8\. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

SUMMARY PARAGRAPH

The S. S. RED OAK VICTORY retains all major distinctive characteristics
of a Victory class vessel constructed to serve in WWII (see Section 7).
The vessel has national significance and meets NHL Criterion 1 (and
National Register Criterion A), because of her association with events
that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of
history. The RED OAK VICTORY story contributes to the NHL \"WWII in the
Pacific\" theme as a warship and as a site. It was one of ten \"Boulder
Class\" Victory ships specially designed and commissioned by the US Navy
to serve as an ammunition vessel during WWII. The RED OAK VICTORY was
built and will be permanently berthed in Richmond, California, near the
site of the Kaiser Corporation\'s massive shipyard complex. Construction
and operation of these shipyards, where 747 vessels were built from
1941-1945, transformed the community of Richmond, California.
Richmond\'s story mirrors that of the nation as it mobilized to fight
WWII on the home front. The RED OAK VICTORY will serve as a key
interpretive site in the \"Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National
Historical Park\" now under development in Richmond. Also nationally
significant and associated with the RED OAK VICTORY are the employee
welfare practices instituted by Kaiser Corporation in the management of
its shipyards. These include extension of union jobs to African
Americans, development of a diverse workforce to include women, Asians,
and Mexican Americans, provision of transportation to and from work, and
24-hour child care. Most notable is the pre-paid Kaiser Permanente
Health Plan for workers, precursor to today\'s HMOs.

The vessel meets NHL Criterion 4 (National Register Criterion C),
embodying distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of
construction. It is a product of the revolutionary innovations in
shipbuilding techniques developed by the US Maritime Commission to meet
wartime production necessities of the Emergency Shipbuilding Program and
realized in Kaiser\'s West Coast shipyards.

The 1944 Victory Ship RED OAK VICTORY is one of 414 Victories built
during World War II, and, at this time is the only remaining Victory
ship built in Richmond outside the Reserve Fleets. Two other Victory
ships are afloat outside Reserve Fleets, the SS [Lane
Victory]{.underline} in San Pedro, California, and the SS [American
Victory,]{.underline} in Tampa, Florida. The [Lane Victory]{.underline}
is a National Historic Landmark.

As war raged in Europe, the United States faced the need to supply its
allies by sea and the possibility of America's entry into the conflict,
while also confronting a critical shortage of cargo ships. The result
was the emergency fleet program, which introduced the assembly-line
production of standardized ships, the so-called \"Liberty Ships,\" in
1941. In all, 2,571 Liberty Ships were constructed between 1941 and
1945, making them the largest class of ships built worldwide. The two
unaltered survivors of the class, SS [Jeremiah O\'Brien]{.underline} and
SS [John Brown]{.underline} have been designated National Historic
Landmarks.

At the time [O\'Brien]{.underline} was launched in 1943, the design for
a class of emergency vessels to replace the Liberty ships was on the
drawing boards. It was to be faster, with more modern steam plants,
better trim and stability, stronger hulls, and more efficient,
electrically driven winches and windlasses. In April 1943, the type was
introduced as the \"Victory Ship,\" and production commenced. The first
vessel launched, [S. S. United Victory]{.underline}, was built by
Kaiser\'s Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, near Portland, and delivered
on February 28, 1944. From then until the end of the war, the United
States Maritime Commission constructed 414 Victory ships, and 117
Victory ship attack transports, a total of 531 ships.

The Victory ships entered the war at an important juncture, ferrying
supplies and troops to the European and Pacific theaters, including the
climactic actions in the Pacific at Okinawa and Iwo Jima. Three Victory
ships were lost to kamikaze attack during the Okinawa campaign, the only
ships of the type lost to direct enemy action. Vital partners of the
Liberty ships, the Victory ships were indispensable participants in the
war effort.

After the war, many of the ships remained in service, ferrying troops
home and helping rebuild ravaged Europe, the South Pacific, and Asia.
Victory ships were recalled to war service during the Korean and Vietnam
conflicts, and some were modified as support ships for the burgeoning
American space program in the 1960s.

The preceding statement of significance is based on the more detailed
statements that follow.

WWII SHIPBUILDING

WWII shipbuilding activities were an unprecedented integration of
private industry and government, with the US Navy and the US Maritime
Commission being the only customers. Navy shipyards contracted for
military vessels, to be built mostly in pre-existing shipyards in the
east. The Maritime Commission contracted for merchant vessels. The
Maritime Commission yards, including many new yards on the West Coast,
also built merchant ships modified for military needs that were
delivered to the Army or Navy. The SS RED OAK VICTORY was of this type,
one of only ten \"Boulder Class\" Victory ships modified to function as
ammunition carriers. It was delivered to the Navy and commissioned the
USS RED OAK VICTORY for the duration of the war.

[Pre-war]{.underline}

American merchant shipbuilding had come almost to a halt by the
mid-1930s. Ninety percent of the merchant fleet was more than 20 years
old and slow (10-11 knots). The US Maritime Commission was created in
1936 to modernize the merchant marine by subsidizing private
shipbuilding enterprise. It assumed an active operating role under the
powerful leadership of Admiral Land, drawing up plans for ships,
negotiating bids and awarding contracts. The Maritime Commission
operated under the approval of the President, rather than Congress. As a
close friend of President Roosevelt, Admiral Land's power as Maritime
Commission Chair became even more enhanced.

The heart of the Maritime Commission in production of ships was the
Technical Division, headed by Admiral Vickery, in charge of all matters
related to construction. Pre-war construction accomplishments from
1938-40 in shipyards, in designs, and in forming a trained staff laid
the foundation for the monumental work achieved between 1941-45.
Standard dry-cargo carriers, called "C-types," designed before the war
for long-range merchant marine use, continued to be the ideal. Large and
fast, most were powered with turbine engines combining speed and
economy. Even under wartime pressure the Maritime Commission's pre-war
goal of building 500 C-type vessels in ten years was exceeded by 1946.

All the Maritime Commission contract ships embodied many improvements.
The use of turbine and diesel engines improved propulsion. Fire concerns
were addressed through the use of non-combustible materials, metal
furniture, and insulation of bulkheads and decks to partition the ship.
Navigation aids and life-saving equipment was updated. Morale of the
crews was improved by providing accommodations amidship instead of in
the forecastle, better mess rooms, hot and cold running water and
improved ventilation. Rat proofing raised health and comfort standards.
Cargo handling was improved with systems of king posts and booms worked
by electric winches. Welding replaced riveting, reducing the weight of
the hull and increasing deadweight carrying capacity.

Commission policy also emphasized standardization and application of
mass production methods. Design of the C-types incorporated the
suggestions of operating companies and trade associations to produce a
standard ship adapted to a variety of needs. As many components and
items of equipment as possible were the same. Thus, as in automobile
production, parts could be manufactured at central points for assembly
elsewhere. All shipyards would not have to produce all parts, yielding
less overhead and lower costs. Contracts were awarded for groups of
identical ships, simplifying preparation of work plans, ordering of
materials and control of construction.

[Emergency Shipbuilding Program]{.underline}

In July 1940 the Navy's shipbuilding program, which already occupied
most of the available shipbuilding resources in the country, was
authorized to expand even more. New yards were called for and old yards
were re-equipped. Merchant shipbuilding was being seriously crowded by
the Navy's priorities. The first of three emergency shipbuilding
programs began when, in late 1940, the British obtained permission from
the US to build 60 cargo ships in US yards. Due to the unavailability of
turbines and gears, they settled on a slow, 11-knot, 10,000-ton
freighter based on an old tramp steamer design. Shortly after, in
January 1941, President Roosevelt announced that the US would build 200
similar ships. Admiral Land and the Maritime Commission wanted to
continue to build the new standard C-type ships that would be useful
after the war. But emergency needs forced them to accept building the
200 British-style ships for use by the United States.

Selection of sites for the new shipyards needed for this expanded
construction program involved decisions on size and location of the
yards. Adequate transportation and availability of labor and management
were also most important considerations. The Kaiser/Todd Shipyard sites
in Maine and Richmond, California, where new labor supplies were
available, were selected for the construction of the 60 British
freighters. By early 1941, nine yards around the country, with a total
of 65 ways, were approved to build the 260 ships of the first emergency
program. The number of shipways to be constructed increased over the
next year to 200, in two more waves of expansion, with eleven new yards
dedicated to building emergency-type vessels.

Programs to popularize the emergency shipbuilding programs championed
"Ships for Victory." The "dreadful looking object" to be built captured
the public's interest when dubbed the "Liberty Ship." This
emergency-type ship soon became a kind of national symbol, a status
never achieved by the standard C-type vessels. The popularization of
Liberty ships brought the Maritime Commission's emergency program into
public consciousness and made it public business. In asking the Maritime
Commission to reimburse costs of the launching celebration for the first
Liberty ship to be built in Portland, Oregon, Henry Kaiser said "This is
a goodwill program and will stimulate labor-employer relations and is
not a private party for a few select friends of the builders." Launching
ceremonies, including celebrity christeners, remained of personal
interest to the public throughout the war.

Standardization was essential for success of the emergency program and
in the new shipyards standardization was attempted nationwide. The
advantages were construction specifications and drawings that could be
rapidly reproduced for use in additional yards, and procurement of parts
could flow from various vendors supplying interchangeable components to
a number of shipyards. Nationwide standardization had its widest and
most successful application in the emergency shipbuilding programs
producing the Liberty ship.

Another innovation of the emergency program was that the same companies
receiving contracts to build ships also built the shipyards they were to
operate. For its entree into shipbuilding Kaiser teamed with Todd
Shipyards and the Bath Iron Works in Maine, both experienced in
shipbuilding. Though Kaiser had no previous experience with
shipbuilding, it was understood that his construction companies would
insure that the new yards were built quickly and well. The Kaiser
companies proved adept at shipbuilding, too. When, after Pearl Harbor,
the Maritime Commission called for construction of Liberty ships in 105
days, only Kaiser\'s new western shipyards agreed to this speeded up
schedule. At this same time, Kaiser acquired full ownership of the yards
they managed for Todd and began building yards of their own at Richmond
and Vancouver, Washington.

Standardization and subassembly of ship components were the basis of the
shipbuilding industry\'s success in surpassing the goals of the
emergency program in 1942 and 1943. Fourteen shipyards built a total of
1,238 Liberties in 1943 alone. Pre-assembly off the ways reduced the
time on the ways between keel laying and launching. Once launched, the
ship could be outfitted independently without delays in one ship holding
up completion of another. The shortest time on the ways steadily
maintained was about 17 days. Kaiser\'s West Coast shipyards were
leaders in this production. Construction man-hours per ship were more
than halved by the end of the war.

As refinements were made in shipyard layout and shipbuilding demands
increased, the need for more space in the shipyards became apparent. At
Richmond\'s Shipyard #1 the completely new facilities were laid out with
a spacious plan of 330 feet from the head of the ways to the assembly
bay and plate shop. Behind the plate shop was a large area for storage
of the steel plates as they arrived. Rails provided access for trains as
well as tracks for the large numbers of cranes that moved materials
about the yards. As production increased, more space was provided by
building assembly platforms along the east side of the yard. The yards
at Richmond were all of the \"straight line flow\" type where the
storage area led to the plate shop which flowed to the assembly building
then onto pre-erection skids and into the ways. Warehouses, outfitting
shops, general offices, electrical shops, and other facilities
surrounded this basic layout.

Assembly line methods were adapted to shipbuilding in a series of
assembly lines flowing through different assembly areas that moved
toward the shipways. Specialization took place at each stage of
fabrication in a particular area dedicated to a particular type of
subassembly. This enabled workers to be trained quickly, as they needed
to learn only one type of operation.

VICTORY SHIPS

There was an awareness that the Liberty ships were only a stop-gap
measure from the very beginning of the wartime shipbuilding effort.
Liberty ships were based on an old design of a British freighter, and
were limited in speed to about 9 knots because faster turbine engines
were not being produced in enough quantity to supply that class of cargo
ship. The limited speed meant that they could travel only in convoys,
unable to outrun 11-knot enemy submarines. There was also a desire to
build wartime cargo ships that could become the mainstay of the US
merchant fleet after the war, and this would necessitate a faster
turbine-driven ship. Construction of more turbine engines was given a
priority as early as 1941.

In the fall of 1942 design was begun on a 15-knot cargo vessel of 10,000
tons deadweight, the AP1. It was stated that the design "should be
generally such as to utilize to the greatest possible extent the
principles found effective in the production of the present liberty
ship," i.e., its simplicity and standardization.

Where the design required changes in production components, for example,
a different shape of steel beam to support the deck , negotiations were
needed to convince the steel companies that the necessary retooling of
their plants would be of benefit in the future. Because availability of
turbine engines was still unsure, the Victory ship was designed so it
could be built to accommodate several types of engines, including the
untried German-designed Lentz reciprocating engine. In late 1943,
decline in the amount of steel available also forced the pace of
shipbuilding to slow. This slowdown gave time to change over to a
different type production.

The standardized design adopted by the Commission called for a 445-foot
by 63-foot steel vessel. Initially designated EC2-S-AP1, the design was
re-designated VC2-S-AP1 on April 28, 1943, when the ships were given the
\"Victory\" appellation by which they were henceforth known. The
chairman of the Maritime Commission, in an early 1943 speech, noted \"We
have developed a new emergency ship, the Victory ship, to replace the
Liberties. The new ship is designed to permit use of the Lentz engine,
turbines, or diesels. Its expected speed is 15-17 knots as against the
Liberties\' 11 knots, and it will be a good competition ship in
post-war, which we cannot claim for the Liberty ship.\"

The Victory ships were different from the Liberty ships primarily in
propulsion, the triple-expansion marine steam engine of the latter
giving way to more modern, faster turbines or diesels. The AP1 Victory
ship was powered by a 5,500-hp steam engine; the AP2 Victory by a
6,000-hp steam engine; the AP3 by a 8,500-hp steam engine; and the AP4
by a diesel engine. The lines were different, as was the construction of
the ships. Hull fractures had claimed some Liberty ships because of
their rigidity. In order to resolve the problem, Victory ship hulls were
built with frames on 36-inch centers as opposed to stiffer 30-inch
centers on the Libertys. Better stability and two enlarged tanks aft of
the machinery space that carried fuel, dry cargo, or saltwater ballast
did away with the need for fixed ballast. The resultant flexibility of
draft meant that an inherent problem of the Liberty ships, a stiffness
after removal of wartime equipment, was done away with. Additionally,
the Victory ship design included a \'tween deck in three cargo holds,
and electric handling of cargo and anchors, as opposed to the
steam-driven winches and capstans of the Liberty ships.

In spring 1943 Richmond Shipyards #1 and #2 were awarded contracts for
construction of AP1s. It was still not known if turbines would be
available. There was some opposition to building Victorys in yards that
were already building Liberty ships. Objections had to do with the
unresolved engine situation and fear that discontinuing Libertys would
decrease production rates. Contracts to build Victory ships were held up
while members of the War Production Board and Maritime Commission argued
over engines. Meanwhile, representatives of the turbine manufacturers
met to work out a standardized design for turbines. General
characteristics of a standardized \"Victory\" turbine were agreed upon
in early May 1943, and plans for using other engines were dropped.

The War Production Board continued to oppose shipyard conversion to
Victorys as Libertys were easiest to produce in quantity. The Maritime
Commission, proponent of the Victory ship, argued that due to its faster
speed, Victorys would be able to make more round trips per year and thus
have a greater annual cargo-carrying capacity. These differing points of
view were complicated by personal rivalries within the highest ranks of
the shipbuilding agencies. In August 1943 the Joint Chiefs of Staff
stepped in with a decision in favor of building faster ships over more,
slower ships. The controversy had, however, resulted in delay of the
delivery of the first Victory ships until 1944.

The first ship completed was [United Victory]{.underline}, launched on
January 12, 1944, and delivered on February 28. The next 33 ships were
named after member countries of the United Nations; others that followed
were named for cities and towns in the United States and for American
colleges and universities. All vessel names ended in the suffix
\"Victory\". In all, during the war years, the Maritime Commission built
414 Victory cargo ships and 117 Victory attack transports, designated as
VC2-S-AP5 ships, for a total of 531 vessels. The majority of the 531
built, 272 vessels, were VC2-S-AP2, with 6,000-hp., followed by 141
VC-S-AP3, 8,500-hp vessels and one of the VC2-M-AP4, diesel-powered
type. As the war ended in August 1945, the Commission canceled contracts
for an additional 132 vessels. Three Victory ships, two AP3s and one
AP5, were completed in 1946 as VC2-S1-AP7 ships, modified as post-war
passenger and cargo carriers by the Alcoa Steamship Co. of New York. The
total number of Victory hulls built in the United States was 534.

The Victory ships formed a needed maritime link to the theaters of war.
These fast, large capacity carriers crossed the Atlantic and served well
in the Pacific. Ninety-seven of the Victories were converted to troop
carriers; the others, like the Liberties, carried food, fuel,
ammunitions, material, and supplies. Three of the ships, [Logan
Victory]{.underline}, [Hobbs Victory]{.underline}, and [Canada
Victory]{.underline} were lost to kamikaze attack at Keram Retto and
Okinawa in April 1945. The loss of these three ships, with their cargoes
of 24,000 tons of munitions, including nearly all of the United States\'
supply of 81mm mortar ammunition, was a serious blow to the Okinawa
invasions, demonstrating the importance of the ships and their cargoes.

At the war\'s end, the Victory ships were offered for sale by the
Maritime Commission by authority of the Merchant Ship Sales Act of 1946.
Thirty-one AP2 ships and 41 AP3 ships were sold to US firms, while 65
AP2s and 33 AP3s were sold abroad, most to Netherlands, Argentina, and
Great Britain. Twenty ships were loaned to the Army, while the remainder
were placed in mothballs as part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet,
laid up at eight different sites on the East, West and Gulf coasts. Some
vessels were reactivated to serve during times of national crisis. The
Korean and Vietnam conflicts and the closure of the Suez Canal in 1956
being three such instances. Other vessels were retained as logistic
support ships as part of the Military Sealift Command. Beginning in
1959, a total of eight Victory ships were reclassified and refitted as
instrumentation, telemetry, and recovery ships for the National
Aeronautic and Space Administration. On August 11, 1960, for example,
the former [Haiti Victory]{.underline} recovered the nose cone of
Discoverer XIII, the first man-made object recovered from space.

CAREER OF SS RED OAK VICTORY

RED OAK VICTORY was built in Kaiser\'s Richmond Shipyard Number One, and
launched on November 9, 1944. She was named for the town of Red Oak,
Iowa, which suffered the highest per capita casualty rate of any
American community during World War II. RED OAK VICTORY is unique in
having served as a navy ship as well as a merchant ship. She is the last
remaining of only ten ships ordered by the US Maritime Commission to be
built for use of the US Navy as an ammunition ship. She was commissioned
as the USS RED OAK VICTORY, AK235, on December 5, 1944.

Following a fitting out period she was loaded with cargo and departed
San Francisco for Pearl Harbor on January 10, 1945. She then began her
career as an ammunition ship and departed Hawaii on February 10 loaded
with munitions needed in the Marshall and Caroline Islands. Sent onward
from Eniwetoc, she arrived in Ulithi on February 28, 1945 and then began
operating under Commander Service Squadron Ten. Operating out of the
Philippines, she issued cargo and ammunition to various ships in the
fleet through the end of the war in August 1945. During her hazardous
tour of duty in the Pacific, USS RED OAK VICTORY handled many tons of
ammunition, supplying the fleet without a single casualty. She was
decommissioned on May 21, 1946 and returned to the US Maritime
Commission.

SS RED OAK VICTORY operated in 1947, and again between 1950 and 1953,
for the Luckenback Steamship Company. She made two 1947 voyages, one
from Portland, Oregon, to Anchorage, Alaska, early in the year, and
another voyage that began on September 1. In 1951 the ship made one trip
to Japan and Korea. In 1952, she departed San Francisco for several
trips to the Gulf ports of Tampa, Mobile, New Orleans, and Havana, Cuba.
The last of these voyages was in November 1953.

The ship\'s official log shows a 1957 voyage to Pakistan, India,
Singapore and Japan. According to cargo records, RED OAK VICTORY was
operated by American Mail Lines for the Military Sea Transport Service
from 1966 to 1968. She made a dozen voyages to Vietnam, Japan and the
Philippines carrying military supplies loaded at West Coast ports. From
1968 until 1998, she was laid up in the Maritime Administration Reserve
Fleet in Suisun Bay, California.

Doomed to be scrapped, the RED OAK VICTORY came to the attention of the
Richmond Museum Association in 1993. They recognized that the vessel
provided a unique opportunity to return a potent symbol of Richmond\'s
past to the waterfront. Congressman George Miller was approached, and in
1996 Congress passed legislation authorizing the conveyance of the ship
to the Museum Association. It has been designated a National Memorial
Ship by the Maritime Commission. She was turned over to the Richmond
Museum of History and returned to her new home in Richmond on September
20, 1998.

The City of Richmond granted the RED OAK VICTORY a temporary berth at
Terminal One in the Port of Richmond, where restoration efforts are
proceeding. The Museum Board of Directors is working with the City
toward establishing a permanent home for the ship on the City\'s
shoreline.

KAISER SHIPBUILDING

Before 1940, the Six Companies organization, with Henry J. Kaiser as a
key leader, were involved in major civil engineering feats, notably in
building roads and dams, including Grand Coulee. As World War II
approached, Kaiser began to think about turning his team of veteran
construction people to shipbuilding, especially since the US Maritime
Commission announced its plans to renovate the merchant marine, 90% of
which was World War I vintage or older.

In 1940, joining forces with already-established Todd Shipyards, Kaiser
secured a contract from the US Maritime Commission to build five C-1
cargo ships in Tacoma, Washington. At the same time, the Todd-Kaiser
partnership got an order from the British government to build 60 ships,
based on an old tramp steamer design, that became known as Liberty
ships. Thirty of these were to be built in Richmond, California, a site
with the unequalled resources of deep water and unoccupied land.
Construction of Kaiser\'s first Richmond shipyard began in December
1940, and by April 1941, the keel of the first ship for the British, the
[Ocean Vanguard]{.underline}, was laid.

In 1941, with the nation\'s declaration of war, three emergency programs
for building Liberty ships were begun, initiating an era of shipbuilding
of historic dimensions. Seven Kaiser-managed shipyards containing 58
shipways were built on the West Coast. Four of those yards, with 27
shipways, emerged from the mudflats on Richmond\'s south shoreline in
1941-42.

This is recounted in \"The Kaiser Story\":

> "Here, in the shipyards, come into play all the dynamics of materials
> flow, the rhythm of operations and the management of masses of
> workers, that the company had learned in a quarter century of building
> roads and dams. New ships had to be produced much faster than ever
> before and traditional methods simply wouldn\'t get the job done.
> Shipyards had previously been thought of in terms of acres; Kaiser
> yards covered miles so that the mountains of materials could be
> handled efficiently. Fast welding techniques just about eliminated
> laborious riveting; the traditional piece-by-piece way of putting
> ships together was scrapped in favor of prefabrication. Finally, yards
> were laid out like assembly lines, with the steel and parts flowing
> smoothly from flat cars to completed vessels."

Competition between shipyards made record-setting commonplace.
Keel-to-launching time was progressively cut to 27 days. The pace and
efficiency of the mass production were dramatically demonstrated when
the Liberty ship [Robert E. Peary]{.underline} was constructed in 4
days, 15 hours and 26 minutes. In addition to innovative time-cutting
techniques already developed, construction of the [Peary]{.underline}
utilized new ones, which were incorporated into future construction.
These included using seventeen banks of welding machines on each side of
the hull, pre-assembly of the deck in seven sections instead of 23, and
complete outfitting of the deckhouses, down to bunks, fans and flooring,
before assembly.

Kaiser\'s four Richmond shipyards produced 747 ships. The total
production of all Kaiser\'s shipyards was 1,490 ships, 27% of the total
US Maritime Commission construction, in 2/3 the time and at 25% less
cost, than the average of all other shipyards.

EFFECTS OF WARTIME SHIPBUILDING ON RICHMOND

Maritime mobilization on the home front transformed the nation.
Richmond\'s experience mirrors the vast and sudden changes throughout
the United States, the story that will be told in the \"Rosie the
Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park,\" scheduled to open in
Richmond in 2003.

[Background]{.underline}

The city of Richmond, California is located on the Northeast shore of
San Francisco Bay. Its site was originally settled by the Ohlone
Indians, and then variously by California rancheros, European farmers
until the end of the 19th century. A small \"landing\" operated by
George Ellis lay on a slough where Kaiser Shipyard #1 would rise almost
100 years later. But the town began around 1898 when an enterprising
duck hunter, Augustin Macdonald, noticed the proximity of San Francisco
to the Richmond shoreline and convinced developers of the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad to terminate their first transcontinental
rail line in Richmond. The pier at Ferry Point where rail cars and
passengers were ferried to San Francisco was the first major port on
Richmond\'s south shore, opened in 1900. On the heels of the railroad,
an oil company, which later became Chevron, decided to locate its
refinery in Richmond, near the rail yards. Growing around the nearby
Point Richmond neighborhood, the community was based upon these two
industries which remain crucial to Richmond\'s economy today.

Richmond's population grew from about 50 in 1900 to 2,118 in 1905, the
year of incorporation. The center of town moved east along Macdonald
Avenue, which became the main street when a trolley line was built
linking the Santa Fe depot at the west end with the Southern Pacific
depot at 16th Street. The City Hall was located at 25th and Macdonald,
near the site of today\'s civic center. By 1917 the population was more
than 20,000.

Industry flocked to Richmond, which was blessed with a natural deepwater
shoreline. In the teens and \'20s city fathers, under the guidance of
port director Frederick Parr, developed the port area. Terminal #1,
adjacent to Santa Fe\'s Ferry Point, is where the SS RED OAK VICTORY is
temporarily berthed today. Terminal #1\'s large steel and concrete
warehouse was built in 1915. In the 1920s Parr oversaw dredging and
filling to create a peninsula of land extending south into the bay
between today\'s Harbor Way and Marina Way, and led the negotiations
with the Ford Motor Company to construct a large assembly plant there.
This plant opened in 1931, and was converted during WWII to build tanks
and \"ducks.\" The Alfred Kahn-designed structure is on the National
Register of Historic Places, and is the planned location of the Rosie
the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park Visitors\' Center.

[The Richmond Shipyards]{.underline}

In 1940, Henry Kaiser was looking for a new area of enterprise for his
construction people, veterans of major dam and road building. His search
coincided with the visit of the British Technical Merchant Shipbuilding
Commission to the US in September 1940. Their search was for a US
shipyard that could deliver 60 merchant ships "of the tramp type of
about 10,000 tons deadweight." At that time all existing US shipyards
were choked with war work.

Kaiser had been considering turning to shipyards since the pre-war
announcement that the US Maritime Commission planned to renovate the
obsolete Merchant Marine. Kaiser had already formed an association with
Todd Shipyards at Seattle/Tacoma to bid on a Maritime Commission
contract for five C-1 cargo ships. The same groups created the
Todd-California Shipbuilding Corporation and won the order from the
British for the 60 "tramps", 30 to be built in Richmond, California,
still mudflats when the contract was signed.

Negotiations had been underway since mid-1939 between Richmond port
director Fred D. Parr and representatives of the Kaiser Company about
the site that eventually became Shipyard #3. Richmond presented maps and
photographs of the site but nothing further happened until, in October
1940, Henry Kaiser telephoned Fred Parr to request a definite proposal
for land along the south shore. Ninety-nine acres, owned by four
different companies, were identified and arrangements were worked out to
make the land available to prospective shipbuilders. When the contract
was signed for Todd-California's construction of 30 vessels for the
British, the Richmond Chamber of Commerce held a luncheon, attended by
Henry Kaiser and Stephen Bechtel, to acknowledge the "foresight and
perseverance" of Fred Parr on behalf of Richmond.

In January 1941 construction on Shipyard #1 began. Kaiser\'s Permanente
Metals Corporation (successor to Todd-California) owned the yard and
shipbuilding contracts were made with the US Maritime Commission.
674,000 cubic yards of material were moved through dredging and
re-grading to fill the marshes of the shoreline. 24,000 piles were
driven, 30 buildings erected and 7 shipways constructed. The shipyard
itself was more than 61 acres, with 20 major buildings. The first ship
was launched in October 1941. The yard was intended to operate only for
the life of the contract, until February 1945.

By March 1941 negotiations were begun for a second, larger shipyard to
the east of Shipyard #1. The Parr-Richmond Terminal Corporation owned
some of this land and large holdings belonged to Santa Fe. Again, Parr
headed negotiations and overcame obstacles to sign leases and contracts.
The yard was leased to the Richmond Shipbuilding Corporation and
Permanente Metals Corporation. There were 400 contracts involved in the
construction of the yard alone, many of which were with local companies.
Construction on Shipyard #2 began in April 1941. The filling in of the
land for Shipyard #2\'s twelve shipways and construction of the large
basin into which the ships were launched created the \"footprint\" of
today\'s southern shoreline. Two huge prefabrication plants were built
between Shipyards #1 and #2 to produce the deckhouse units and the
superstructure of the Liberty and Victory ships built in these two
yards. Shipyards #1 and #2 were closed immediately at the end of the
war.

In January 1942 grading began at the southern tip of the Potrero San
Pablo to create Shipyard #3. It was owned by the US Maritime Commission
and built and run by Kaiser to build huge C-4 troop transports. Instead
of sloping wooden shipways, Shipyard #3 had five huge concrete basins
where ships were constructed. Launching was accomplished by flooding the
dry dock-style basins and floating the ship to the outfitting docks.
These basins were designed to be permanent. After the war, Kaiser leased
the yard from the Maritime Commission and used it for ship repairs.
Today it is still in use by the Port of Richmond. The giant machine
shop, constructed of corrugated metal and glass, the massive concrete
general warehouse, and several smaller structures from the shipyard days
are still in use at this site. Shipyard #3 was listed on the National
Register of Historic Places in 2000.

Shipyard #4, on the inner harbor channel across from Shipyard #1, had
three wooden ways, and built LSTs and escort vessels. It was built in
mid-1942 and closed at the end of the war.

[Housing and Public Services]{.underline}

Richmond\'s population was 23,000, mostly people of European descent,
according to the 1940 census. Operation of the shipyards brought in
90,000 new workers, often with families, seeking accommodation near
their work. The town\'s population grew to more than 100,000 in 1942-43,
including a rise in African Americans from 400 to 14,000. Already
under-built, Richmond\'s existing housing was totally inadequate. 2,257
building permits were issued to private contractors in 1941, all for low
cost housing. The city was ill prepared for the throng of workers and
their families. There was not enough of anything: housing, schools,
health care, police and fire protection, and recreational facilities.
The high wages paid by the war industries drew much-needed applicants
away from police and other community service jobs. The shipyards worked
on a non-stop three-shifts-a-day schedule, and so did restaurants, movie
theatres, schools and day care centers, and lodging places, where two or
three persons might successively share a bed.

The Richmond Housing Authority had begun to lay the groundwork for
massive public housing as early as January 1941, resulting in the
construction of three low-income housing complexes designed to be
permanent: 48 duplexes in Triangle Court, 102 units in Nystrom Village,
and 450 units at Atchison Village. Nystrom Village and Atchison Village
exist today. Atchison Village is one of the satellite sites of the Rosie
the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park. Atchison Village
has also been placed on the Richmond Historic Register. A nomination for
listing in the National Register of Historic Places at the national
level of significance has been submitted. Eventually, more than 20,000
\"dwelling units\" in 21 different housing projects were constructed by
a variety of agencies including the Federal Public Housing Authority,
the Farm Security Administration and the Maritime Commission. Most of
the housing projects were concentrated on either side of Cutting Blvd.,
surrounding the shipyards themselves, on land that had not been
extensively developed pre-war. Even with the new housing many shipyard
workers lived outside town. Transportation to and from the yards was
provided on new roads, old ferries, and El cars brought from New York
for a new electric railway from Oakland.

Several agencies carried out an extensive program of public services,
developed to serve the new population. The Health Department of the City
extended its services with advice nurses and well baby clinics. Seven
large community centers were built. The City Board of Education operated
an extensive recreation program. The Richmond Area Church Defense
Council extended church services to the new area.

These efforts could not keep up with the needs of the dramatically
increased population. By 1943 city officials were referring to their
town as a \"municipal cripple.\" City Manager James McVittie prepared a
report characterizing Richmond as among the war-wounded stating, \"like
any soldier injured in his Country\'s service, to Richmond is owing that
Country\'s obligation to help bind up the wounds.\" He hoped the report
would gain funds from Congress to help in Richmond\'s post-war
rehabilitation. The report paints a powerful picture of a community
strained beyond capacity and suffering from grave deficiencies in
housing, educational facilities and quality transporta-tion, cultural
and recreational services, health care, police and fire protection, and
basic infrastructure affecting health, sanitation, streets and
sidewalks.

In the summer of 1943 the Federal Works Agency provided Lanham Act funds
for the city to hire more policemen. By 1945, more federal funds became
available for recreation, fire and police protection, and schools. But
these funds hardly touched the problems. A "Fortune" magazine article of
February 1945, \"Richmond Took a Beating,\" sums up Richmond in the
future referring to McVittie\'s report:

> "\... Mr. McVittie points out that if the present tax rate is
> continued after the war Richmond will have only about \$300,000 a year
> available for capital improvements and it would take over twenty years
> to finance the \"rehabilitation\" on a pay-as-you-go basis. Richmond
> already has a bonded indebtedness of almost a million dollars. The
> city government makes clear to the federal government that Richmond
> was chosen for its war job because of its favorable location and
> excellent harbor. The city is proud of the job that has been done. It
> is not the purpose of this report to grumble or complain about the
> resulting confusion, congestion, headaches, and heartache. But\...the
> federal government ought to tell Richmond what it is going to do with
> the shipyards and the housing projects and then help Richmond finance
> the postwar plan\...just as it rehabilitates its human war casualties.
> If it will do that, Richmond, by foresight and planning, can
> thereafter return to normal, self-sustaining civic and community
> life."

The shipyards were closed down almost immediately at the end of the war.
This created another state of chaos in Richmond, which now faced the
problems of a large, unassimilated, and unemployed population housed in
hastily built shelters already approaching slums. Many in the pre-war
population hoped that the shipyard workers would just pack up and go
home, leaving them with their quiet and familiar pre-war life style.
This, of course, did not happen. In fact, as other cities eliminated
their temporary war housing, people moved to Richmond where there were
rentals still available. In addition to these displaced war workers,
Richmond became a port of entry for the great post-war migration from
east to west, with people following family or friends who had made the
transition during the war years.

Faced with urgent needs for housing, transport, schools, and city
facilities and services, Richmond officials hoped that the Federal
government would come to the aid of the war-stricken community, much as
they were willing to help veterans. Much publicity was generated about
its wartime and post-war problems, and its efforts to reestablish an
equilibrium so badly off center from its traumatic World War II
experience.

In the immediate post-war years, great strides were made in
reconstruction, culminating in an \"All-American City\" award in 1952.
However, as with many other communities around the country, the shifting
demographics and economics of \"white flight\" and the accompanying
social unrest of the 1950s and 1960s seriously hampered efforts and
redevelopment and revitalization of the downtown business and
residential center and potential industrial lands. During the \'60s and
\'70s Richmond became a testing ground for many social experiments, some
failing and some successfully incorporated into the life of the city.
Richmond has grown in diversity, but the gap between "haves" and "have
nots" has widened.

As Richmond was distracted by multitudinous post-war adjustments, the
deserted waterfront land where the shipyards had flourished fell into a
state of neglect and under-utilization, its superb potential hidden by
weeds and dumping. However, because the waterfront land was deserted,
unappealing and off limits to the general public, it was inadvertently
preserved for later \"discovery\" and use.

The shoreline has been belatedly recognized as a priceless economic
asset, and so from the mid-\'70s, shoreline development has begun,
including parks and marinas, light industry and residential housing. In
the rapidly growing San Francisco Bay Area, Richmond is in the fortunate
anomalous position of having vacant land at a time when other cities in
the area no longer have empty space. There is a growing recognition that
the vestiges of Richmond\'s past are well worth preserving. The RED OAK
VICTORY ship can play a key role in preservation and interpretation of
significant portions of its history, instill a sense of pride in the
past and stewardship in the present among its residents.

KAISER\'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO EMPLOYEE WELFARE

To provide the labor for Kaiser's massive undertaking in a time of
scarce manpower, a drive to recruit workers began in June 1942.
Recruiters operated first in Southern California, then moved east.
\"Help wanted\" ads and employment services around the country referred
workers to Kaiser\'s West Coast shipyards. Transportation west could be
advanced against worker\'s salaries on the \"Kaiser Special Train.\" At
its peak, there were 197,000 workers in Kaiser yards. Eventually more
than one million names were listed in shipyard personnel files. By
mid-1944, one fourth of the workers were women. The formation of a
diverse workforce including women, blacks, Asian Americans, Native
Americans and Mexican Americans was unique.

Kaiser advocated for the rights of African Americans to work union jobs
and, due to the war emergency and Kaiser\'s support, the ban by unions
on allowing membership to blacks was lifted. Kaiser made provisions for
home-to-work transportation and 24-hour child care for its workers. To
enable this largely unskilled work force to be immediately productive,
Kaiser provided \"10-day training\" in skills focused on a single
operation. Fabrication was divided into components, and workers became
experts, not in shipbuilding, but in mastering one small job out of the
total.

Perhaps the longest lasting contribution of Kaiser\'s care of its
shipyard work force was in health care. Henry Kaiser had a personal
ambition to provide health care \"so average people could afford to be
sick.\" His first opportunity to realize it came in the late 1930s when
Kaiser learned of a small pre-paid health system devised by a young
doctor, Sidney Garfield. For workers on the Los Angeles Aqueduct it
appeared to provide quality medical care at an affordable price. When a
Kaiser group secured the contract to build Grand Coulee dam, there was
already a privately owned hospital near the site. Kaiser was able to
renovate the hospital to serve a new community of 5,000 workers and
their families where the company pre-paid the cost of accidents and
workmen contributed seven cents a day to pre-pay for other medical care.
Families were soon added to the plan. The basic tenets of the Kaiser
Foundation Medical Care Program was thus developed which included:

> • pre-payment at a lower cost in the long run because the total cost
> of medical care was spread among many members
>
> • group practice, where each doctor could specialize and call on the
> specialized skills of colleagues

• integrated facilities with the hospital, doctors\' offices, labs, and
x-ray under one roof

• preventive medical care, where economic factors do not discourage
early doctor visits.

An additional benefit was increased morale, with workers relieved of
worry about their or their families\' health.

In early 1941, Kaiser put the Grand Coulee model to work in Richmond,
seeing that, with the large number of people that would be employed in
their new shipyards, an extensive medical program would be needed to
take care of them properly. Kaiser proposed to the Maritime
Commission\'s Division of Insurance that a medical and hospital plan be
developed with the carriers of compensation insurance for the shipyards.
They also recommended that it be developed and run by Dr. Sidney
Garfield. In August 1943 A. B. Ordway of Kaiser submitted a report to
the Maritime Commission\'s Insurance Division Director. Entitled
\"Richmond Shipyards Industrial Medical and Hospital Facilities\" it
stated: \"great savings could be made for the commission in the medical
costs, at the same time the maximum of medical and hospital services
could be provided because the Doctor could anticipate a reasonable
income under a contract plan and therefore provide the staff, equipment
and facilities necessary to give the best results possible.\"

The plan was designed to provide services for eventually 100,000
employees and their families without straining already overtaxed
existing medical facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Medical
Health Plan charged a fixed price per week, securing an income
sufficient to justify investment in buildings and equipment and
provision of the best staff possible. The report assured the Maritime
Commission that \"the object was not to secure the cheapest medical
service, but the best medical service that would reflect credit upon the
Commission, the employer and the insurer and be satisfactory to the
employees, and at the same time retain for the insurer all the economies
resultant from efficient operation, which savings are for the benefit of
the Commission in its final net compensation cost.\"

The Medical Health Plan was financed by a non-profit foundation, called
Permanente, which functioned separately from Kaiser\'s industrial and
business organizations. It was headquartered in an old hospital building
in Oakland, California, and a field hospital built on Cutting Blvd. in
Richmond. This building still stands, and has been identified by the
National Park Service as a satellite site for the Rosie the Riveter/WWII
Home Front National Historical Park, as well as being listed on the
Richmond Historical Register. First aid stations were built within the
shipyards. The first aid station from Shipyard #3 still stands as part
of that National Register Site.

From 1942 to 1945, the Plan cared for people of all ages and in all
physical conditions, and worked very well. Public health education was
part of the early health plan. Loudspeaker systems in the shipyards were
used to inform workers about important health programs and topics.
Employee newsletters featured health-related stories on illness
prevention. A women\'s cancer detection clinic was opened and patients
given information on early signs of cancer and the importance of regular
check-ups.

As the shipyards began to close, membership in the Permanente Health
Plan dropped to 32,000, and its continuance was questioned. Union
workers, even if unemployed, still needed low cost health care and many
doctors liked the advantages of prepaid group practice. But it was not
certain if the Plan could compete with established medical insurance
plans and the traditional medical community. Henry J. Kaiser\'s personal
optimism and commitment to affordable health care encouraged the opening
of enrollment to groups and individuals on a voluntary basis. The
post-war Permanente Health Plan caught hold, and has continued to grow
into the largest pre-paid health plan in the world.

The S. S. RED OAK VICTORY, while it meets NHL criteria 1 and 4,
represents a portion of the massive home front effort that went into
winning World War II. Its high level of integrity represents the
innovative manufacturing techniques developed in its construction, which
was enabled by the innovative shipyard layout. Additionally, it
represents the beginnings of many of the social issues that the country
confronted in the years following the end of the war: civil rights,
medical care, child care, and women's rights.