9/24/2023 0 Comments Navy memoirs pacific air war![]() ![]() In that span of time Bay Area shipyards built 1,400 vessels-a ship a day, on average. San Francisco Bay Area shipbuilders produced almost 45 percent of all the cargo shipping tonnage and 20 percent of warship tonnage built in the entire country during World War II. In the five years after 1940, American shipyards launched 4,600 ships. In the decade prior to 1940, America's shipyards launched only 23 ships. Unlike major shipyards on the east coast that were concentrated in compact urban areas, Bay Area shipbuilding consisted of components sprawled across hundreds of square miles, from Napa in the north, Sacramento and Stockton in the east, to San Jose in the south. Over 30 shipyards, large and small, and scores of machine shops, and metal and wood fabricators joined together to create the world's largest combined shipbuilding complex. The San Francisco Bay Area's major contribution to victory during World War II was shipbuilding. ![]() This essay is excerpted from Build Ships! San Francisco Bay Wartime Shipbuilding Photographs, by Wayne Bonnett, published by and available through Windgate Press, Sausalito, California. Historic ships at Hyde Street Pier, San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, San Francisco, California. ![]()
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