The Yard

South Portland's shipbuilding complex was created to build first British Ocean class cargo ships and then American Liberty ships during World War II. Todd-Bath shipyards, an affiliate of Todd Shipyards of New York, received a two-year contract from the British government to build 30 Ocean class cargo ships, and on December 26, 1940, contractors broke ground on a 26-acre yard with three basins and seven building berths. After President Roosevelt announced an Emergency Shipbuilding Program for 200 standard cargo vessels later called Liberty ships, the U.S. Maritime Commission established the South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation to build a new yard west of Todd-Bath; construction of the West Yard began on April 28, 1941, with four shipways and a contract for 16 ships, soon expanded to six ways and 24 ships, while Todd-Bath became known as the East Yard. In March 1943, the U.S. Maritime Commission bought the Todd-Bath yard from the British and merged it with the West Yard to form the New England Shipbuilding Corp., the nation's fifth largest emergency shipyard. William Stark Newell, known as W.S. "Pete" Newell, played a central role in this development: in 1927 he assembled financing that kept Bath Iron Works operating, in the late 1930s he showed naval architect William Francis Gibbs drawings for a basin-type shipyard in South Portland, and those plans helped lead to the British contract to build the yard and 30 Ocean class ships. The expanded operation went on to build 236 Liberty cargo ships during World War II, becoming one of Maine's most successful industries.

South Portland, Maine · United States