Fore River Shipyard
Fore River Shipyard was a shipyard on Weymouth Fore River in Braintree and Quincy, Massachusetts, that built hundreds of ships for military and civilian customers from 1883 to 1986.
The yard was founded in Braintree by Thomas A. Watson and Frank O. Wellington; it moved to Quincy Point in 1901. In 1913, it was purchased by Bethlehem Steel, and later transferred to Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation. It was sold to General Dynamics in 1963 and closed in 1986.
Most of the ships at the yard were built for the United States Navy. Its first government contract, for the destroyer, was followed by many others, including the battleship, the cruisers and ; and the aircraft carrier and its successor. The yard built early submarines for Electric Boat, including and. For foreign navies, Fore River produced five Type 1 submarines for the Imperial Japanese Navy, ten submarines for the Royal Navy, and the battleship for the Argentine Navy.
The yard built several merchant marine ships, including Thomas W. Lawson, the largest pure sailing ship ever built, and, the first ship built to carry refrigerated chemicals. General Dynamics Quincy Shipbuilding Division, as it eventually came to be known, ended its career as a producer of LNG tankers and merchant marine ships.
The yard also built passenger liners, including Matson Line's SS Mariposa, SS Monterey, and SS Lurline and American Export Lines' SS Independence and SS Constitution.
It was home to the second-largest shipbuilding crane in the world. It had two sub-yards: the Victory Destroyer Plant in Quincy during World War I and the Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard in Hingham during World War II. The yard also owned Bethlehem Atlantic Works, a drydock in East Boston.
One theory holds that the yard was the origin of the "Kilroy was here" graffito.
History
Origins
The shipyard traces its beginnings to 1882, when Thomas A. Watson purchased a farm alongside the Fore River in East Braintree, Massachusetts. In 1884, Watson unsuccessfully attempted to farm the land, but switched his focus to developing a steam engine after he was approached by a local businessman. He gave up that effort the following year, and decided to work with business partner Frank O. Wellington on shipbuilding.Fore River Engine Company
The pair created the Fore River Engine Company after receiving an order from Maine for a 50-horsepower engine. Their first ship, the Barnacle, was fitted with local furnishings. Watson later said of this decision:
It was a momentous decision for from it came one of the largest shipbuilding establishments in the country, if not in the world, that made Massachusetts again a shipbuilding center and afterwards played an important part in the World War.
The shipyard's engines gained a reputation for quality along the eastern seaboard. Soon, a new engine-building facility was constructed, employing between twenty and thirty workers. Additionally, the Prouty Printing Press and Sims-Dudley dynamite gun, staple guns for shoes, and electric light accessories were produced by Fore River. Fore River made many products because Watson wanted to employ as many friends as possible.
The Panic of 1893 limited the yard's possibilities, but the United States Navy awarded a contract to them to construct and. These two ships were the last to be constructed at the East Braintree location, as the yard moved down the river to a site on nearby Quincy Point in 1901. The construction of United States lightship LV-72 alongside the destroyers further strengthened the company financially.
The awarding of was also beneficial for Fore River. Faced with the problem of not having a large enough area to build the cruiser, the contract was produced at the new Quincy yard. The Des Moines was launched in 1902 and commissioned in 1904, bringing with it some financial stability to the yard, as new revenues were quadruple those at the East Braintree location. During the construction of the new yard, old buildings were floated over to make up for the lack of buildings at the new location, and it was constructed with some of the largest shipbuilding equipment of the time.
Fore River Ship and Engine Company
The building of the new yard created ample space for building new ships, which allowed for the building of and. The Navy did mandate that before they could receive the bids, they would have to incorporate, so the company was incorporated in New Jersey, with a capital of $. Immediately, Thomas A. Watson realized that the contract would be more costly than anticipated, but soon an order came in for the seven-masted Thomas W. Lawson. This was immediately followed by an order for the six-masted William L. Douglas, which was delivered in 1903.In 1902, Watson decided to build the Fore River Railroad, a short-line railroad from East Braintree to the yard, away. This was done in order to save costs of having to remove supplies from the trains, transport it over land to Weymouth Fore River, and then float it over to the yard. Watson ended up buying a parcel of land after the owner refused to sell him of land for the railroad.
During this time, the yard struggled financially, as expenses from suppliers exceeded reimbursement from the Navy. As a result, Watson decided to sell some of his telephone stock and secured a loan. At this time, the yard was awarded with a contract for, although this did not solve the company's troubles. Following a failed attempt by Watson to seek reimbursement from the Navy, he eventually resigned and was replaced by former Admiral Francis T. Bowles, as he was pleased by how Bowles ran the yard.
In 1905, the yard got a contract to build the Brown-Curtis steam turbine engine, which was considered to be too fast to be economical at the day and age. That same year, the Navy awarded a contract to build the Chester-class cruisers at the yard, two of which were supposed to be equipped with the Brown-Curtis turbine, but which later received new turbines.
File:JapanFirstSubmarines.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|alt=Five submarines moored next to each other with men standing on them|The first five submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy in Japan
The Russo-Japanese War further benefited the yard, as the Imperial Japanese Navy contracted five Type 1 submarines at the yard. Little is known of the first submarines built at the yard, although they were promptly disassembled and shipped to the West Coast, from which they were shipped to Japan in 1904. The war brought expanded submarine development to the yard, as the Holland Torpedo Boat Company was purchased by the Electric Boat Company. Since Electric Boat had no yard of its own, it subcontracted to Fore River in order to complete orders. The first American submarine built at the yard was, launched in 1906. This arrangement lasted for the next twenty years, until Electric Boat built its own yard in 1924. Fore River would remain the primary builder of Electric Boat-designed submarines through the S-class of 1922, completing a total of 69 submarines for the US Navy during this period.
During this time, the yard built civilian ships, including Sankaty, which was built for the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket Steamboat Company. Furthermore, the company created the Fore River Apprentice School, in order to ensure that an adequately trained workforce would be able to work at the yard in the coming years. Over time, over 2,000 people were graduated from its program.
In 1906, and were delivered by the shipyard, marking the yard's first battleships delivered. The completion of these two battleships and other ships at the yard coincided at a time when there were 2,500 people employed. In 1908, there were eighteen contracts employed at Fore River, which would not be met again until 1916. The yard also completed car floats for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad during the time.
Of note, Fore River fielded a soccer team from at least 1907 to around 1920-1921. This team, which played in local leagues, was part of one of the early soccer leagues in the U.S..
Another big development in the history of the yard was the receiving of the contract to build the for the Argentine Navy. The ship was one of two foreign battleships ever constructed in the United States, and occurred during the South American dreadnought race. After a long bidding process, the Argentine Naval Commission found that the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company bid was lowest on one battleship, and the Fore River Shipbuilding Company was lowest on the other. Despite some potential setbacks, the upcoming 1910 Pan-American Conference, and a guarantee of American participation in the Argentine centennial celebrations, Fore River secured the battleship contracts on 21 January 1910. The maximum price Fore River tendered, $10.7 million, underbid the British by more than $973,000, but their ship's displacement was smaller, the belt armor was thinner, and the top speed was slightly slower.
Rivadavia was built by Fore River, but they were contractually obligated to subcontract the second ship to a different shipyard in the hope that both would be completed faster, so was constructed by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey. The steel for the ships was largely supplied by the Bethlehem Steel Company of Pennsylvania, which, due to their ability to produce steel at a lower price than other nations, was an integral cost-saving measure.
The ship was laid down in 1910, but was finally delivered in 1914 after delays in construction due to a work backlog at the yard. It was because of this issue that Admiral Bowles suggested that the yard be sold to a larger corporation, as it would be able to better deal with the extra workload than the yard could on its own. The last ship laid down in the yard at the time was, which happened in 1912.
In 1911, the yard was part of the case Fore River Shipbuilding Co. v. Hagg, in which a foreign citizen sued for the yard for reparation in the death of her husband, who was killed in the yard's forge shop. The case was later dismissed by the United States Supreme Court.