Marsh's Maritime Media

LIBERTY FACTORY—the first account of the amazing achievements of Henry Kaiser’s Portland and Vancouver shipyards during World War II

I have spent almost 40 years as a freelance marine reporter covering the nautical news on the lower Columbia River and beyond. and collected a large amount of material on local ship-building during World War II, particularly with the archive of Portland photo-journalist Lawrence Barber (1901-1996)–the last marine editor of the Oregonian newspaper. During WWII, he kept the readers informed of weekly progress at the three huge Kaiser yards, and in 1942, awarded the city the unofficial title of “Liberty Ship Capitol of the World!”

This grand gesture certainly impressed me when he reprised it 50 years later in 1992, but another 25 years passed before I actually started work on the book, inspired by the news that a special celebration was planned in Normandy, France in 2019 to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. That convinced me it was time to get serious about telling the full story of the accomplishments of the three Kaiser “emergency” shipyards in this region with a deadline of 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in 1945.

Kaiser workers gather for the launch of the famous “10-day ship” in 1942

Fortunately, I was able to find an experienced publisher: Seaforth, a UK house that specializes in nautical books with a U.S. distributor, USNI of Annapolis, Maryland. “Liberty Factory“ is the first full account of this important period in regional history and has 256 large format pages, illustrated with over 100 black & white prints that I personally selected and scanned from Barber’s collection of original 8 x 10 images.

They cover every stage of the construction of the 324 Liberty ships and 99 Victory ships built in the St. Johns district, the 142 T2 tankers built on Swan Island, and the 50 escort aircraft carriers and over 100 other vessels built in Vancouver. The Kaiser workforce consisted of over 100,000 men and women, most of whom had no prior experience in metal working, engineering etc.

This required the pioneering of many new ideas and methods in training and revolutionary developments in mechanization and pre-fabrication to enable true mass-production of ships for the first time. This was quickly adopted and adapted to develop the modern modular systems utilized by all successful shipyards. Kaiser also pioneered medical coverage for all his employees, which grew to become now one of the nation’s leading health care providers, and a 24-hour child care service that unfortunately closed in 1945.

The book also covers the activity of the four original shipyards in Portland, which had barely survived the Depression years repairing tugs, barges and ferries. They rapidly expanded to have the capacity to build hundreds of smaller naval vessels up to 149′ long, including subchasers, minesweepers, and landing craft. There are also chapters describing other local manufacturers who converted their plants to supply the 2,500 hp steam engines and anchor winches for the Liberties, and much of the deck gear and interiors needed by the shipyards. (Read some reviews.) I will sign and ship it to anyone in the USA for $55 including postage and packing. It is also available for $50 at the Hawthorn Cannery Museum shop in Astoria, where I volunteer.

I organized a successful “book tour” around the region in 2024 including one on the 80th anniversary of D-Day in St Helens.

2024 Lectures