New England Shipbuilding Corporation

The New England Shipbuilding Corporation was a shipyard located in the city of South Portland, Maine, United States. The yard originated as two separate entities, the Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding Corporation and the South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation, which were created in 1940 and 1941 respectively, in order to meet the demand created by World War II. The two merged in 1943, then continued to produce ships as the New England Shipbuilding Corporation's East Yard and West Yard. Both closed at the end of the war.^[1][2]

The two yards built 266 ships: 154 in the East Yard, 112 in the West Yard.The first 30 East Yard ships were cargo ships built for the United Kingdom. The remaining ships were of the Liberty ship design, derived from the Ocean class, and were built for the United States Maritime Commission. Among them was the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, a Liberty ship that is preserved as a museum ship in San Francisco.^[3]

At the peak of production, the yards employed 30,000 people.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ "New England Shipbuilding (East & West)". Project Liberty Ship. http://www.liberty-ship.com/html/yards/newengland.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20. 
2. ^ "South Portland Shipyards of World War II - History of the Shipyards". http://members.dialmaine.com/mdenis/Shipyard/history.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "South Portland Shipyards of World War II - Ship List". http://members.dialmaine.com/mdenis/Shipyard/ships.html. Retrieved 2007-12-21. 
4. ^ "Around Maine - Portland's Liberty Ship Era". Times Warner Cable. http://www.maine.rr.com/Around_Town/features2002/libertyships/default.asp. Retrieved 2007-12-23.