Kaiser Shipyards

The Kaiser Shipyards were seven major shipbuilding yards located on the United States west coast during World War II. Kaiser ranked 20th among U.S. corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. The shipyards were owned by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, a creation of American industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, who established the shipbuilding company around 1939 in order to help meet the construction goals set by the United States Maritime Commission for merchant shipping.

Four of the Kaiser Shipyards were located in Richmond and were called the Richmond Shipyards. Together, these four Kaiser Shipyards produced 747 ships, including many of the famous Liberty ships and Victory ships‍—‌more than any other complex in the United States. Only one of these ships, the SS Red Oak Victory, survives. Kaiser also produced the Casablanca-class escort carriers.

Three other shipyards were located across the Columbia River from each other at Ryan Point in Vancouver, Washington and in the St. Johns area of Portland, Oregon as part of the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation group, and at Swan Island in Portland.

Henry Kaiser was known for developing new methods of ship building, which allowed his yards to outproduce other similar facilities and build 1,490 ships, 27 percent of the total Maritime Commission construction. Kaiser's ships were completed in two-thirds the time and a quarter the cost of the average of all other shipyards. Liberty ships were typically assembled in a little over two weeks, and one in less than five days.

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