afterward, when Kaiser organized his own shipyards in which Todd had no interest, he acquired full ownership of the yards he was managing and sold to Todd his interests in Todd-managed yards situated elsewhere. Thus the yard came under direct Permanente Metals control and became known as Richmond No. 1.

Along with the Oregon shipyard at Portland, Richmond No. 1 was one of the first two new shipyards to be in operation on the West Coast, and it was subsequently to achieve outstanding records in Liberty construction.

One of the early expansion schemes saw a huge fabricating shop set up halfway between No. 1 and No. 2 yards in which whole upper structures of ships were built in only three units. This shop served both yards and the fabricated sections were transported to the slipways for installation.

By June 1942 vessels were being delivered in an average time of 69 days, against a contract maximum of 76 days. Six months later, contract time was down to 30 days and the deliveries to only 23 days. At the same time, anticipated labor per ship was 622,300 man-hours but actual output was achieved in only 406,400 hours. In the Commission's scheme for suggested improvements to the efficiency of all yards, Permanente Metals ranked first in total savings. During 1944 the yard turned to the production of 'Victory' type ships.

Liberty ship output: 138 vessels at an average of $1,875,300 each.

USMC Numbers	Yard Numbers
The MCE number was used as the Yard Number

World War II Construction Records of Permanente Metals Corp. No 1 Yard

For additional information on the merchant ship-building program at the Kaiser shipyards, including Liberty ships, see the Historic American Engineering Record - Kaiser's Richmond Shipyards with Special Emphasis on Shipyard No. 3, Richmond, CA (PDF, 253 pages, 878 Kb).

Photographs of shipbuilding at Permanente Metals Corp. shipyards

Also see World War II Shipbuilding in the San Francisco Bay Area