On Saturday, March 23, the South Portland Historical Society will hold a lecture about South Portland’s World War II shipyards at the Community Center at 1 p.m. From 1941 to 1945, South Portland produced 244 Liberty ships and 30 Ocean ships at two shipyards on its eastern waterfront. The shipyards covered a massive area that today is home to Port Harbor Marine, the Breakwater condominiums and townhouses, the Packard property along Madison Street, and Bug Light Park.
The Liberty ship SS Hannibal Hamlin, about to be launched from the West Yard of South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation on March 5, 1943. South Portland Historical Society photo
When the war was first taking place in Europe in 1939 and 1940, Great Britain was fighting a losing battle on the water as Germany’s U-boats were sinking British ships faster than they could build them (at shipyards that were under attack by air).
Although the United States was not in the war yet, in December of 1940, a contract was signed to build 60 cargo ships for Great Britain. The contract for these “Ocean-class” ships was divided and awarded to two shipyards, one of them being the new Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding yard in South Portland.
William “Pete” Newell was the president of Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. Newell had been looking at the South Portland waterfront as the ideal space to build a shipyard of a new kind – one with watertight basins where ships could be constructed in a dry space, on a flat surface. Up to this point, dry docks had primarily only been used for ship repair; ship construction was traditionally done on a slanted ship way.
Bath Iron Works teamed up with the Todd Corporation from New York to create this new shipyard.
As soon as the contract was awarded in December, 1940, construction of the new shipyard began in South Portland. The remains of the former Cumberland Shipyard were cleared away, a cofferdam was constructed to hold the tide waters back, and a giant concrete basin was constructed. The basin was divided into three sections – two of them could accommodate construction of two ships each, the third basin could hold three ships. This allowed for seven ships to be constructed within the basins, and an outfitting pier was constructed where ships could be moved to complete the installation of their engines and equipment.
When the shipyards were constructed, there were some cases of existing homes being taken through eminent domain and reused as office buildings. Building 606, shown here, was originally a residential home at 50 Pickett St., but became home to the offices of the safety department. South Portland Historical Society photo
A few months after Todd-Bath first started creating its shipyard, the U.S. Maritime Commission undertook the creation of a second yard next door, to build Liberty-class cargo ships for the United States. The yard, which consisted of six traditional sloped ship ways, was run by the South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation. In addition to building the basins and ship ways, the two yards also constructed a large number of buildings to support the production.
After the Todd-Bath yard launched its 30th and final Ocean ship in late 1942, the South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation took over the basins and began constructing Liberty ships there, too. In the spring of 1943, the two yards were merged under a new name, New England Shipbuilding Corporation.
Liberty ships were critical to transporting desperately-needed resources and supplies to our European allies during the war. Since Portland was the closest geographic port in the U.S. to Europe, convoys would gather in Casco Bay before sailing across the North Atlantic to deliver supplies to Great Britain and the Soviet Union. To protect the fleets that congregated here, Casco Bay was fortified with large anti-ship guns, submarine nets, submarine indicator loops, and naval mines.
The convoys consisted of Liberty ships, oil tankers, and troop transports along with escort destroyers that protected the convoys from the German submarines. This theater of war was known as “The Battle of the Atlantic.”
Allied convoys fought against “wolf packs” – groups of German submarines that worked in tandem to identify and attack Allied shipping. The escort destroyers would patrol the outside of the convoys using their sonar to try to detect enemy submarines. The mid-Atlantic was the most dangerous region for convoys to pass through since land-based air support couldn’t protect the convoys from either the U.S. or the British Isles.
Building 401, constructed on filled land at the West Yard, housed the shipyard hospital. Having its own hospital allowed the shipyard to care for injured workers on site. It also resulted in many injuries going unreported in the media.
Approximately 30,000 shipyard workers labored in three shifts, 24 hours a day, to build Ocean and Liberty ships in South Portland. Roughly 10 percent of all Liberty ships built in the U.S. during the war were built here in South Portland.
The need for supplies in Europe was so great that ships had to be built as quickly as possible. To expedite the building process, Liberty ships were welded instead of riveted. The process of welding wasn’t quicker than riveting, however, it was quicker to teach someone how to weld.
Around 3,700 women worked in the South Portland shipyards. Some of these women worked as clerical workers. A significant number of women were trained to weld the vessels together. These women were affectionately known as “Wendy the Welders.” These “Wendys” were similar to the “Rosie the Riveters,” who worked in airplane production facilities and other shipyards where vessels were riveted.
Gender roles in the early 1940s were stricter than they are today. Many of these women had never worked outside the home before. If they did have jobs, the women were restricted to certain occupations like teachers and nurses. With so many men fighting in Europe and the Pacific, the country turned to women to produce much-needed armaments and supplies.
Mildred Joyce and Rachel Pelletier, workers at the New England Shipbuilding yard, were featured in the shipyard newspaper, New England Keel. South Portland Historical Society image
So that recently-hired female shipyard workers could purchase the proper clothing, Portland department stores started carrying welding gear for women. Storefront windows had female mannequins wearing hard hats and welding leathers (a leather outfit that protected the women from hot sparks and molten metal during the welding process).
Upcoming lecture: Kathy DiPhilippo and Seth Goldstein will have much more to share about “Wendy the Welder” and other shipyard topics at an illustrated lecture on Saturday, March 23, at 1 p.m. The event will be held in the Casco Bay Room of the South Portland Community Center. The lecture is free for current South Portland Historical Society members, or $20 for non-members. Annual family memberships are $25. Please arrive early if you wish to join at the door. Our speaker series is brought to you with the financial support of Bristol Seafoods.
Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is the executive director and Seth Goldstein is the development director of the South Portland Historical Society. The society can be reached by phone at 207-767-7299 or by email at sphistory04106@gmail.com.
Copy the Story LinkComments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
