Marsh's Maritime Media

LIBERTY FACTORY: the first full 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 in 2019, inspired by the news that a special celebration was planned to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France . 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 the construction of the 324 Liberty ships and 99 Victory ships built by “Oregon Ship” in the St. Johns district, the 142 T2 tankers built on Swan Island, and the 50 escort aircraft carriers, 30 C4 attack transports and other vessels built in Vancouver.

The Kaiser workforce consisted of over 70,000 men who had no prior experience in metal working or engineering and 30,000 women, many of whom were taught to weld in a two-week crash course! This required the pioneering of many new ideas and methods in training, from a 24-hour child care service to the revolutionary introduction of large-scale prefabrication to enable true mass-production of ships. This system was the basis for the modern modular system using computer-controlled cutting that is now utilized by all modern shipyards. Kaiser also pioneered full medical service for his employees, which became Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s leading health care providers.

The book also covers the activity of the four original shipyards in Portland that had barely survived the Depression years repairing local tugs, barges and ferries. They rapidly expanded their capacity in 1940-42 to build hundreds of smaller naval vessels up to 149′ long, including subchasers, minesweepers, and landing craft.

Around 1140 ships over 100′ long were launched in the area in just four years. Their combined length was about 100 miles–enough to reach from Portland all the way to Astoria! There are also chapters describing other local companies who converted their factories to manufacture 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 a review.)

I will sign and ship it to anyone in the USA for $50 including postage and packing. It is also available from me at the Hanthorn Cannery Museum shop in Astoria, where I volunteer.

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