Towns and Nature: San Francisco, CA: 1870+1940 US Navy/Bethlehem Hunters Point Shipyard

Bethlehem also had a shipyard at Pier 70.

The Warshipologist posted

An aerial photo of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard on May 13, 1942. In Dry Dock 2 is an escort carrier under construction. Given the place and time, this has to be a Bogue Class escort carrier. But which one?

Four Bogues were built in South San Francisco at the Western Pipe and Steel Company;

HMS Attacker (D02) launched on September 27, 1941

HMS Fencer (D64) launched on April 4, 1942

HMS Stalker (D91) launched on March 5, 1942

HMS Striker (D12) launched on May 7, 1942

None of the references I’ve read mention Hunters Point in their construction but it wasn’t uncommon for yards to launch the ship then tow them to another yard for fitting out.

I’m inclined to think that this is Striker as the fitting-out work has hardly begun but if anyone has any further info, I’d be happy to hear it.

I'm not sure about the destroyer in Dry Dock 3. Maybe Benson class, USS Laffey (DD-459), and USS Woodworth (DD-460) were built in San Francisco around this time frame.

It is also interesting to note the activity of expansion that’s going on. This yard would burgeon into a huge complex during the course of the war.

Tom Bongi posted
Three aircraft carriers at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in August of 1971. In the foreground - in dry dock - is the USS Ranger (CVA-61). Behind her is the USS Hancock (CVA-19) and to the right, the USS Coral Sea (CVA-43). Each of these ships had a crew of over 3000 officers and enlisted.
Military Tactics posted a different exposure of this photo
An aerial view of Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, California (USA), with three docked aircraft carriers on 25 August 1971. The carriers are the USS Ranger (CVA-61) (in dry dock), USS Coral Sea (CVA-43), and the USS Hancock (CVA-19) (left).

San Francisco City guides - Free Walking Tours posted

The Hunters Point Gantry crane is located in the Hunters Point Shipyard. Construction of the gantry crane was completed in 1947. At 8,400 tons. Nearly as long as the Titanic, it was billed as "The mightiest crane in the world."

The naval yard was decommissioned in the early 1970's, and the crane has loomed over San Francisco's skyline since.

Happy Fleet Week!

www.sfcityguides.org

Adam Williams: So what Iowa class battleship was it?

Fred Carino: Adam Williams looks like 61 on the bow which would be Iowa. A hospital ship, 2 tenders (subs or DDs), and 3 Essex class carriers on the right.

Paul Jevert shared

Military Technology posted

An additional photo from the earlier post of USS Boxer (CV-21) in Dry Dock No.4 at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard on 24 June 1947.

This image was captured on board the Boxer from the aft end of her stack.

Immediately in front, we see the domed DBM antenna on a lattice boom.

Then the back of the Mk. 37 director antenna (Mk. 12 with the Mk 22 "Orange Peel" inboard. The actual director is out of shot below but they were for the 5-inch batteries just visible to the left.

On the flight deck, the yard workers are busy replacing the timbers. US aircraft carriers used Douglas Fir in those days and you can see them stacked up ready to be laid.

Also on the deck are ships boats, they would normally be stowed in the boat pocket on the starboard aft side. There are also floater bins to the right. These were filled with flotsam to keep sailors afloat in the event of the ship sinking.

USS Shangri La (CV-38) sits alongside beth 11 on the South Pier. She would be decommissioned later in the year.

On the other side of the South Pier in berth 13 is USS Rockwell (APA-230) and outboard of her is USS Logan (APA-196).

Ahead of the Rockwell in berth 12 USS Vicksburg (CL-86) with USS Castor (AKS-1) outboard of her.

USS Intrepid (CV-11) is alongside the Gun Mole and ahead of her is USS Independence, her twisted hulk just visible (note the numeral 22 on her island).

USS Hornet (CV-12) lies beyond the Intrepid.

The Warshipologist posted with the same description as above

[There are several comments discussing the history of the Essex class carriers.]

Military Technology posted

USS Boxer (CV-21) in Dry Dock No.4 at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard on 3 July 1947. She was getting a routine overhaul while operating off the west coast.

Behind to the left is probably USS Curtis (AVT-4) undergoing an overhaul. To the right is USS Shangri La (CV-38) preparing for deactivation. Already deactivated are USS Intrepid (CV-11) and USS Hornet (CV-12) further to the right respectively.

Also in this shot is the deactivated Cleavland class light cruiser USS Vicksburg (CL-86) to the right of Shangri La.

Army Military posted
The battleship USS Iowa seen undergoing modernisation at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Note the forward starboard secondary mount with its barrels trained upward.

The Warshipologist posted

USS Hornet (CV-12 in Dry Dock. The picture was labeled as Bremerton 1946 but I think this is Dry Dock #4 at Hunter's Point before the huge crane was installed. She's probably being prepared for deactivation.

Hornet was decommissioned in January 1947 and placed in storage at Hunters Point for a little over 4 years.

Recommissioned in March 1951, she sailed from San Francisco to New York for modernization (SCB-27A) which was completed in 1953.

In the picture, you can see Hornet's wartime camo Measure 22.

Bill Bower: This ship originally was named the Kearsarge but when the Hornet that launched theyDoolittle raid was sunk the renamed it the Hornet. It was retrofitted with a ngle deck instead of a straight deck to be able to handle jets and capable of launching and retrieving aircraft simultaneously. It served during Vietnam. It was also used to retrieve manned and unmanned crew capsules in the Apollo program. She retrieved both Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 before being decommissioned in 1970. It currently sits in Alameda as a museum ship.

[Some comments agree that it is not in Brmerton.

Speculations about the tugboat is that it needed hull work or that it towed the carrier in and then could not get out.]


John J Mulac Jr commented on the above post The crane at Hunters Point was not over a dry dock. So, it could be a picture from Bremerton. A.j. Pantig: John J Mulac Jr the details in the drydock dont look like any of the ones at bremerton.	Lee Withers: A.j. Pantig I don't believe it would be Bremerton. The view behind the drydocks is open water for a long distance. I spent nearly all of '63 tied up down the way and that's what we saw then. Google Earth shows a little more that 1/2 mile to the other side.

The largest crane in the world with a 460t capacity was built in 1947 to remove the turrets of battleships so the guns could be quickly replaced. (Actually, it replaced gun turrets, which is what I expected. [HuntersPointCrane-2]) "In 1959 the gantry crane was the site of Operation Skycatch, where dummy Polaris missiles were fired and caught via a string of arresting cables, before being lowered to the ground for testing. Previous versions of the test had the missiles flung out into the bay and retrieved from the ocean floor." In 1985 they added the structure on top to help with Trident missile test launch tubes. [military-history] (See the end of these notes where a reference says the structure was added as part of the 1959 Polaris missile firing tests.)

3D Satellite

Originally, Hunters Point was a commercial shipyard established in 1870, consisting of two graving docks. It was purchased and built up in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by the Union Iron Works company, later owned by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company and named Hunters Point Drydocks, located at Potrero Point. Known as "The World's Greatest Shipping Yard", President Theodore Roosevelt trusted his Great White Fleet of Battleships to be serviced at Hunters Point in 1907 according to historical records.

The shipyard was purchased by the Navy in 1940, a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It began operations the next year as the San Francisco Naval Shipyard, and operated until 1974 when it was deactivated and renamed Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Used commercially for a time, in 1986 it was taken over by the Navy again as the home port of the USS Missouri battlegroup, under the name Treasure Island Naval Station Hunters Point Annex.

The base was named redundant as part of the Base Realignment and Closure effort in 1991, and was closed permanently in 1994. Since then the site has been part of a superfund cleanup effort to remediate the leftovers of decades of industrial and radiological use. Parcels are being sold off as they are cleaned up, mostly for condominium development.

[military-history]

A topo map was disappointing until...

1956 Hunters Point Quad @ 24,000

...I looked at an older map. Someone did a lot of landfilling. In fact, it was the Navy that added the landfill because the 1939 topo is similar to the 1915 topo.

1915 San Mateo Quad @ 62,500

Lt. A. Legare, USN, Public Domain
"An aerial view of Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, California (USA), with three docked aircraft carriers on 25 August 1971. The carriers are the USS Ranger (CVA-61) (in dry dock), USS Coral Sea (CVA-43), and the USS Hancock (CVA-19) (left)."

HuntersPointCrane-4
"The commercial shipyard opened in 1867, housing the first permanent dry dock on the West Coast. Subsequent docks, built in 1916, were thought to be the largest in the world. At over 1000 feet in length, they were said to be big enough to accommodate the world's largest warships and passenger steamers."

HuntersPointCrane-3
[This source says the 230' tall trapezoidal tower was added in 1959 as part of a Polaris "catch and release" testing program.]

I downloaded some aerial photos in an attempt to determine if the trapezoidal tower was added in 1959 for Polaris missile testing or in 1985 for the Trident missile project. It looks like the tower was near the north side of the gantry. Two aircraft carriers are docked nearby. And the two smaller graving docks had ships in them.

EarthExplorer Aug 25, 1966 @ 21,670, ARM6629302L0627

The above photo was a little ambiguous concerning the tower so I found another.

EarthExplorer Mar 23, 1973 @ 22,000, AR5730008560078

Judging by the shadow, the trapezoidal tower was not built in 1959.

Digitally Zoomed to photo resolution

Was this at Pier 70 or here?

Pim van Wijngaarden posted

80 years ago today, on 4 April 1943 Fletcher-class destroyer USS The Sullivans DD-537 was launched at Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. San Francisco, CA, sponsored by Mrs. Thomas F. Sullivan, the mother of the five Sullivan brothers for which she is named

MuseumShip at @Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park , Buffalo, NY

📸 http://www.navsource.org/

John Harris: Jesse Hrycik I live about 45 miles to the east of the Naval Park in Buffalo, NY.

Brian R. Wroblewski posted

Jesse Hrycik commented on Pim's post
She's afloat again, but this was April 2022.
John Harris: Jesse Hrycik I live about 45 miles to the east of the Naval Park in Buffalo, NY.