Brooklyn Navy Yard — also known as New York Navy Yard and
United States Navy Yard — dates back to the 1600s. It was designated
a United States Navy shipyard in 1801, thus it cannot be said to be a New
Deal project. However, at least four
of the ships built there during the New Deal were paid for by Public
Work Administration funds, thousands of its workers were on the WPA payroll,
and a great deal of building and infrastructure work essential to its
mission was done there by the WPA (see
table). Read about New Deal assistance to the Brooklyn Navy Yard
and shipbuilding below the thumbnails.
On a personal note, in the Army I sailed from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to
Bremerhaven, Germany, on the USNS Geiger in 1963 and three years later sailed
back to the Yard on the same ship to be released from the Army at nearby
Fort Hamilton.
Part 1: Gallery
Shipyard and buildings
People
Shipuilding and repair
Brooklyn Navy Yard diorama
Brooklyn Navy Yard World War II diorama at the SUNY Maritime College
Nautical Museum, Throgs Neck, Bronx NY.
WPA construction
All the images in this section are from
Public Works of the Navy,
Bulletin No.39, June 1937[
7].
More WPA construction
Photos from the Brooklyn Navy Yard Archive, now at the US National Archive
and Records Administration, Northeast Region, NYC, Record Group 181. This
collection includes hundreds of images, of which 30 or 40 were explicitly
marked "Works Progress Administration", most of which are included here.
Some others are also included that might be WPA projects even though the
photos were not marked as such.
PWA Ships
The Public Works Administration paid for (at least) six warships built in
New York City, including these four built at Brooklyn Navy Yard: USS
Brooklyn, USS
Erie, USCGC
Alexander Hamilton, and USCGC
John C. Spencer. But it might be argued that
every ship built
at the Brooklyn Navy Yard 1934-1945 was a New Deal ship because of the many
ways in which New Deal funding and labor made their construction possible;
see rationale below.
Other Ships
Famous ships built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard include the battleships
Arizona,
North
Carolina,
Iowa, and
Missouri as well as the aircraft carrier
Franklin
D. Roosevelt. The
Arizona was launched long before the New
Deal, but the others, even though they were not paid for by New Deal
agencies directly, were built at a shipyard where New Deal funding and labor
played an essential role in making their construction possible.
Shown below: USS
Arizona, one of FDR's "babies" from his
Navy Department days; USS
North Carolina, USS
Iowa, and USS
Missouri, which could not have been built without PWA funding and WPA
labor to make a shipways big enough to accommodate them; it was on the deck
of the
Missouri that World War II ended. And finally the carrier USS
Franklin D. Roosevelt, launched just days after FDR's death.
What Is a New Deal Ship?
New Deal money and labor were involved in every aspect of the Brooklyn Navy
Yard from 1933 onwards:
- New Deal money paid for at least four Navy and Coast Guard ships built at the Yard
- New Deal money paid for conversion of some existing ships for Navy use
- New Deal money paid for repair of some Navy ships damaged in the War
- New Deal money and labor reconstructed the Navy Yard for war production
- New Deal labor did engineering work
- New Deal labor did administrative work
- New Deal workshops trained draftsmen employed by the Yard*
- New Deal workshops trained young people for shipbuilding jobs
- New Deal workshops made parts for ships
- New Deal money paid to build housing for some Yard workers
Each ship built at the Yard during this period can therefore be said to have
been created with varying degrees of New Deal assistance (these items are
explained in the
next section):
- PWA financing of a ship [0.5]
- Critical infrastructure created by New Deal money or labor [0.4]**
- Engineering by WPA engineers [0.3]***
- Secondary infrastructure: workshops, roads, rails, power, plumbing,
steam, etc. [0.2]
- Parts manufactured at NYA workshops [0.2]
- Plans and blueprints drawn by WPA draftsmen [0.1]
- Shipbuilders trained at NYA workshops [0.1]
We might assign a "New Deal pedigree" score to each ship built at the Yard
between 1934 and 1945 according to the combination of criteria that apply to
it (summing the figures in brackets, but not exceeding 1.0). In every case
except the New Orleans it will be greater than zero. Here is a table
of the ships built at Brooklyn Navy Yard from 1933 to
1945[4], with some information added, plus a rough
New Deal score. The scores go down towards the end as the New Deal was
phased out after the war started.
Table 0: Brooklyn Navy Yard Ships 1933-1945[18]
Name
| Hull
| Type
| Tonnage
| Laid down
| Launched
| Score
| Fate
|
New Orleans
| CA-32
| Heavy Cruiser
| 10,000
| 1931/03/14
| 1933/04/12
| 0.0
| Scrapped 1959
|
Hull
| DD-350
| Destroyer
| 1,395
| 1933/03/07
| 1934/01/31
| 0.1
| Sunk in Philippine Sea 1944
|
Dale
| DD-353
| Destroyer
| 1,395
| 1934/02/10
| 1935/01/23
| 0.1
| Sold 1946
|
Erie
| PG-50
| Gunboat
| 2,000
| 1934/12/17
| 1936/01/29
| 1.0
| Torpedoed, beached, sunk 1942.
|
Brooklyn
| CL-40
| Light Cruiser
| 10,000
| 1935/03/12
| 1936/11/30
| 0.6
| Sold to Chile 1951, sunk 1992
|
Alexander Hamilton
| WPG-34
| Coast Guard Cutter
| 2,000
| 1935/09/11
| 1937/01/06
| 1.0
| Torpedoed and sunk off Reykjavik 1942
|
John
C. Spencer
| WPG-36
| Coast Guard Cutter
| 2,000
| 1935/09/11
| 1937/01/06
| 1.0
| Scrapped 1981
|
Honolulu
| CL-48
| Light Cruiser
| 10,000
| 1935/09/10
| 1937/08/26
| 0.6
| Torpedoed and sunk near Iceland 1942
|
Helena
| CL-50
| Light Cruiser
| 10,000
| 1936/12/09
| 1938/08/27
| 0.6
| Scrapped 1959
|
North Carolina
| BB-55
| Battleship
| 35,000
| 1937/10/27
| 1940/06/13
| 1.0
| Museum ship since 1962 Wilmington NC
|
Iowa
| BB-61
| Battleship
| 45,000
| 1940/06/27
| 1942/08/27
| 1.0
| Museum ship since 2011 San Pedro CA
|
Missouri
| BB-63
| Battleship
| 45,000
| 1941/01/06
| 1944/01/29
| 0.9
| Museum ship since 1999 Pearl Harbor HI
|
Bennington
| CV-20
| Aircraft Carrier
| 27,100
| 1942/12/13
| 1944/02/26
| 0.5
| Scrapped 1994
|
Bon Homme Richard
| CV-31
| Aircraft Carrier
| 27,100
| 1943/02/01
| 1944/04/29
| 0.5
| Scrapped 1992
|
Frankin D. Roosevelt
| CV-42
| Aircraft Carrier
| 45,000
| 1943/12/01
| 1945/04/29
| 0.4
| Scrapped 1978
|
Kearsarge
| CV-33
| Aircraft Carrier
| 27,000
| 1944/03/01
| 1945/05/05
| 0.4
| Scrapped 1974
|
Oriskany
| CV-34
| Aircraft Carrier
| 37,000
| 1944/05/01
| 1945/10/13
| 0.4
| Sunk as artificial reef 2006
|
Plus two floating workshops (YR34-35) and eight LST heavy landing craft
(LST311-318) of
which
six
survived to land at Normandy Beach on D-Day. 27 ships in all. In the
hull numbers, CL = cruiser; DD = destroyer;
PG = gunboat; CV = carrier, WPG = Coast Guard
cutter.
Part 2: Research
The Brooklyn Navy Yard reached its peak of activity, employment, and
production during Roosevelt Administration, ultimately turning out about 20
military ships that saw service in World War II. However, "its primary
responsibility was ship repair. More than 5,000 bomb- and-torpedo damaged
ships from many Allied nations streamed into New York Harbor for repairs,
and an additional 250 ships were converted from civilian to wartime use. By
the end of the war, BNY was the largest shipyard in the world, employing
over 75,000 workers."[14,p.83] Countless projects proceeded at a
hectic pace and it's not a simple matter to track down each project and its
source of funding and labor. All I can say is that any estimate made here
of New Deal contributions to BNY and its ships almost certainly falls far
short.
PWA Projects at Brooklyn Navy Yard
The
Public
Works Administration specialized in financing large-scale work
projects in order to increase employment, and later, also to better
prepare for the oncoming war.
The list below does not purport to be complete. There is no definitive
source for this kind of information; much of it is lost and what
remains is hidden away in archives at scattered locations, often only on
crumbling paper or microfilm. But this list should serve to demonstrate PWA
funding and assistance not only in shipbuilding, but in making it possible
to build the kinds and numbers of Navy-financed ships required for the
coming war.
- City to Build East River Seaplane
Bases,
New York Times, 11 Jul 1934, p.19: "The first of two large seaplane
ramps to be used by the Dock Department as public aircraft terminals on the
East River was exhibited yesterday in the navy yard in Brooklyn ... The ramps
are being built with funds made available by the government under the
Temporary Emergency Relief Administration ..." [converted to PWA; next item.]
- The cruiser USS
Brooklyn CL-40, launched 30 Nov 1936, one of the original 36 PWA ships
(see table of PWA ships). Funding was
switched at the last moment, but a significant amount of PWA funding went
into its planning and design before that.
- 800
to Get Jobs at Navy Yard on PWA's Contract,
New York Daily News 29 Jan 1934, Brooklyn Section p.1: "Civic workers
interested in keeping alive Brooklyn's oldest industrial plant, the Navy
Yard, were cheered yesterday by the news of a partial victory. The yard is
to build two Coast Guard cruising cutters. The amount involved is more than
$3,000,000 and the funds are to come from PWA. The work at its peak will
provide employment for 800 men and last for nearly two years." These were
the Alexander Hamilton and the John C. Spencer, the
only two Coast Guard cutters built at BNY during the New Deal.
- Tanker
Brazos Will Be Repaired With PWA Fund,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 27 Feb 1934, p.3: "...the allocation of
$750,000 by the PWA for repairs to the naval tanker Brazos to be done at the
Brooklyn Naval Yard".
- Government
Construction Jobs to Spread Employment,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 28 Oct 1934, Section D, p.1: "
Vast Allotment for Boro [i.e. Brooklyn], Queens in PWA Program, about
$100,000,000 to Be Spent on Projects for Locality. Will Provide Employment
for Great Army of Workmen ... construction of new vessels at Brooklyn Navy
Yard, $4,013,000; 40-foot channel to Navy Yard, $1,456,000 ... general Navy
Yard improvements, $1,005,970; reconditioning ships and pier improvements,
$1,005,970..."
- Roosevelt Frees Billion for Works,
New York Times, 19 May 1935, p.4: "To the Navy Department the
following sums were allotted for Brooklyn projects for the purposes
designated in the President's order:
Navy Yard Gets Funds.
Repair and improvement of distributing
systems, including steam, compressed air, water and street
lighting—$414,000. Repair and improvements of
buildings—$1,780,000. Improvements to power, heating and refrigeration
plants—$36,000. Repair and improvement of waterfront structures,
including sea-walls, piers, drydocks, bulkheads, shipways, pilings and other
such structures—$147,000. Modernization of plumbing and improvement
of sanitation and ventilation—$105,000. Modernization of inside
lighting and power circuits $149,000. Repair and improvement of
railroad tracks—$160,000. Repair and improvement of paving, roads,
walks and grounds—$150,000. Foundation explorations and subsurface
surveys—$25,000. To complete Work Relief projects now under way,
consisting of interior painting of shops, renovating office furniture,
trucking, stock inventories, and miscellaneous items of renovation of
buildings and grounds—$425,000."
- City Plans to Shift Home Relief Burden,
New York Times, 2 Jun 1935, p.66: "...the city has already been
allotted nearly $40,000,000 from the billion-dollar portion of the Federal
public works funds that has been released. The projects include ... about
$2,500,000 ... for the Brooklyn Navy Yard..."
- Thousands
See Wall Street's Skyport Open,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 6 Sep 1934, p.24: "The giant 206-foot [fl]oating
ramp, built at Brooklyn Navy Yard with PWA funds, was put into operation
when a Bellanca Airbus
... landed in East River and taxied to the stringpiece."
- The gunboat USS Erie
PG-50, launched 29 Jan 1936,
100% funded by the PWA (see table
of PWA ships).
- The cutter USCG
Alexander Hamilton,
WPG-34, launched 6 Jan 1937,
100% funded by the PWA.
- The cutter USCG
John C. Spencer,
WPG-36, launched 6 Jan 1937,
100% funded by the PWA.
- Wallabout
Bridge Opened,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 21 Feb 1937, p.3:
"...the new Wallabout Market Bridge, a bridge designated to relieve
bottle-neck traffic congenstion between the Navy Yard and Williamsburg
sections ... a $390,000 structure ... It was built with PWA funds."
- 3d
Battalion Marines get $140,000 Home,
New York Daily News 1 Mar 1937, Brooklyn Section p.8: "Brooklyn
Reserve
Marines ... will move into its new $140,000 home in the Navy Yard early in
April ... building to house 300 men and officers. Construction was made
possible by a PWA grant."
- Soaring
Stocks Laid to Rush of PWA Spending,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 26 Jun 1938, p.2A:M2: "PWA, heading toward
$600,000,000 of construction, announced today grants totalling $49,052,950
for 265 Federal projects ... This first batch of Federal Works under the
1938 program included $27,883,000 for Navy Yard improvments ... [including]
Brooklyn Navy Yard—Turret assembly facilities, $250,000; improvement
outside electric distribution system, $35,000; improvement of shipbuilding
ways No.2, $200,000 and $400,000." [Also in
New
York Daily News, same date.]
- Boro
Yard Set to Lay Super-Battleship Keel,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 25 May 1940, p.3:
"The preparation for [laying the keel of the North Carolina], building ways
No. 2 has been lengthened from 800 feet to 1,100 feet. That was a
$2,000,000 job; half the money coming from WPA and half from PWA funds. A
crew of 1,000 WPA men has been at work on the extension since march of last
year... Ways No. 2 was extended 100 feet into the East River waters and 200
feet on the land side. Six thousand oak piles, each from 25 to 40 feet in
length and capable of bearing 17 tons were driven to hold up the extension."
According to Reference 10, shipways No.2 was
"completely reconstructed, partly by WPA forces and partly by contract, to
take the North Carolina" (by contract = paid by the PWA). Shipways
No.2 would be used to build not only the North Carolina, but also the
Iowa and the Missouri.
NYA Assistance to the Brooklyn Navy Yard
The
National
Youth Administration ran a nationwide job training program to help young
people get employment. As war loomed, the training turned towards war
production. The NYA assisted the Brooklyn Navy Yard in two ways:
(1) training young people in the skills needed for shipbuilding, and
(2) machining parts for ships. NYA "graduates" worked in shipyards all
over the country, but I haven't yet been able to find figures for Brooklyn
Navy Yard.
References
- NYA Has Hundreds in Shipyard Shops
New York Times, 5 Mar 1941, p.10.
- How
the NYA Has Been Converted To Advance the War Program,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 25 Mar 1942, p.14: "[NYA] reports 16,000
machine shops in operation [in the USA], giving work training to 65,000
young men and 10,000 young women ... NYA reports that ... its large
[machine] shop at Astoria, L.I., has turned out 32,000 parts for the
Brooklyn Navy Yard in three months."
- La Guardia Lauds NYA Training Plan,
New York Times, 19 Dec 1942, p.24: In Harlem, the mayor "watched a
class of thiry youngsters operate machines turning out material used in the
Navy Yard at Brooklyn, and then praised the NYA for its constructive work."
Aubry Williams, national NYA administrator, declared that "NYA was turning
out 10,000 trained youthful workers into war industry every month and that
he would renew his request for the $60,000,000 appropriation now given by
the Federal Government for the program."
USHA Assistance to the Brooklyn Navy Yard
The
United
States Housing Authority (USHA), created under the Housing Act of 1937,
built the Wallabout Houses, a 13-story complex of 200+ apartments for Brooklyn
Navy Yard workers just two blocks from the Cumberland Street yard entrance;
it still exists today (
see Google
aerial view). From 1939 USHA fell under the Federal Works Agency (FWA).
References
- Orders Defense Housing,
New York Times, 11 May 1941, p.35: "USHA Signs for Apartment
Building Near Navy Yard Here".
- U.S. Not 'Bluffing,' La Guardia
Says, New York Times, 4 Dec 1941, p.6: "...Wallabout Houses, the
city's first defense housing project, erected in the shadow of the Navy Yard
in Brooklyn. ... built by the New York City Housing Authority acting as an
agent for the Federal Works Agency."
- Homes Available for War Workers,
New York Times, 28 Dec 1941, pp.73-74: "...The public defense
housing program for the New York area, developed to meet that portion of the
need not being met by private enterprise, is summarized as follows: ...
Brooklyn—Two hundred and seven dwellings are being constructed by the
United
States Housing Authority for enlisted employes of the Navy Yard
under Public Act No.849, the Lanham act, at an estimated cost of $901,854.
The site is at North Elliot Place, Park Avenue and North Portland Avenue.
Construction, begun in June, is now virtually complete, and the project is
70 per cent occupied."
WPA Projects at Brooklyn Navy Yard
The
Works
Progress Administration specialized in putting people to work
directly, rather than by hiring contractors.
Table 1 shows nine WPA projects at Brooklyn Navy Yard, according to the
DoD's 2009 inventory, totalling $5,550,015.00 in 1930s dollars, equivalent
to about $100M in 2018. The WPA did not take direct part in shipbuilding
because this was not allowed by law[1,p.16]. The following is not a
complete list, for the reasons given in previous sections. Some of these
items might coincide with the ones shown in the WPA Construction gallery
above, there's no way tell without a trip to the National Archives.
Table 1: WPA Projects at Brooklyn Navy Yard[2]
State
| County
| City
| Location
| Description of Project
| O.P. Number
| Total All Funds
| Sponsor
|
NY
| Kings
| New York
| Brooklyn Navy Yard
| Construct and improve buildings, structures, and facilities.
| 109-3-97-14
| 1,515,000.00
| Navy Dept. - Bureau of Yards and Docks
|
NY
| Kings
| New York
| Brooklyn Navy Yard
| Construct and improve buildings, utilities, structures, and facilities.
| 109-3-97-27
| 75,000.00
| Navy Department, Bureau of Yards and Docks
|
NY
| Kings
| New York
| Brooklyn Navy Yard
| Construct and improve buildings, distributing systems, waterfront structures, tracks, pavements, and transportation facilities
| 665-97-2-3
| 300,000.00
| Commanding Officer, Brooklyn Navy Yard, U.S. Navy
|
NY
| Kings
| New York
| Brooklyn Navy Yard
| Improve and rehabilitate buildings, facilities, and utilities, including distributing systems, tracks, pavements, transportation facilities, and shop and storage facilities, reconstructing Structural Shop and Pattern Shop floors and irrigation systems, extending electrical services to piers
| 709-2-38
| 700,000.00
| Navy Department, Bureau of Yards and Docks
|
NY
| Kings
| New York
| Brooklyn Navy Yard
| Make improvements at the Navy Yard, including construction of turret assembly facilities, improving outside electric distribution system and shipbuilding ways No.2
| 709-2-9
| 1,072,000.00
| Navy Department, Bureau of Yards and Docks
|
NY
| Kings
| New York
| Brooklyn Navy Yard
| Rehabilitate and improve buildings, facilities, grounds, and utilities
| 765-97-2-11
| 365,200.00
| Commanding Officer, Brooklyn Navy Yard, U.S. Navy
|
NY
| Kings
| New York
| Brooklyn Navy Yard
| Underpin buildings, reconstruct pavement, and rehabilitate buildings.
| 0X-3-97-XX
| 30,000.00
| U.S. Navy Department
|
NY
| Kings
| New York
| Brooklyn Navy Yard
| Renovate and improve buildings and facilities and improve grounds
| 65-2-97-50
| 968,115.00
| Commandant, Brooklyn Navy Yard, U.S. Navy
|
NY
| Kings
| New York
| Brooklyn Navy Yard
| Underpin buildings, reconstruct pavement, and rehabilitate buildings.
| XX-X-97-12
| 524,700.00
| Navy Department, Bureau of Yards and Docks
|
Other WPA projects are shown in two WPA gallery sections
above. Still other WPA (or in a few cases FERA, CWA) items that may or may
not coincide with items in Table 1 are found in the newspaper archives...
Like the other lists, this one does not claim to be complete:
- Navy Yard Seeks $4,000,000 in
Work, New York Times, 6 July 1936: "The New York Navy Yard in
Brooklyn, which is putting the finishing touches, after eleven months' work,
to $3,350,000 worth of WPA projects, has submitted estimates for
additional projects for the next twelve months valued at $4,000,000, it was
announced yesterday."
- PWA
Is Asked For 4 Millions By Navy Yard,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 6 Jul 1936, p.4:
"The current program, valued at $3,500,000 in WPA funds, has
greatly increased employment in the yard ... Projects undertaken during the
current year include a new pipe and copper shop, remodeling of the sheet
metal shop, a new garage, extenstive paving, a new underground system of
electric circuits, waterfront repairs and general rehabilitation of existing
buildings and of the yard's distributing system.
- 8,200 Men at Work on Navy Yard Jobs,
New York Times, 23 Aug 1936, p.25: "About 6,500 men are now actively
employed on naval construction work and in the shops at the navy yard in
Brooklyn, officers said yesterday. This figure does not include about 1,700
others on the WPA payrolls."
- Civic
Groups Unite to Win New Warship,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 2 Dec 1936, p.8: "Read Admiral Harris
M. Laning,
commandant of the Third Naval District and the Brooklyn Navy Yard ... said,
at present [the Yard] employs 7,300 silled laborers and approximately 2,000
WPA workers."
- Boro
Yard Set to Lay Super-Battleship Keel,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 24 May 1940, p.3: "The preparation for [the
keel-laying for the USS North Carolina at Brooklyn Navy Yard], building Ways
No. 2 has been lengthened from 800 feet to 1,100 feet. That was a
$2,000,000 job; half the money coming from WPA and half from PWA
funds. A crew of 1,000 WPA men has been at work on the extension
since march of last year ... Ways No. 2 was extended 100 feet into the East
River waters and 200 feet on the land side. Six thousand oak piles, each
from 25 to 40 feet in length and capable of bearing 17 tons were driven to
hold up the extension."
- WPA Allots Work at Military
Posts,
New York Times, 18 Jul 1940, p.9: "...Navy grants include ... $600,00
... for the New York (Brooklyn) ... navy yard".
- Somervell
Outlines WPA Work in Boro For Defense Needs,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 27 Oct 1940, p.7:
"The part the WPA is playing in the national
defense program in Brooklyn... Much Work at Navy Yard ... strengthening
buildings which are subjected to increasing weight due to large scale
operations and demolition of certain structures to make way for new
facilities."
- More
Employes Working at Yard Than Ever Before,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 9 Nov 1940, p.2: "Not in the memory of the
oldest employes [sic] has there been as much work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
as at present. About 18,000 men are emplyed there, working six days a week
in three shifts. Among them are about 1,200 WPA workers."
Note: Various newspapers spelled "employees" as "employes" in the
1930s.
- WPA Plan Aids Defense,
New York Times, 22 Dec 1940, p.27: "As evidence of the efficiency of
a special WPA training program intended to create a reservoir of
draftsmen for national defense ... more than 200 former relief workers
were employed as full-time draftsmen and tracers at the Navy Yard in
Brooklyn". The Brooklyn Navy Yard housed the Navy's Central Drafting
Office from 1929 to 1937, which had responsibility for designing all of the
Navy's surface fleet except for aircraft carriers: Four battleships, 11
cruisers, and more than 50 destroyers were designed at BNY during this
period[14,p.75].
- Boro
Navy Yard Employment at Peak of 20,200,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 3 Jan 1941, p.5: "An army of 20,200 skilled
mechanics and laborers — the largest working force in the 14-year
history of the Brooklyn Navy Yard... — is pressing ahead-of-schedule
construction of three huge battleships [North Carolina, Iowa, and Missouri]
and speedily turning out fleet auxiliaries ... The 20,000 workers include
... 1,000 assigned to the naval construction plan by the WPA."
- WPA
Spent 70 Millions Here on Defense Jobs,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 12 Jan 1941, p.4: "...In the Brooklyn Navy Yard
the WPA has been busy with a schedule of repairs or reconstruction
since the first days of the work relief program. Rehabilitation was spread
over 120 acres. Workmen extended Building Ways 2 to provide for
construction of a new 45,000-ton battleship, approximately 300 feet. This
work was performed under a non-jurisdictional project engaging 1,000 men.
Other work was completed at the Naval Hospital. The WPA workmen also
constructed a new warehouse for munitions storage ... and demolished other
areas preparatory to increasing storage facilities."
- 20 WPA on Long Week, New York
Times, 1 Jun 1941, p.37: "Twenty WPA projects in this city have been
certified by Army or Navy as important to national defense and their 3,371
workers put on a 48-hour week, local WPA officials reported yesterday. Most
are at Army forts or the Navy Yard in Brooklyn."
- 174 Ships Launched in One Day And
Keels Are Laid for 49 More, New York Times, 8 Sep 1942, pp.1,3:
"Labor in the nation's shipyards spent its traditional holiday at work
yesterday, setting a record of 223 ships launched or begun. The metropolitan
area about New York contributed its share, while in a lunch-hour speech to
the workers in the busy Navy Yard in Brooklyn Rear Admiral E.J. Marquart,
congratulating the men, described the achievements since Pearl Harbor as a
'staggering total almost beyond the belief of one's own eyes.'"
References
- Report on
Progress of the WPA Program, Work Projects Administration,
30 June 1940.
- Nationwide Context,
Inventory, and Heritage Assessment of Works Progress Administration and
Civilian Conservation Corps Resources on Department of Defense
Installations, Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program,
Project Number 07-357, July 2009.
- Government
Construction Jobs to Spread Employment,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 28 Oct 1934, Section D, p.1: "About
$100,000,000 to Be Spent on Projects for Locality Will Provide Employment
for Great Army of Workmen ... construction of new vessels at Brooklyn Navy
Yard, $4,013,000; 40-foot channel to Navy Yard, $1,456,000 ... general Navy
Yard improvements, $1,005,970; reconditioning ships and pier improvements,
$1,005,970..."
- Stobo, John R, The New Deal Yard,
1933-1937, Part 2, John R. Stobo, Columbia University, October 2004,
which quotes from Thompson, H.I., Inspector of Naval Materiel, “Ships
Under NIRA”,
"Ships Under NIRA," in Letter, from Inspector of Naval Material
(H.I. Thompson), to Commandant (s of the navy yards), (and others), 20
September 1933; A1/NIRA; E322/1932-34; RG181; NA-NY, which lists each ship
that was to be built (by hull number only) and at which yards
In this
section, Stobo refers repeatedly to CWA and WPA draftsmen, but the
references are bit hard to chase down. See the Thompson letter
HERE (PDF).
- Brooklyn
Navy Yard Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Registration Form 10-900, 7 April 2014. Sec 8, p.32-41:
The 1933 inauguration of President Franklin Roosevelt ... Within his first
"hundred days" Roosevelt, a former assistant secretary of the navy,
earmarked $238 million under the National Industrial Recovery Act for
warship construction. ... Naval public works appropriations through the
National Industrial Recovery Administration, the Civil Works Administration,
the Works Progress Administration, and the Public Works Administration put
thousands of people back to work and did much to rehabilitate the yard. In
addition to building ships, men were hired to construct a new garage
(Building 50/50A, 1936), a garbage incinerator (Building 51, 1939), a coal
plant office (Building 52, 1938), lay down extensive paving and railroad
tracks, an d repair waterfront seawalls and waterfront construction. 126 By
1938, one-third of the yard;s 10,000 employees were being paid by the
WPA. ... Just prior to the defense buildup the navy was operating eight
yards. ... Of all the navy yards, the Brooklyn Navy Yard underwent the most
complex reconstruction program. 129 The navy essentially had to reconfigure
its small site, at that point broken up into pieces due to the Wallabout
Market, and make it into a first-class, state-of-the-art navy yard within an
incredibly short amount of time. These changes constituted the most
significant physical changes to the site since it was established in 1801
and it is this period that is most evident at the navy yard today. ... The
Brooklyn Navy Yard boomed during the war years. By the time of the Japanese
surrender, signed on the deck of the yard-built American battleship USS
Missouri, the Brooklyn facility was the world's largest shipyard, employing
over 75,000 workers and sustaining a monthly payroll over $15 million.
... [towards the end of the war] battleship contracts were re placed with
aircraft carrier orders. One of these, the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, was
christened by Eleanor Roosevelt on April 29, 1945, just seventeen days after
the president's death.
- Millions for
Defense: Emergency Expenditures for National Defense 1933-1940,
US Federal Works Agency, Washington DC (1940).
-
Public Works of the Navy, Bulletin No.38, May 1937,
US Government Printing Office (1937).
-
Public Works of the Navy, Bulletin No.39, June 1937,
US Government Printing Office (1937).
- Building
the Navy's Bases in World War II: History of the Bureau of
Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps, 1940-1946, Volume I
(Part I), Department of the Navy, Bureau of Yards and Docks, US
Government Printing Office, Washington DC (1947).
- Building
the Navy's Bases in World War II: History of the Bureau of
Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps, 1940-1946, Volume I
(Part II), Department of the Navy, Bureau of Yards and Docks, US
Government Printing Office, Washington DC (1947).
- First Women Hired in Navy Yard Shops,
New York Times, 14 Sep 1942, pp.1,19. "When the United States Civil
Service Commission announced that women could take an examination for
prospective mechanics, 20,000 applied."
- Boro
Yard Set to Lay Super-Battleship Keel,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 25 May 1940, p.3. The PWA-WPA project to lengthen
BNY's Shipways No.2 for the construction of the battleships
North Carolina, Iowa, and Missouri.
- Navy
Yard, Fort Jay and Army Terminal Played Major Roles in Nation's History,
New York Times, 20 Nov 1964. In World War II the Brooklyn Navy Yard
"repaired more than 5,000 ships, converted some 250 others and built the
battleships North Carolina, Iowa and Missouri and the
aircraft carriers
Bennington, Bon Homme Richard, Kearsage and Franklin
D. Roosevelt. At the peak of the war, more than 71,000 civilian and
naval workers were employed."
- Berner, Thomas F., The Brooklyn Navy Yard, Arcadia Publishing
(1999).
- Pitsch, Howard, Fort Greene, Arcadia Publishing (2010).
- New York Navy Yard Shipworker,
Brooklyn NY, Vol.III, No.10, January 29, 1944: "Workers, Few Guests to
Witness Launching of USS Missouri, Iowa-Class Battleship. In the right-hand
column it says "The first of her history-making class — the
New-York-Navy-Yard-built USS Iowa — was launched from the very
same ways seventeen months ago." See this
page for details.
- Yard
Guardian: The 350-ton Hammerhead Crane, brooklynnavyyard.org
(accessed 14 June 2018): "It is interesting to note that the construction of
the crane predates Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. She was built in response
to a Congressional authorization to modernize the US Navy and increase fleet
size by 20%. The program was begun through an appropriation of $20 million
dollars of public works funds through the Naval Appropriation Act of 1938,
and was continued through the end of WWII. By war's end the total expenditure
on naval modernization reached $590 million."
- Ships Constructed
at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, John R. Stobo, Columbia University,
October 2004, August 2004; February 2010.
- Egan, Jennifer, Manhattan Beach,
Scribner (2017). A novel about the Brooklyn Navy Yard in World War II.
Films
- A Better New
York City (WPA, 1937), shows WPA road and warehouse construction
at the Brooklyn Navy Yard starting at 1:10.
- Hitchcock, Alfred, Saboteur, film, 1942. Includes footage of the
wartime Brooklyn Navy Yard.
- Kelly, Gene, On the Town, film, 1949: some footage
of the postwar Brooklyn Navy Yard
(see NY
Post story).