Fore River Shipyard
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The Fore River Shipyard, more formally known as the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company, was a shipyard in the United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
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[edit] History
Started by Thomas A. Watson in 1884, the shipyard was located on the Weymouth Fore River near East Braintree, Massachusetts. In 1901, the site was moved closer to Quincy, Massachusetts.
In 1913, Bethlehem Steel purchased the yard. It changed hands again in 1964, when it was purchased by General Dynamics Corporation. The yard closed in 1986.
In 1994, USS Salem (CA-139)- the last all-gun heavy cruiser ever built - returned to the Quincy yard, becoming the centerpiece of the United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum. The yard was bought by a local auto dealer in 2004, to use for storage, but is still a port for commuter boats to Boston.
[edit] Notable Ships
[edit] Warships
Numerous famous warships were built at the Fore River Shipyard. A partial list is below. The date in parentheses indicates the date the ship was commissioned by the U.S. Navy.
[edit] Aircraft carriers
- USS Lexington (CV-2) (1925)
- USS Wasp (CV-7) (1940)
- USS Lexington (CV-16) (1943)
- USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) (1943)
- USS Wasp (CV-18) (1943)
- USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) (1946)
[edit] Battleships
- USS New Jersey (BB-16) (1906)
- USS Rhode Island (BB-17) (1906)
- USS Vermont (BB-20) (1907)
- USS North Dakota (BB-29) (1910)
- USS Nevada (BB-36) (1916)
- USS Massachusetts (BB-59) (1942)
[edit] Cruisers
- USS Birmingham (CL-2) (1908)
- USS Detroit (CL-8) (1923)
- USS Raleigh (CL-7) (1924)
- USS Northampton (CA-26) (1930)
- USS Portland (CA-33) (1933)
- USS Quincy (CA-39) (1936)
- USS Vincennes (CA-44) (1937)
- USS Quincy (CA-71) (1943)
- USS Salem (CA-139) (1949)
- USS Long Beach (CGN-9) (1961)
[edit] Destroyers
- USS Sterett (DD-27) (1909)
- USS Perkins (DD-26) (1910)
- USS Walke (DD-34) (1911)
- USS Duncan (DD-46) (1913)
- USS Cushing (DD-55) (1915)
- USS Tucker (DD-57) (1916)
- USS Sampson (DD-63) (1916)
- USS Rowan (DD-64) (1916)
- USS Mahan (DD-102) (1918)
- USS Reid (DD-292) (1919)
[edit] Submarines
- USS Viper (SS-10) (1907)
- USS Cuttlefish (SS-11) (1907)
- USS Tarantula (SS-12) (1907)
[edit] Other ships
- The Thomas W. Lawson, a seven-masted, steel-hull schooner, the only ship of its kind ever built.
- The William L. Douglas, a six-masted, steel-hull collier
[edit] Trivia
- John J. Kilroy, the author of the famous Kilroy Was Here graffiti, was a welding inspector at Fore River.
