Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard
 HMSCalder(K349)under construction as USSFormoe(DE-58), withUSSFoss(DE-59)on the right at the Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard. | |
| Industry | Shipbuilding |
|---|---|
| Founded | December 1941inHewitts Cove,Weymouth Back River,Hingham, Massachusetts |
| Defunct | 1945 |
Number of employees | 23,000 |
| Parent | Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation |
| Footnotes / references 42°15′5.37″N70°55′3.55″W/ 42.2514917°N 70.9176528°W | |
TheBethlehem Hingham ShipyardofHingham, Massachusetts,was a shipyard in the United States from 1941 until 1945. Located onWeymouth Back River,it was owned by theBethlehem Shipbuilding Companyand operated by the nearbyFore River Shipyard.During the three and a half years that the yard was operational, it produced 277 ships,[1]including a destroyer escort delivered in 23 days.[2]
History
[edit]Shortly before the entry of the United States intoWorld War II,theUnited States Navybegan designs ondestroyer escortsand commissionedBethlehem Steelto be the major contractor. Because Bethlehem's shipyards were operating at full capacity, there was need to build a new shipyard. A location for a shipyard was chosen inHingham, Massachusetts,at the site of the formerBayside Airport.[3]Within weeks of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a survey team arrived in Hingham and crews worked around the clock to clear 150 acres of land. After the land was cleared, a steel mill stretching a third of a mile was erected, and wooden cradles that would hold each ship were built.[1]Sixteen ways were also constructed at the yard, which was managed by the nearbyFore River Shipyard.[4]
Facing a lack of skilled labor, 400 shipbuilders were brought in to train a workforce that totaled 15,000 within a year. Included in this number were 2,500 women due to a lack of available men.[1]
A simplified process was created to streamline how ships were constructed at the time. Steel would be first cut into patterns, numbered, and then welded together separate of the ship, building the ship from the ground up by this process. This enabled a construction rate of around six ships a month. As a result, the Navy ordered sixty ships to be delivered in 1943, a quota which was matched and exceeded when the yard produced ninety ships that year, for which it was awarded theArmy-Navy "E" Award.[1]The nearby Fore River Shipyard had earned the same honor the previous year.[2]
Around this time, orders in the yard shifted from destroyer escorts toLanding Ship Tankcraft, which were first delivered in 1944. The last ship delivered at the shipyard wasLST 1080,which was delivered on 29 May 1945.[4]
In 2017, the warehouse building (designated as Building #19) that had previously been headquarters ofBuilding 19(a discount retail outlet, which operated from the 1970s into the 2000s, which, at its peak, had about 20 stores throughout New England), was razed after becoming badly damaged due to years of neglect.[5]Some of the timbers in the building were salvaged by a Massachusetts reclaimed lumber company and recycled into new products.[6][7]
References
[edit]
- ^abcd"The History of Hingham Shipyard – From the documentaryRemembering the Hingham Shipyard".Hingham Shipyard Marinas.Retrieved18 July2014.
- ^abRines, Lawrence S.; Sarcone, Anthony F."A History of Shipbuilding at Fore River".Thomas Crane Public Library. Archived fromthe originalon 7 September 2008.Retrieved17 July2014.
- ^"Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Southeastern Massachusetts".Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields.6 August 2014.Retrieved5 January2015.
- ^ab"Bethlehem-Hingham, Hingham MA".Archived fromthe originalon 28 July 2014.Retrieved18 July2014.
- ^"Hingham Square building among many structural collapses on South Shore".Retrieved30 May2017.
- ^"Building #19 Warehouse".Retrieved30 May2017.
- ^"Pieces of Hingham history to see new life".Retrieved15 July2017.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (1968).U.S. Warships of World War II.Doubleday and Company.ISBN978-0-87021-773-9.
 United States NavyLST-542-classtank landing ships |
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