Shipyard Turns
150By Jaimal Yogis
![](August%20Shipyard%20Turns150%2001.jpg) |
The first
permanent drydock ever built in the west. It is
a national historic landmark and it is made of
granite and not concrete. |
Vallejo—Joyce Giles smiles as she leads
her tour groups through the blacksmith’s building she once
worked in: the enormous empty room now just weeks away from
its premier as the Mare Island Artifacts Museum. A peppy,
elderly woman with silver curls, Giles strolls by the
mounted black and white photos with pride, listing off dates
and facts like an encyclopedia. Her gait and demeanor show
clearly that this is what she lives for—keeping the history
of Mare Island alive.
![](August%20Shipyard%20Turns150%2002.jpg) |
St. Peter’s
Chapel, which is always the highlight of any
Mare Island tour. |
The Mare Island naval shipyard turns 150
years old this year and dedicated volunteers like Giles are
helping to educate the public on the shipyard’s historic
importance. On September 16, 2004, the actual birthday of
the shipyard, a granite pillar will be erected in honor of
the men and women who worked in the yard. The pillar will be
a timeline that commemorates important contributions the
shipyard made to America’s naval history, according to
Richard Lemke, the shipyard’s creator. The anniversary bash
will also include a public fundraiser dinner at the Mare
Island Officer’s club (tickets are $50 a plate).
Eight years after the shipyard’s closure
in 1996, Giles is just one of many volunteers who is helping
to restore Mare Island and keep its history living.
“A lot of ex-shipyard workers like to keep
in touch with the island through volunteering,” says Giles.
“We’re attached to it.”
Giles seems to especially enjoy pointing
out how many “firsts” and “biggests” there are on the
shipyard tour: the first naval base on the West Coast
established by the first Navy admiral; the first naval
chapel in the U.S. with the biggest collection of Tiffany
stained glass; the first golf course west of the
Mississippi, etc.
An especially impressive first is Mare
Island’s drydock No. 1, a 508-foot trough that was dug out
with picks, shovels, and oxen over a 13-year period in the
late 1800s. Jutting deep into the land and covered in
granite slabs, the dock sits like the empty shell of one of
the many boats repaired within it, a reminder of their sheer
enormity. Its granite walls echo with a once bustling past.
And from its creation in 1854 to its
closure in 1996, the Mare Island shipyard was bustling: it
was one of the primary construction sites and repair grounds
for ships and submarines in nearly every war America has
participated in. In its 142 years, the naval shipyard
produced 512 ships, including 17 nuclear submarines.
According to the Navy, the 22 Mare Island
built submarines that saw battle sunk 252 enemy ships for a
total of 988,357 tons of shipping.
The history of Mare Island precedes the
U.S. Navy, however. In 1775, Capt. Juan Manuel de Ayala
landed on an island inhabited by Patwin Indians, descendants
of the Miwok-Costanoan Indians who may have used the island
for up to 200 years before the Spaniards arrival. A flat 3.5
mile strip of land, the European settlers named the island
Isla Plana, or flat island. It was General Mariano Vallejo
who renamed it Isla de la Yegua, or Mare Island, in 1835,
when he found one of his prize mares–thought to have been
lost overboard when a boat capsized–grazing peacefully on
Isla’s flat plains.
Shortly thereafter, Commodore David
Farragut, who later became the Navy’s first Admiral, was
assigned the duty of installing a West Coast naval base on
Mare Island. Having served in the Navy since the age of
nineteen and being a respected friend of President Lincoln,
Farragut had little trouble establishing a thriving naval
headquarters at Mare Island.
In its first 50 years, the base was a far
cry from the bustling shipyard that employed more than
41,000 during World War II. Technology was so rudimentary in
the late 1800s that naval officers had to ship important
messages to Mare Island attached to the legs of pigeons.
Knowing that the birds would return to their birthplace, the
Navy captured the island’s pigeons, brought them out to sea,
and when needed, released the birds with messages to return
home.
But the industrial revolution gave way to
vast changes. By World War I, a complex radio system had
replaced pigeons, and the shipyard began planning its first
submarine assembly; a $5 million boat named the Nautilus was
eventually launched in March of 1930. The Pompano and the
Swordfish followed shortly thereafter. These early
submarines were so dangerous that submariners had to fill
out their wills and sign liability waivers before diving.
At its height in World War II, the
shipyard repaired and returned to battle no fewer than 1,227
ships. Veterans of the island still like to boast about
their unbeaten WWII record of assembling the USS Ward in
just 17 1/2 days.
But it wasn’t all glory for shipyard
workers. While Mare Island’s ships fought to end the
oppression of Jews in Germany, an internal struggle for
civil rights was being fought at the shipyard. In 1944, just
two weeks after 202 men were killed in a freak ammunition
explosion at Port Chicago, 50 African-American workers were
arrested for refusing to load the same type of ammunition on
Mare Island. The arrested men had objected to their
treatment by the Navy, and demanded an end to a system in
which African Americans were segregated into the hardest and
most dangerous work.
The shipyard’s landfill is also a scar on the shipyard’s
record. Like many others of its kind, the landfill became
highly toxic, threatening an important wildlife refuge. The
Navy now has to spend at least $54 million to restore the
area.
After WWII, the shipyard began its nuclear
era, constructing 17 nuclear subs in 16 years, but it also
began gradually cutting back on staff. In 1988, the island
employed just 10,000 people and was finally ordered closed
in April 1996. It was subsequently signed over to the City
of Vallejo from which time the shipyard has remained largely
deserted.
But as the 150th anniversary approaches,
the ghost yard is returning to life. As part of the City of
Vallejo’s plans to revamp the waterfront area, the shipyard
is slowly becoming a bustling center once again. Lennar Mare
Island, the private firm helping to develop 650 acres of the
5,500- acre island, already foresees the creation about
8,000 jobs on Mare Island and approximately 1,400 new homes.
“We see this as a great location,” says
Kem Kantor, President of Alco Metal and Iron Co., one of the
many companies leasing a lot from Lennar.
Some of the old military buildings have
already been converted by private businesses. A building
that once stored the components of the atomic bombs dropped
on Japan in World War II now serves as a Napa Winery; the
dozen mansions built at the turn of the century for
high-ranking officers are private firms as well; and a
61,000 sq. foot building built for the World’s Fair now
serves as a professional sports center. As the 150th
anniversary of the shipyard passes, it also marks a new and
exciting era for Mare Island, and for the Bay Area residents
who want to enjoy its beauty.