Squantum: (Satellite [ShipBuildingHistory]) An auxiliary yard that was operated during WWI to build just destroyers. [HAER-data]
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| HAER MASS,11-QUI,10--1 1. DETAIL VIEW OF SHIPYARD - General Dynamics Corporation Shipyard, 97 East Howard Street, Quincy, Norfolk County, MA |
Throughout its more than eighty year history, the General Dynamics Corporation/Quincy-Fore River Shipyard was one of the leading private shipyards in the United States. Producing both military and merchant vessels, it built more ships than any other U.S. yard in World War I; was among the five largest producers in World War II; and produced some of the largest and most innovative ships launched in the U.S. for the merchant marine in the difficulty post-war period. It set records for production speed in both wars, and built the first true aircraft carrier, the first nuclear powered surface ship, and some of the largest commercial vessels ever built. The shipyard pioneered the technique of pre-outfilting or modular construction of ships. From the original construction in 1901-1902 of the largest forge in the U.S. to the installation in 1974 of the giant 1200 ton Goliath gantry crane, still the largest crane in the western hemisphere, the shipyard's facilities were at or near the state of the art in ship building in the U.S. [HAER-data]"Under Navy contracts in 1943, the yard reached its peak employment with 32,000 men employed." [HAER-data]
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| HAER MASS,11-QUI,10--3 |
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| MilitaryPhotoDepot posted (7/2/1959) The U.S. Navy nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser USS Long Beach (CGN-9) under constuction at the Bethlehem Steel Coompany's Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts (USA). The guided missile destroyer USS Macdonough (DLG-8) is visble on the right. Macdonough was launched on 9 July, Long Beach on 14 July 1959..USN Image |
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| Sait Yorukel commented on the Navy's post |
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| The Warshipologist posted Another fantastic aerial shot of the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, MA. USS Lexington (CV-2) fitting out. You can see the swing span bridge and the channel that leads out to sea. The photo is dated October 1, 1927. Photo: SDASM |
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| James Torgeson posted The battleship USS Massachusetts (BB-59) is in the very early stages of construction at the Bethlehem Steel Quincy Yard. She has been a museum ship in Fall River, MA since 1965. |
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| USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr DD 850 posted On 2 April 1945 in the Fore River Shipyard of Bethlehem Steel's Quincy, MA Division, Hull 1576 was laid down on slip No 3. This hull built as part of the WW2 production program would later be named USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr DD-850 and be the first US destroyer ever preserved as a museum ship. More importantly, she will represent every US Destroyer sailor that served their country in the US NAVY to this day and for that everyone can be proud. |
James Torgeson posted two images with the comment:
Here's a brochure from an open house held at Bethlehem Steel's Quincy Yard, circa 1961. Opened up, it's 11"x17". Bethlehem bought the yard in 1913 and sold it to General Dynamics (GD) in 1963. It was closed by GD in 1986. World War Two was the yard's heyday, when it built five fleet carriers and the battleship USS Massachusetts, in addition to scores of cruisers, destroyers, destroyer escorts and LSTs. It was served by the Fore River Railroad, which was the smallest of the Bethlehem Steel Subsidiary Railroads.
Dennis DeBruler: "At the time of World War I, Bethlehem Steel owned seven shipyards in the United States. These were located at Sparrow's Point and Baltimore, Maryland; Wilmington, Delaware; Elizabeth, New Jersey; Boston and Quincy, Massachusetts; and two West Coast yards at Los Angeles and San Francisco. The only plants comparable to Quincy in scale and capability were Sparrow's Point and the Union Yard in San Francisco (The Properties of Bethlehem Steel Corporation, pp. 67-71)."
"Under Navy contracts in 1943, the yard reached its peak employment with 32,000 men employed."
https://tile.loc.gov/.../ma1100/ma1198/data/ma1198data.pdf
James Torgeson: Dennis DeBruler Peak employment at Bethlehem Fairfield alone was 45,000!
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| 2 [The 1200 ton Goliath gantry crane spanned basins #6 and #7. [HAER-data]] |
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| ThomasCraneLibrary ["Present" is 1975. This reference include photos of some of the ships that were built here.] |
This yard launched the first true aircraft carrier, the USS Lexington, in 1925. "She was the largest warship Quincy had built to date, with a length of 888 feet, and a beam of 105 feet." This yard also built nuclear-powered surface ships. [HAER-data]
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| NewEnglandHistoricalSociety "During the Roaring ‘20’s and then the Depression years, the Quincy yard produced a whole series of naval ships: submarines, destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers, as well as merchant ships. Among them, the 'Queen of Flattops,' the USS Lexington (CV-2) in 1927. 'Lady Lex' started out as a battlecruiser, but the Washington Naval treaty of 1922 ended the construction of all new battleships and battlecruisers. So the Navy converted the ship into one of the first aircraft carriers. When a drought in late 1929 caused hydroelectricity shortages in Tacoma, Wash., Lady Lex’s turbo-electric propulsion system supplemented the city’s electricity." Gemeral Dynamics bought this yard in 1964 to supplement its Electric Boat Yard. GD installed Goliath. In addition to military and merchant ships, in the 70s to 80s it built 10 liquefied natural gas tankers. "By the 1980s, the U.S. simply had too many shipyards, and Quincy failed to win any contracts. That led to the closure of the Fore River Shipyard that year." [Given that it was the 1980s, did the U.S. have too many because ships started being built in Asia?] |
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| Constructing the massive USS Lexington in 1928 William Edward Lyons: Built in the Quincy Shipyard (Mass.) Bob Johnson: Went aground over by power plant when launched. [According to some comments, this was originally going to be a battlecruiser. But a treaty caused it to be built as an aircraft carrier. (I noticed the CV number is just 2.) The comments continue with the observation that the treaty caused WWII to be a battle of aircraft carriers rather than battleships.] James Torgeson shared |
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| I Love Warships posted USS Lexington (CV-2) on the building ways at the Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts, shortly before her launching, circa late September or early October 1925. Randy Gaunt: The Naval Treaty was in 1922. her construction was halted while she was redesigned. Corey Patrick: This is CV-2 Lexington in the picture. Lexington class. Lexington and Saratoga. The Essex class Lexington [CV-16] was originally USS Cabot but renamed before being launched after this one was sunk at Coral Sea. [CV-16 the museum in Corpus Christi, TX.] The Warshipologist posted USS Lexington (CV-2) on the building ways at the Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts, shortly before her launching, September 30, 1925. The massive craneway was built especially for Lexington which, with Saratoga were the largest warships in the world. Lexington was launched at noon on October 3, 1925, which was nearly 5 years on the slipway. It would take another 2 years fitting out before she was commissioned. The reason for the time delay was the reluctance of Congress to allocate money as the building costs soared. The two ships were eventually built for $45m a piece. |
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| Fore River Shipyard/Bethlehem Steel- Quincy, Massachusetts posted Hull# 1570 The giant 888-foot long, quadruple screw aircraft carrier U.S.S. Philippine Sea launching on September 5, 1945. This was launched just two days after the Japanese and Americans signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender to end the Second World War on the deck of the battleship U.S.S. Missouri. The Philippine Sea had begun construction on August 19, 1944 under the name 'Wright' but following the U.S. Naval success against the Japanese in the Philippine Sea the ship's name was changed. Philippine Sea was completed and delivered the U.S. Navy in May 1946. The ship served during the Korean War in the early 1950s but by the end of that decade the need for the ship was superfluous. Decommissioned and laid up at the Naval Reserve Fleet anchorage in Long Beach, California the aircraft carrier sat for more than a decade before it was stricken from the navy list and offered for sale as scrap. Towed to an Oregon dock the ship was demolished in 1971-72. |
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The yard's signature "Goliath" crane "From humble beginnings in 1884, this yard grew to become the second-largest in the country" [This site has a lot of photos that can be clicked to enlarge.] |
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| DestroyerHistory-quincy |
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| DestroyerHistory-squantum This plant built 35 destroyers during WWI. |
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| Battleship Cove posted Battleship Cove remembers the "BLUE GHOST" 17 Feb 1943: The "BLUE GHOST", USS Lexington CV-16, was commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard with Captain Felix Stump in command. The fifth US Navy ship to bear the name in honor of the Battle of Lexington, she was the flagship for Admiral Marc Mitscher that led a Fast Carrier Task Force through many battles across the Pacific. She was the recipient of 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation in World War II. The Japanese reported LEXINGTON sunk multiple times during the war including confusion that the USS Lexington CV-2 and CV-16 were not the same ship. At least twice more they thought that the Navy Blue 5-N painted CV-16 was sunk only to have her come back to fight again... leading the propagandist Tokyo Rose to nickname her “The Blue Ghost.” USS Lexington is the oldest remaining fleet carrier in the world due to her commissioning before USS Yorktown, USS Intrepid, and USS Hornet. She is also one of four remaining combatants built at the famed home of Kilroy, the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, MA where BIG MAMIE, JPK DD-850, and USS Salem were also built. Image: USS Lexington (CV-16) steams through floating ice in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, on 17 February 1943, the day she first went into commission. Official US Navy photo. Ryan Smith I have given her the Smith treatment as well! Amazing piece of history to film *and my first aircraft carrier  Cant wait to film the MA again this spring! https://youtu.be/kEMsYrh3DUoJames Torgeson shared Allen Pugh shared |
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| National Naval Aviation Museum posted USS Philippine Sea (CV 47) is the subject of our next series of Centennial of Navy Aircraft Carriers posts. This image shows the carrier's launching at Bethlehem Steel Company in Quincy, Mass., on September 5, 1945, just days after the surrender ceremony ending World War II. The carrier was named after a body of water that was the scene of some of the great battles of the Pacific War. James Torgeson shared The final Bethlehem-built aircraft carrier. |
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| The Warshipologist posted USS Lexington (CV-2) Fore River Shipyard, MA, cira mid 1927. This photo was found as a negative by Art Vaughan: "This is a partial crop of a 4x5 negative I found by accident while trying to find some glassine negative envelopes for a friend. In my unsuccessful search through several boxes containing a variety of envelopes... hoping to find those that hold a single 35mm film strip, I came upon a small pile of 4x5 glassines. Some were very old and tattered, one containing a rough looking negative and a paper with the penciled notation "Battleship Lexington, Fore River Shipyard". Ending my search, I closely examined the negative on a light table and saw the distinctive flat "island" of Lexington, the Aircraft Carrier. I scanned it, then spent an afternoon prepping it for Flickr, deciding to crop the bottom to remove a very distracting roof and its series of ugly vents. The negative was either badly exposed or it had degraded somehow over time. Grain was pretty bad, and it was peppered with a familiar pattern of dots that are typical of fingerprint damage." The image can be seen in full on Art's Flickr page: |
[Note the swingbridge.]
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| The Warshipologist commented on its post opposite view... The Warshipologist posted An opposite (from my previous post) view of Lexington (CV-2) in the Fore River Shipyard in October 1927. Leigh Cochran: Founded by Thomas Watson of Salem partner of Alexander Graham Bell. He was a mechanical genius and still a young man with a lot of money from telephone patents. He also contributed to the design of the ships that helped win WWI. He did soooooo many things with his genius! ☎️ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Watson A huge employer in the Boston area until it closed in 1986. |
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| John R Coffey Jr. commented on the The Warshipologist's post from 1923, cropped from a much larger picture whose focus was actually the building of the original power plant built across the river and this part of the Fore River Shipyard just so happened to be the background. And parked where the Lexie is in the original photos is the USS Detroit CL-8, a quincy built light cruiser 1920 |
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| The Warshipologist posted USS Hancock (CV-19) alongside the fitting out wharf at the Fore River Shipyard, the day before her commission on April 14, 1944. The ship had been laid down as Ticonderoga on 26 January 1943 and subsequently renamed Hancock on 1 May 1943. This renaming was done in response to an offer from the John Hancock Life Insurance Company to conduct a special bond drive to raise money for the ship if that name was used. (The shipyard at Quincy was in the company's home state.) CV-14, originally laid down as Hancock and under construction at the same time in Newport News, Virginia, took the name Ticonderoga instead. Hancock represents the first completed unit of the "long bow" variant of the Essex class. The bow was extended to make room for an extra 40mm quad mount and in addition, the flight deck was cut back to give a better firing arc. Also note the large notch cut on the port side, forward of the deck edge elevator. This was done to give a 3rd Mk 37 director on the catapult sponson an unobscured view. These reductions in flight deck area were strongly criticized by the Air Department and were reversed before the ships (Hancock and Ticonderoga) entered combat in Oct/Nov 1944. James Torgeson shared The fleet carrier USS Hancock is about to be commissioned at the Bethlehem Steel Fore River Yard in Quincy, MA. The yard built six carriers, one battleship and many other vessels during the War. Michael Maitland: Fantastic photo - thanks. Also vital LSTs at the bottom. Invasions, like Saipan, were held up as they needed LSTs (Several were lost at a major explosion and fire at Pearl Harbor that was covered up) |
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| Navy General Board posted The battleship USS Massachusetts leaving the Fore River Shipyard at Quincy on May 12, 1942 as she heads out to trials. A harbor defense net is stretched out across the mouth of the harbor along with a Net Tender to open and close the net. Jay Albert: Note: She fired the 1st and last US 16" salvo in anger of WWII. David Guarino" Somebody has the throttle down. |
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| U.S. Naval Institute posted #OTD [Dec 8] in 1944, the "Murderers' Row" of Third Fleet aircraft carriers were at anchor in Ulithi Atoll. From front to back: USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Hancock (CV-19) and USS Ticonderoga (CV-14). James Torgeson shared As many group members know, Bethlehem Steel built the most ships during World War II. Amongst those vessels were six fleet carriers, two of which are shown here whilst they rest at the Ulithi Atoll fleet anchorage in 1944. The two are the USS Hancock (CV-19) and the USS Wasp (CV-18), which were built at the Bethlehem Fore River Yard in Quincy, MA. The other three were built by Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock in Newport News, VA. |
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| Battleship Cove posted Up close with BIG MAMIE looking at her 1 million dollar freeboard paint effort that included new drains, fuel tank tops, and other general wasted metal repairs. The hull looks shipshape. Grant Cate: The hull below the waterline was massively repaired in the late 90’s when 225000 pounds of hull steel was replaced and a special epoxy coating was put on the hull to protect it from salt water. James Torgeson shared Bethlehem-built, is best built! Although Bethlehem Steel built the most ships during WW2, the firm only built one battleship. The USS Massachusetts (BB-59) was built at the Fore River Yard in Quincy, MA, and is preserved as a museum ship in Fall River, MA. She looks great! |
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| T.J. Kerr commented on the above post Stopped by briefly today, she looks good from any angle. |
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| Daniel Riley commented on the above post |
The U.S. Maritime Administration (MARD) loaned $55m to a company that soon went bankrupt. [longleaflumber] It is now a used car lot.
3 photos of the launching on Sep 23, 1941 of the "USS Massachusetts, a 35,000 ton battleship costing $80,000,000."
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