We’ve written previously about South Portland Engineering that once operated on Madison Street in South Portland; its large fabrication building was destroyed in 1965 in what is still called “the shipyard fire.” We hadn’t known much about the principal of the company, Marshall Turnbaugh, so I was thrilled to get a call from his son, Brian, recently. Thanks to Brian, we now know much more about this fascinating man who had a connection to South Portland.

Marshall E. “Bill” Turnbaugh was born in 1916 in Merna, Nebraska. Bill’s family soon moved to Portland, Oregon, where he grew up and attended Ulysses S. Grant High School. After graduation, he entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in June of 1935 and was commissioned an ensign in June, 1939. He was stationed aboard the battleship USS Idaho, then was assigned to the new destroyer USS Charles F. Hughes in 1940.

In 1942, Turnbaugh rose to the rank of lieutenant and the Navy sent him to MIT to study naval architecture and marine engineering; he earned his master’s degree in 1946. He was then sent to the San Francisco Naval Shipyard where one of the things he worked on was the decontamination of Bikini target ships (ships that had been exposed to radiation from the atomic bomb tests conducted by the U.S. at the Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, in July, 1946).

In 1948, Turnbaugh began his notable lifetime work – working in the Navy’s nascent nuclear program. In 1948, he was assigned to the Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois, to participate in the conceptual design of the USS Nautilus, the first U.S. nuclear-powered submarine. He was the Navy’s senior technical officer involved in the concept, design and construction of the Nautilus (SSN-571). He was then sent to the Pittsburgh-area office of the Atomic Energy Commission where he served as the senior technical representative, supervising the work by Westinghouse on the Nautilus. The Nautilus was built at General Dynamics in Groton, Connecticut; her keel was laid in 1952 and she was launched in January, 1954.

In July, 1955, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery was awarded the contract to build the USS Swordfish (SSN-579). Turnbaugh, by now a commander in the Navy, was sent to the Kittery yard to head up its nuclear power program.

His first order of business was to initiate a training program for shipyard employees. In a 1955 article in the Portland Sunday Telegram, Turnbaugh was quoted, “Our primary job in the nuclear power division at the present time is to provide the means of training for shipyard employees to meet the needs of the entire yard in nuclear power work.”

The keel for the Swordfish was laid in January, 1956, and Turnbaugh was the nuclear power superintendent at the yard throughout its construction. He rose to the rank of captain in November of 1956. The Swordfish was launched in August, 1957.

While working at the Kittery yard, Turnbaugh lived in York Beach with his wife Muriel and sons, Brian and Michael. Their son, Jonathan, was born at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital in 1956.

Turnbaugh remained at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard until 1959 when he retired from the Navy. He went to work for Westinghouse Electric Corporation for two years (Westinghouse manufactured equipment such as pressurized water-cooled reactors, electrical switchgear and steam turbines for propulsion for nuclear submarines), then was hired by John J. McMullen Associates, a naval architecture firm in New York, as vice president and chief engineer.

Turnbaugh and McMullen had known each other for years; John had also attended Annapolis (a year behind Bill), had served in the Navy for 15 years, and had also attended MIT and earned a master’s degree in naval architecture and marine engineering.

In April, 1963, a new company was formed, South Portland Engineering Company, with John J. McMullen as its chairman and Bill Turnbaugh as president. The company leased the Heavy Military Equipment Division of the Prosperity Company in South Portland (that division manufactured parts for missiles and submarines). The changeover of the operation took place over a weekend, with the Prosperity division closing on Friday, April 26, 1963, and reopening on Monday, April 29, as South Portland Engineering.

South Portland Engineering primarily operated out of two large, former World War II shipyard buildings: Building 25 on the north/west side of Madison Street and Building 203, the long machine shop building that ran parallel to it on the other side of Madison Street.

South Portland Engineering’s Building 25 went up in a massive blaze in 1965. The building that stretched the entire length of Madison Street was engulfed in flames quickly; it was at night, and the few employees on site were lucky to get out alive. With the interior of the building just a long open expanse, the flames raced across the ceiling, end-to-end, so by the time the fire department arrived, there was no chance of saving the building.

There were also tanks of nitrogen, oxygen and acetylene that were exploding. The focus for the responding fire departments was on controlling the blaze and preventing the spread of fire. It took only about an hour for the fire to completely destroy the building and its contents. Because the company had been working on parts for nuclear submarines, there was great fear in the community that a disaster would happen and that homes would need to be evacuated. According to a story in the Nashua (New Hampshire) Telegraph on May 7, 1965, the Atomic Energy Commission sent a team to keep a close eye on radiation coming from a pea-sized piece of cobalt in the rubble. Luckily the cobalt had been protected in a heavy lead box and the radiation was deemed safe while plans were made to remove it.

The fire was a huge loss. Inside the building, the company had been working on hull sections of a new research vessel, the stern section of a nuclear submarine, and a variety of missile parts. With all of this gone, the company had to make plans to find new space and begin again. It still had two other buildings, including the massive Building 203, but with the fabrication plant now gone, there were over 100 people out of work.

Within a few weeks, the company was able to work out a lease agreement with the Navy, to rent the three-story, 70,000-square-foot Building 5 that stood on the land used by the Naval Reserve, just adjacent to Bug Light. By January of 1966, the company was booming once again, with new orders coming in and plans to begin again the construction of the $1.1 million research vessel, the Delaware II.

In June, 1966, South Portland Engineering announced that it had been awarded contracts to build steam turbine components for the General Electric Company that could amount to over $5 million in new business. By 1967, however, while South Portland Engineering was finishing the construction of the research vessel, General Electric negotiated to purchase the leases and property rights of South Portland Engineering facilities in the shipyard.

By June of 1967, negotiations were completed, and GE moved its heat transfer products division to South Portland, beginning operation in September in the buildings of, and using the equipment formerly used by, South Portland Engineering. Most of South Portland Engineering’s employees went to work for GE. Turnbaugh attempted to find alternative large-scale facilities in the greater Portland area to continue operations, but nothing could be found. The company temporarily moved to a small building on Buttonwood Street in South Portland.

The Delaware II was completed and launched on Dec. 31, 1967. In 1968, South Portland Engineering was still in operation, but primarily just working on the outfitting and final completion of the Delaware II. The company leased an office and had the ship berthed at Brown’s Wharf in Portland.

In an article in the Portland Sunday Telegram in August, 1968, Turnbaugh was quoted, “I’m definitely interested in keeping in business … but I just don’t have time to look around for new work now … We are working 16 hours a day to get Delaware II completed before the end of August. We’ve got to get her through her trial runs  … after Delaware II is done, many of us will want vacations. I haven’t had one in three years.”

In January, 1970, Turnbaugh went to work as the director of engineering at the Quincy, Massachusetts, shipyard of General Dynamics. He died of an apparent heart attack in August, 1970, at the age of only 54, and is buried with his wife Muriel at the First Parish Cemetery in York.

If you have photographs or other information to share about South Portland’s past, we would love to hear from you. South Portland Historical Society can be reached at 207-767-7299, by email at sphistory04106@gmail.com, or by mail at 55 Bug Light Park, South Portland, ME 04106.

Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society. She can be reached at sphistory04106@gmail.com.

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