The Mare Island naval shipyard turns 150 years old this year. 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.
Published: August, 2004
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.
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.
