The shipyard Drills To rivet Quincy is an important center of naval construction, located at Quincy, close to Boston, in the State of the Massachusetts (the United States). Established in 1900, this shipyard was exploited a long time by Bethlehem Steel Corporation, then General Dynamics Corporation, which closed it in 1986.
The origins (1884-1913)
The zone where the building site was established, at the edge of Drills To rivet, had an old tradition of naval construction, since a first boat was built there as of 1696.Drills To rivet Company Engine was created, in 1884, by Thomas Augustus Watson, a former assistant of Alexander Graham Bell. In 1900, this still modest company establishes a shipyard to 3 km downstream from its preceding workshops, always in Quincy, on a bank Fore To rivet it. The site had several advantages: proximity of the port of Boston (15 km), good service road by the rail and the sea, site sheltered in edge of river, but with an access to the sea out of deep water, grounds available for future extensions.
In 1900, the building site launched the first boat entirely out of steel built in the area: the Diamond Shoal . The U.S. Navy placed several orders to him, like that of the cruiser Of the Monks , launched in 1902, and of two battleships of 14 600 tons, the Rhode Island and the New Jersey , which were delivered in 1906, afterwards unforeseen difficulties. A Goélette out of steel with seven masts was launched in 1902, the '' Thomas W. Lawson '', of the name of its owner.
The company, which was called then Drills it To rivet Ship & Engine Company, knew a rapid expansion and launched during the following years of the cruisers, the destroyers, the submarines, the battleships and the tradind ships.
Part of the activity of the shipyard Drills To rivet resulted from an agreement made with the company Electric Boat de Groton (Connecticut) for the construction of the majority of the submarines which this company had in order. This arrangement lasted a score of years.
Bethlehem Steel (1913-1963)
In 1913, Bethlehem Steel Corporation was to provide steel for the construction of a armoured ordered by the Argentine, the Rivadavia . But Drills it To rivet Ship & Engine Company missed financial capacities to conclude this project. Bethlehem Steel repurchased the building site then Drills To rivet for 4,8 million dollars, protecting its interests and securing a big role in naval construction.During the First World War, the shipyard of Quincy, from now on known under the name of Bethlehem Drills To rivet, continued to grow and thrive, employing until 15 000 people. A building site annexes was established near the principal building site Drills To rivet; the site, known under the name of Squantum, was specialized in construction in series of destroyers. Bethlehem Drills To rivet reached records of production during the war: 71 destroyers, more than all the other building sites of the joined together United States (35 for the building site of Squantum and 36 for that Drills To rivet).
After the war, the additional building site of Squantum was closed, but that of Quincy continued to build tradind ships as well as warships (cruisers, submarines, destroyers and aircraft carrier). The USS Lexington , the first not-experimental aircraft carrier of the U.S. Navy, was delivered by the building site in 1928. It was about an old battleship transformed into aircraft carrier. With the USS Saratoga , he played an important role in the construction of the fleet of aircraft carrier of the United States, whose role was going to be crucial during the Second world war.
In the years of the Great Depression, the activity of the building site of Quincy slows down. It delivered some destroyers and cruisers to the U.S. Navy as well as an aircraft carrier. For lack of orders, the building site also launched out in naval repair. At that time, Quincy was a rather preserving community and the building site lacked a powerful trade union of the workers of naval construction, following the example other building sites, which could have drawn to him the attention of the government as well as orders. Moreover, the direction of Bethlehem Steel was particularly hostile with the organization of a trade union independent of workers on the building site Drills To rivet.
In 1938, the programme of expansion of the U.S. Navy (Naval Program Expansion) involved a clear renewal of activity of the building site, whose manpower rose with 17 000 workers at the time of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. During the Second world war, many aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and battleships left the building site of Quincy and its appendix, the building site close to Hingham. This last was specialized in the construction of boats of unloading and escort ships. In 1943, the total staff complement culminated with 32 000 people, including a certain number of women who worked like welding machines, grutières or painters.
Once the finished war, the shipyard of Quincy worked initially to satisfy the last orders of the U.S Navy, passed during the war (cruisers USS Salem and USS Of the Monks ). Then the building site entered during one more difficult time, suffering in particular from high production costs. In 1955, Bethlehem Steel let escape the contracts for construction from the new aircraft carriers of the Forrestal class, which went for the majority to Newport News Shipbuilding. Fore River built nevertheless two ships missile launcher with nuclear propulsion, USS Bainbridge and USS Long Beach . It also launched the tanker Manhattan , famous for its voyage for the Passage of the North-West, carried out in 1969, that is to say one year after the oil discovery in the north of the Alaska.
General Dynamics (1963-1986)
For lack of new orders, Bethlehem Steel announced in 1963 the setting on sale of the building site Drills To rivet and the dismissal or retirement of 1 300 of the 1 800 paid remaining on the site. This one was repurchased by the General Dynamics Corporation, of which it became “Quincy Shipbuilding Division”. General Dynamics was already owner of the Shipyard Electric Boat de Groton (Connecticut). Important investments were quickly engaged in Quincy, in order to restore the competitiveness of the building site. Modern basins of construction were arranged and novel methods implemented, like the automation of certain operations or the modular design of elements sub-assembled in another part of the building site. A Goliath gantry able to raise parts of 1 000 tons was installé ; it was then most powerful Grue of building site naval American.General Dynamics carried out in its project of Quincy the construction of and large-sized warship tradind ships, adapted well to the semi-automated and modular techniques of construction. General Dynamics launched various ships for the US Navy, including four submarines of attack, which were delivered between 1967 and 1969 ( Greenling , Gato , Whale and Sunfish ). Work of revision, modernization and transformation of ships was also led to Quincy, as well on trading vessels as military.
At the end of the years 1970 and to the beginning of the year 1980, the building site of Quincy was devoted to the enormous construction of ten methane tankers (LNG carriers), long 285 meters and able to transport 125 000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas. The very complex construction of these ten methane tankers is regarded as a great success of the building site of Quincy. In the middle of the years 1980, the building site préposionnement built five ships of maritime (Maritime Prepositioning Ships, MPS) for US Navy. These ships of 42 000 tons were conceived to transport all the equipment and the provisioning necessary to 4 000 marine during 30 days of combat. These ships were delivered in 1985 and 1986.
Then, the lack of orders and the too high production costs, according to General Dynamics, led to the closing of the building site in 1986. This one occupied 7 then; 000 paid, which was laid off or put at the retirement.
The equipment was sold and the site was used as deposit for companies of public works. An activity of demolition of ships occupied some time part of the site. In 1994, USS Salem , returned in Quincy, where it constitutes the showpiece of a Museum of the naval construction of the United States (United States Naval & Shipbuilding Museum).
Sources
- Histoire of the building site Drills To rivet
Internal bond
External bonds
- the building site of Quincy on Google Maps
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the building site of Quincy on Wikimapia
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History of the building site of Quincy
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List of the ships built of 1884 to 1925
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List of the ships built of 1925 to 1963
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List of the ships built of 1963 to 1986
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the building site of Quincy on Globalsecurity
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United States Naval & Shipbuilding Museum
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