Last updated: February 3, 2021
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Constructing a Navy at War
Constructing a Navy at War
The Charlestown Navy Yard, 1941-1945
Before there can be Navy warships, there must be naval shipyards. It is here where armies of workers built and prepared them. During World War II, as many as 50,000 men and women worked at the Charlestown Navy Yard alone, contributing naval vessels in response to a global crisis.
The Charlestown Navy Yard did not build USS Cassin Young. Bethlehem Steel in San Pedro, California, constructed that ship. But Cassin Young was one of 175 Fletcher class destroyers, built to the same plans, in the same fashion, with the same materials, by men and women on the East Coast as well as the West Coast. The journey of a Destroyer built in the Charlestown Yard mirrored the work of yards 3,000 miles away.
In this story, follow the work of the Navy Yard workers who made ships like USS Cassin Young a possibility during World War II.
Following the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the United States officially entered the Second World War. The entire nation rapidly mobilized to fight. However, long before servicemen could be stationed aboard a warship such as USS Cassin Young, an army of draftsmen, engineers, ship fitters, welders, craftsmen, electricians, and painters—to name just a few of the job descriptions—were all required to build a single ship.
Here in the Charlestown Navy Yard, employment peaked at over 50,000 men and women to fulfill such a mission. Entering the gates of the Yard, they brought skill, determination, and ingenuity. By the time World War II came to a close, the workers who came to this Navy Yard had accomplished an astounding feat. In just a matter of a few years, the yard workers designed, built, outfitted, and repaired over 36 Destroyers (DDs), 62 Destroyer Escorts (DEs), and and 44 Tank Landing Ships (LSTs).
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Virginia Wilder Parker - Coming to the Yard
Virginia Wilder Parker, Charlestown Navy Yard Welder during World War II on coming to the Charlestown Navy Yard.
Standing in the middle of the Charlestown Navy Yard, the echoes of an immense industrial complex surround you. The deep granite dry docks, the tall steel portal cranes, the solid masonry workshops, and the long paved piers all form a maritime landscape that operated for 174 years. Nevertheless, some the most visible and enduring markers of the Charlestown Navy Yard's accomplishments date from the mid-twentieth century, during the most defining events of the century: The Second World War (1941-1945), and the Cold War (approximately 1949-1991)
During World War II, the yard operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Three shifts rotated constantly, day and night, rain, snow, or sunshine. Machine shops and forges stamped and pounded all the materiel that future and existing warships required. Though welders and riveters became the iconic image of the wartime yard worker, it was the planning, machining, and forging in the background that kept those welders and riveters going.
As new ships rapidly took shape on the shipways and in dry docks at the Navy Yard, existing warships needed to be repaired and maintained for the continued war campaigns. Though many ships arrived for routine maintenance at Dry Dock 1, others limped back to the Yard following horrific events at sea. the war became very real when destroyers came to the Charlestown Navy Yard for repairs following shocking damage incurred by accidents or by German torpedoes
Though much of the fighting took place thousands of miles away, the war hit home daily at the Navy Yard. Everyone who worked knew a family member, friend, or neighbor who was serving in the war effort. Every ship they launched, every ship the put back together, brought the war closer to an end, and that husband, son, brother, neighbor, or friend one step closer to home.
The first step of building a ship required welders to form the ship's skeleton and skin: The keel, frames (or, ribs), and the hull. Yet this was just half the work. Inside the ship, compartments both big and small had to be formed with steel plates. Propulsion systems and machinery had to be installed; put in place by the high portal cranes ashore and mounted solidly to the ship's structure. Cables, pipes, and ducts had to be run everywhere to specifications stated on blueprints.
Deep down inside these ships, adverse conditions pushed the limits of endurance and even health of the workers. The weather ranged from bitter cold in winter to blazing hot in summer. Furthermore, the welding and painting processes created terrible fumes. Today, many materials handled inside these ships—including asbestos—have since been banned because they are now known to cause cancer.
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Virginia Wilder Parker - Working Inside a Ship
Virginia Wilder Parker, Charlestown Navy Yard Welder during World War II, on working inside ships under construction at the Charlestown Navy Yard.
Christening and launching of naval warships were celebratory occasions at the Navy Yards. What was once nothing but a keel now looked like a ship. As a sponsor cracked a traditional bottle of champagne across the bow, crowds watched as the hull rolled down the shipways and thundered into the water. It was an exciting occasion that many took pause to enjoy. But the event symbolized only half the work's completion.
The hull would transform into a warship during the final weeks prior to commissioning. From big items such as top-secret radar equipment and the ship's guns, down to every fuse and fork, everything had to be installed and stocked. Ships received a final camouflage paint job, and inspections and tests attempted to root out every possible error or defect in construction. As each day passed, crewmen began to come aboard and familiarize themeselves with their new berth and duty stations. When this occurred, the women ship workers were transferred off the project and on to another hull.
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Bill Spangler - Preparing the Ship
William "Bill" Spangler, Storekeeper 2nd Class on USS CASSIN YOUNG from 1943-1944 on the preparations for CASSIN YOUNG in San Pedro, California, prior to commissioning.
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Barbara Tuttle Green - Ship Launchings
Barbara Tuttle Green, Welder and Sheet Metal Worker at the Charlestown Navy Yard from 1943-1945 about ceremonies during ship launchings at the yard.
After a successful "shakedown" cruise and acceptance of the ship by the Navy, the ship would be commissioned into service with great fanfare. She was now an active warship of the United States Navy. Following commissioning, ships and their crews sailed off to an unknown and dangerous future. Many ships saw terrible action. Some never returned. USS Cassin Young would not be an exception, nor would the ships built by the Charlestown Navy Yard.
Victory in Europe and in Japan finally marked the end of the Second World War in 1945. With the Allies victorious, the entire nation celebrated an effort which required years of hard work and sacrifice—both in terms of time, energy, and dedication, as well as in terms of lost loved ones overseas.
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Barbara Tuttle Green - No Women on Commissioned Ships
Barbara Tuttle Green, Welder and Sheet Metal Worker at the Charlestown Navy Yard from 1943-1945 about how women were not permitted aboard ships once commissioned.
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Peter Byrum, Piping the Sides
Peter Byrum, Boatswain's Mate aboard USS CASSIN YOUNG 1943-1945, about piping the sides during the commissioning ceremony of CASSIN YOUNG on December 31, 1945.