Fore River Shipyard

The Fore River Shipyard, more formally known as the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company, was a shipyard in the United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

History

Started by Thomas A. Watson in 1884, the shipyard was located on the Weymouth Fore River near East Braintree, Massachusetts. In 1901, the site was moved closer to Quincy, Massachusetts, and currently straddles the town line, part of the Quincy Point neighborhood. At this point, the company (was) mismanaged and was not being productive in a "profitable maritime" sense. So the company looked to new leadership in Admiral F. T. Bowles and hired him as company President. By the time that the Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904 the company was operated under the direction of former Navy Admiral, Francis T. Bowles.

In 1913, Bethlehem Steel purchased the yard. It was notable for building many renowned warships and Liberty ships during World War II; John J. Kilroy, the apparent originator of the famous "Kilroy was here" graffiti, was a welding inspector at Fore River during the war years.

Fore River changed hands again in 1964, when it was purchased by General Dynamics Corporation. The shipyard became General Dynamics Quincy Shipbuilding Division, and General Dynamics invested $23 million to improve the shipyard in order to make it more competitive in the shipbuilding industry. The yard constructed several ships for the US Navy, including nuclear-powered submarines, ammunition ships, replenishment oilers, and dock landing ships.^[1]^[2] The shipyard converted to building LNG tankers during its final years, but closed for good in 1986.

In 1994, USS Salem (CA-139) — the last all-gun heavy cruiser ever built — returned to the Quincy yard, becoming the centerpiece of the United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum. Following several abortive attempts to restart the shipyard as a shipbuilding center, the property was bought by Daniel Quirk, a local auto dealer in 2004, to use as a motor vehicle storage and distribution facility, but is still a port for commuter boats to Boston and Hull run by Harbor Express for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). The yard also is used by Jay Cashman, Inc., for heavy construction and marine equipment services, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, as a sewage sludge heat-drying and pelletizing facility and by Quincy Bay Terminal Company, for a short line freight rail service to CSXT South Braintree.

The shipyard is also notable for the "Goliath" crane, at one point the second largest shipbuilding crane in the world. Constructed in the 1970s for building LNG tankers, the crane is a prominent part of the harbor skyline. The 328 foot (100 m) tall crane located at the former shipyard will be dismantled in early 2008 and sold to Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering of South Korea and relocated to Mangalia, Romania.^[3]^[4]

Notable Ships

Warships

Numerous famous warships were built at the Fore River Shipyard. A partial list is below. The date in parentheses indicates the date the ship was commissioned by the U.S. Navy.

Aircraft carriers

Battleships

Cruisers

Destroyers

Submarines

First five Imperial Japanese Navy submarines, known as the Holland Type VII's, built at Fore River in 1904. These submarines were the first to be built at Fore River for the Electric Boat Company under the supervision of naval architect Arthur Leopold Busch. ^{[citation needed]} Lawrence York Spear took over EB's operations at Fore River while Busch was in Japan - prior to the launching of the USS Viper (SS-10)].

Other ships

Thomas W. Lawson, a seven-masted, steel-hull schooner, the only ship of her kind ever built.
William L. Douglas, a six-masted, steel-hull collier
Constitution and Independence, sister transatlantic liners built for American Export Lines.
Sankaty (steamboat), a propeller-driven steamer that served as a ferry to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and as a Canadian minelayer during World War II.

Reading list

Palmer, David. Organizing the Shipyards: Union Strategy in Three Northeast Ports, 1933-1945. Cornell University Press 1998. ISBN 978-0801427343
Drummond, Dave. The Shipyard: Will It Float?. iUniverse 2003. ISBN 978-0595275328

External links

^ HazeGray.org: "Fore River Shipyard Production Record"
^ "Quincy Shipbuilding Division"
^ Jette, Julie (January 5, 2008). "Farewell, GOLIATH: The skyline is about to change". The Patriot Ledger, p. 1.
^ The Patriot Ledger produced a video about "Goliath" which is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NqyOY1jkVs

1902 Newspaper Article ^{[dead link]}
History of Shipbuilding at Fore River ^{[dead link]}
United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum
Quincy's Shipbuilding Heritage Thomas Crane Public Library, Quincy MA

[hazegray1-1] HazeGray.org: "Fore River Shipyard Production Record"

[globalsecurity1-2] "Quincy Shipbuilding Division"

[3] Jette, Julie (January 5, 2008). "Farewell, GOLIATH: The skyline is about to change". The Patriot Ledger, p. 1.

[4] The Patriot Ledger produced a video about "Goliath" which is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NqyOY1jkVs

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