A SHIPBUILDING FIRM THAT NEVER GOT CONSTRUCTED…

…MUCH LESS BUILT ANY SHIPS!

The James River Shipbuilding Corporation; An Extremely Short-Lived NNS Subsidiary

This largely forgotten World War II industrial endeavor probably holds the record as the shipyard with the shortest lifespan ever. From inception until termination, the James River Shipbuilding Corporation (JRSC) existed…mostly on paper…for only three and one-half months. Given such a brief time period with no tangible results; this ill-fated entity isn’t even mentioned in written histories about Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS). In early 1942, following the initiation of unrestricted warfare by German U-boats off America’s east coast, the United States Navy asked NNS to undertake the construction of Destroyer Escorts (DE’s in naval parlance). But the Company was already fully engaged in building carriers and cruisers, and performing extensive conversion and ship repair work at Newport News in support of the war effort. There simply wasn’t enough space or skilled staff at NNS to accommodate the additional workload that had been requested. Therefore, it was decided that to respond to the Navy’s needs, a new shipyard was the only practical answer. On February 3, 1942, a charter was issued for the James River Shipbuilding Company, and plans were rapidly set in motion to construct a shipbuilding facility near Richmond, Virginia on the banks of the James River. The selected site was near where two shipbuilding enterprises had once existed; one during the Civil War and another at the beginning of the 20th century. Although the river was narrow and relatively shallow in this area, it was suitable for building and ‘side-launching’ DE’s. Moreover, Richmond was a railroad hub, providing excellent logistical assistance in moving materials and equipment to the designated shipbuilding site. The concept of building an entirely new shipyard, designed for the mass production of a single class of vessels, followed the pattern established the previous year, when a NNS subsidiary firm, the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company (NCSC), had been created. Construction in Wilmington, North Carolina was far enough along in only ten months to permit the start of mass-production of Liberty ships during World War II. NCSC launched its first vessel on December 6, 1941…the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

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Several seasoned NNS shipbuilders were assigned the task of working with the Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation to design and construct a brand-new shipyard on 330 acres of undeveloped land in Richmond. The cost of that effort, to be borne by the Navy, was estimated at $20 million (roughly $300 million in current-day dollars). Construction of the JRSC facility was expected to be far enough along in construction by July of 1942 to permit shipbuilding operations to commence in parallel with the yard’s completion. Things moved fast, in those days!

Information contained in a Shipyard Bulletin headlined story in early 1942 indicated that the Richmond yard might have possibly become larger than the one in Wilmington, where multiple shipways permitted the mass production of six ships at a time. The James River is only two hundred feet wide at the selected site, but the Destroyer Escorts anticipated to be built there were 290 feet long. Quite obviously, side launching of these vessels was mandatory; something that had been accomplished in that immediate area a few decades earlier, when several ships of similar size had been constructed. Side launchings had never been needed at Newport News, where the James River is four miles wide. But domestic shipyards located on restricted waterways had perfected this technique. In 1942, they were building vessels for the Navy of similar and even larger size than the DE’s. The mechanics for ‘end-on’ and ‘side’ launching operations were quite similar. The only real difference is that the orientation of a ship and its sliding cradles differ…by ninety degrees. The proposed site for the James River Shipbuilding Corporation’s facility, as indicated on this photograph, was on the south side of the James River, a little downstream from the center of Richmond’s business district. Of course, that was long before the I-95 elevated bridge crossing, which dominates this contemporary image, was created.

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By the end of April 1942, seven shipyard buildings were under construction. NNS had opened an employment office on Hull Street, three blocks from the river, located in the upper right-hand quadrant of the photograph on the previous page. Twenty-five Personnel Department employees transferred there to start the development of a workforce. After only a month, they had received and were busily processing over 6,200 applications. In addition, a small welding school had been set up nearby. By the end of April, twenty-three new hires were in training. A small number of personnel from NNS’ Plant Engineers and Purchasing departments had also been dispatched to Richmond. Then, on April 30, 1942, the Navy Department suddenly and unexpectedly notified NNS that its destroyer escort shipbuilding contract was being cancelled. The Navy had decided that other American shipyards, which were already engaged in the construction of DE’s, could meet the Navy’s wartime needs. Military decisions changed fast, in those days! On June 2, 1942, the Navy Department formally terminated its shipbuilding contract with the JRSC…which shortly thereafter was disestablished. It is presumed the Navy bore the cost of that short-lived effort. Company employees that had been transferred to the ill-fated Richmond operation returned to Newport News to participate in ongoing and even further expanded efforts there, after the Navy asked NNS to build amphibious vessels. Stone & Webster’s efforts were redirected to create a large naval training school for diesel engine operation and maintenance at the proposed shipyard site. The seven buildings under construction were completed, along with fourteen new ones; to the tune of $2 million. Most, if not all of these structures were wooden barracks and training facilities; hurriedly built and later demolished after they had outlived their usefulness. No detailed descriptions or layout/location plans for the training facility could be found anywhere. The following excerpt and accompanying photograph from a World War II sailor’s fairly recent reminiscences does, however, provide some information:

“The training school and barracks

were located next to the rail line

that was part of the Seaboard

Railroad (It ran south to Florida).

The main building was huge. It

may have been a locomotive

repair station that was converted

for the Navy. Years ago I looked

for the buildings but they were

gone. The gate was just on the

other side of the track's

underpass. The buildings would

have been next to I-95. The first

time I ever saw a cockroach was at that training school.”

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Destroyer Escorts displaced less than 1,200 tons and often were nick-named ‘Little Boys’. They were built by numerous other American shipyards, and by the end of World War II, some 440 of these lightly armed vessels had been delivered to the Navy. A few of the earliest ones to be completed were transferred to the British to help replace their losses in the Battle of the Atlantic. Both navies employed DE’s primarily as convoy escorts and for anti-submarine warfare.

Entire volumes have been written about the activities and notable successes of America’s Destroyer Escorts during World War II. But none of those sturdy and adaptable ships ever became an integral part of Newport News Shipbuilding’s history…except as a forgotten footnote.

Although Newport News Shipbuilding never built any units in this class of combat vessels, some of the Company’s products undoubtedly benefited from protection by the Little Boys. Frequently, DE’s were employed to escort merchant ship convoys across the Atlantic. Many of those merchant vessels were Liberty ships built at the NNS’ subsidiary shipyard in Wilmington.

Today, only one of the World War II destroyer escorts is known to still be afloat. The USS SLATER (DE-766), delivered in 1944, also served in the Greek Navy following World War II. When returned to the United States, she became a museum ship and is moored in the Hudson River at Albany, NY.

Bill Lee