41
T WAS THE WINTER OF 1940. The
United States had not entered the conflict
that was threatening to engulf the world, but
President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to help
the nations fighting Germany and Italy.
“They were trying to keep the British sup-plied
with munitions and food,” says Ralph Scott,
a history professor at East Carolina University and
author of “The Wilmington Shipyard: Welding a
Fleet for Victory in World War II.”
Roosevelt proposed a “bridge of ships” that
would ferry desperately needed supplies across the
Atlantic. He called for new shipyards that would
build a massive merchant fleet. While ostensibly
an effort to help Great Britain, the president was
looking ahead to the day when the United States
would be drawn into the war.
“Everyone thought it was inevitable, and so did
President Roosevelt,” Jones says.
The U.S. Maritime Commission awarded a
contract to the Newport News Shipbuilding and
Dry Dock Company of Virginia, which agreed
to build a shipyard in Wilmington “adequate to
deliver 25 Libertys by March 15, 1943.”
The company selected and purchased a 59.6-acre
location about three miles south of downtown
Wilmington, on the east bank of the Cape Fear
River.
“Five Years of North Carolina Shipbuilding
1941-1946,” a book published by the company
describes the site as ideal, “with the physical prop-erties
of deep fresh water, ample space, adequate
feeder railroads and good climate. In addition, it
was convenient to the parent Company, and most
important of all, a labor supply of sufficient vol-ume
and good calibre was close at hand.”
The book colorfully sets the scene for the yard’s
beginning: “It was a cold, rainy Feb. 3, 1941,
when ground was broken in the wind-swept flats,
swampland and woods along the Cape Fear River
for our great yard. So we began, with only a stretch
of riverland, plans, a cadre of experienced men from
Newport News, and orders from the President to do
our part in providing a ‘bridge of ships.’”
Preparing
for
war
1940
Roosevelt
proposed
a “bridge
of ships”
that would
ferry
desperately
needed
supplies
across the
Atlantic.
The Wilmington shipyard bustled with activity in the early 1940s.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NORTH CAROLINA OFFICE OF STATE ARCHAEOLOGY
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