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The Office of Supervisor of Shipbuilding, USN, Orange, Texas, was established on 24 August 1940, with Commander E. B. Perry, USN, as the first Supervisor. The duty of the office at the time was to supervise the construction of twenty-four 30' Surf Landing boats under contract NOs-76255, awarded to the Levingston Shipbuilding Company on 22 August 1960, and the building of a shipyard under facilities contract NOs-1544, dated 9 Sep tember 1940, to be used for the construction of twelve destroyers under contract NOd-1512, awarded to the Consolidated Steel Corporation, Shipbuilding Division, on 9 September 1940. Both yards occupied the same peninsula in the southeastern part of the city. Livingston's with necessary equipment, was located on the northwest side of the land and was functioning as a tug and barge yard, while Consolidated, lying along the southeast side of the area, had merely a small steel fabricating plant and sixty-five acres of low-lying land that had to be reaised three to four feet. It was on these sixty-five acres that the shipyard was built. The peninsula was destined to become the scene of untold activity in the next five years, but at the beginning in 1940, one required long -range vision to picture its possibilities. |
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The Supervisor's office immediately set out to procure a civil service staff. Miss Arbana Craft, a clerk-typist, was the first employee, having been hired on 30 August 1940. The staff later grew to a total of four hundred and sixty-three men and women and included clerical workers, store keepers, material men, technical specialists and inspectors, which staff was in addition to the Navy complement of forth-five officers and nine enlisted men. While labor was fairly plentiful, it was difficult to find workers skilled in the construction of Naval vessels, particularly steel vessels which were entirely new to the area. Therefore, it became necessary to engage what skilled people were available and begin a training program for others. The Navy operated its own training program and supervised that of the contractors. Men and women poured in to take jobs, and training, and the City of Orange, with its normal population of approximately seven thousand people, grew steadily and rapidly to some thirty-five to forty thousand at the building peak in 1943, and remained that crowded until late 1944 when a gradual dropping-off began. |
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The year 1941 brought additional contracts to Orange and a new contractor, Weaver Shipyards, was awarded contract NOs-83481 on April 1 for ten YMS's, and contract NOS-91955 on September 18 for two wooden sub-chasers. With the additional work, the knotty problem of housing, schooling, food and public health were, one by one, brought to the Supervisor's office. The war had not yet started, but the Navy authorized the construction of five hundred housing units in Navy Addition (Navy Park) which, on the basis of the projected work load, would take care of the immediate housing situation. On this basis, a program for other civic requirements was set up. The office, during this period, had many additional problems. While domiciled in Orange, other Navy contracts were being awarded in the Texas area and Resident Offices had to be set up |
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