Craig Shipbuilding Company

Craig Shipbuilding was a shipbuilding company in Long Beach, California. To support the World War I demand for ships Craig Shipbuilding shipyard switched over to military construction and built: US Navy Submarines and Cargo Ships. Craig Shipbuilding was started in 1906 by John F. Craig. John F. Craig had worked in Toledo, Ohio with his father, John Craig (1838-1934), and Blythe Craig, both shipbuilders, their first ship was built in 1864 at Craig Shipbuilding Toledo. John F. Craig opened his shipbuilding company in Port of Long Beach on the south side of Channel 3, the current location of Pier 41 in the inner harbor, becoming the port's first shipyard. In 1907 Craig Shipbuilding is given a contract to dredge a channel from the Pacific ocean to the inner harbor. In 1917 Craig sold the shipyard to the short-lived California Shipbuilding Company. but then opened a new shipyard next to the one he just sold and called it the Long Beach Shipbuilding Company. The Long Beach Shipbuilding Company built cargo ships in 1918, 1919, and 1920 for the United States Shipping Board.

John Craig (1838-1934) founder of Craig Shipbuilding
Light Vessel No.57 at Toledo, Ohio
SS Puritan later became SS George M. Cox in 1093
SS City of South Haven (American Passenger Steamship, 1903) Underway prior to World War I, with her decks crowded with passengers. This Great Lakes steamer was USS City of South Haven (ID # 2527) in 1918–1919
Broadwater (APA-139) alongside Bellerophon (ARL-31) in San Francisco Bay, October 1945
USS L-7 in port, in 1917
USS Ozaukee (ID-3429) around the time of her completion in September 1918.

In 1918 California Shipbuilding started to have difficulties completing contracts that it had purchased with the Craig Shipyard, including two submarines and a lighthouse tender. In 1921, Craig purchased his original shipyard back and renamed it back to Craig Shipbuilding. At the same time he renamed the Long Beach Shipbuilding to Craig Shipbuilding and ran both as one company. The tow shipyard did repair work on built yachts.

The United States Maritime Commission started a shipbuilding program in 1939, to support the World War 2 demand for ships. Craig leased the Long Beach Shipbuilding yard to the Consolidated Steel Corporation. Consolidated Steel built Type C1-B and C1-M cargo merchant ships and two Type P1 passenger ships at the leased yard. Consolidated Steel operated two other large shipyards, one nearby in the Port of Los Angeles West Basin in Wilmington, the other in Orange, Texas, and two other small boatyards. After World war 2, the Consolidated leased yard closed. Craig shipyard continued to do repair work as the Long Beach Marine Repair and closed in 1970.[1]

Craig Shipbuilding Toledo

Notable ships built at Craig Shipbuilding Toledo (1864-1905), later purchased by a syndicate of investors in 1905 and renamed Toledo Shipbuilding Company, and then purchased in 1945 by the American Ship Building Company.[2] Run today by the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority:[3][4][5]

Craig Shipbuilding Long Beach Yard

Notable ships built at Craig Shipbuilding Long Beach Yard (1906 to 1 January 1916, when it was bought by the California Shipbuilding Company[11]) and (1922-1934):[12]

In 1932 Craig reconditioned 2 cargo vessels for Swayne & Hoyt, including the installation of a low pressure turbine at the exhaust end of the triple-expansion engine to increase the speed of the ships.[13]

Long Beach Shipbuilding Company

The yard was the smallest of the three steel shipyards in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach active during the World War I shipbuilding boom, responsible for 17% of the tonnage produced there. The Llewellyn Iron Works of Los Angeles produced engines for a number of yards on the West Coast. It is unknown whether a particular hull was towed to them for outfitting or their engine delivered to the yard.

Yard#USSB#[14][15]TypeEngineNameLaunched[lower-alpha 1]
124[lower-alpha 2]Req.3,000dwt cargoSilverado11 Feb 18
125Eldorado7 May 18
12625153,200dwt cargo[lower-alpha 3]Wallingford15 Jan 19
1274236,000dwt cargo[lower-alpha 4]Ozaukee5 Jun 18
128424Oshkosh31 Aug 18
129425Magunkook25 Sep 18
13020758.800dwt cargoLIWWest Kasson15 Mar 19
1312076West Keene26 Apr 19
1322077West Katan26 May 19
1332078Vinita
1342079HORHaleakala13 Sep 19
1352080LIWWest Keats
1362081West Kebar
1372082West Kedron
138 - 1412511 - 2514cancelled
  1. See List of ship launches in 1918 and 1919 for references
  2. First ship built at the yard, but hull number sequence continued from the Craig yard
  3. Single member of the "class" of Design 1097 ships
  4. The only 3 members of the class of Design 1021 ships

Other notable ships built at Long Beach Shipbuilding Company Long Beach Yard (1918-1921):

  • Edythe, yacht built in 1920 for owner John F. Craig; 186 tons; later sold and renamed Melodie
  • Mazatlan, 987 ton cargo ship for Swayne & Hoyt shipping; later renamed San Diegan in 1937

Consolidated Steel at the Long Beach Shipyard

The Llewellyn Iron Works, builder of marine engines for ships launched from Long Beach during World War I was one of the companies merged into Consolidated Steel. Consolidated did not build any engines during World War II.

See: Consolidated Steel Corporation#Long Beach shipyard

Shipbuilding in Los Angeles and Long Beach

See also

References
  1. Craig Shipbuilding shipbuildinghistory.com
  2. Weisman, Matthew J.; Shorf, Paula. "Boats Built at Toledo, Ohio - A Comprehensive Listing of the Vessels Built from Schooners to Steamers from 1810 to the Present - Toledo Shipbuilding Company (1905-1945)" (PDF). toledoport.org.
  3. Craig Shipbuilding Toledo shipbuildinghistory.com
  4. Craig Shipbuilding Toledo wrecksite
  5. Boats Built at Toledo, Ohio
  6. E.G. Crosby (1903)
  7. Records and Briefs of the United States Supreme Court. 1906.
  8. NPS, SS George M. Cox
  9. NPS SS George M. Cox Wreck
  10. NPS, SS George M. Cox: Operational History
  11. "The California Shipbuilding Company". Pacific Marine Review. January 1917. p. 58.
  12. Historical Society of Long BeachOctober 2018The Great War as Civic Engagement:Southern California, 1916-1925, by Craig Hendricks
  13. "American Shipbuilding". Pacific Marine Review. July 1932. p. 277.
  14. "Marine Review Vol. 49". Penton Publishing Company. February 1919. pp. 103–114. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  15. Marine Review, Feb 1920, p. 103
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