California Shipbuilding Corporation

California Shipbuilding Corporation or “Calship”, as this shipyard was known, was located at Terminal Island in Southern California.  It was one of the original nine shipyards approved to build Liberty Ships.  Over 300 Liberty Ships were built here as well as 30 Liberty Tankers.

The yard was managed by Henry Kaiser.  It was located on land owned by the port authorities.  They were able to expand the yard along the channel that connected the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach to provide more space for the construction of these ships.  Calship delievered its first ship, the John C. Fremont, 273 days after her keel was laid down.  By July 1942, when the Joseph McKenna was delivered, that time was cut down to 75 days.

The shipyard set records for speed at building Liberty ships.  By June 1942, the yard was exceeding its 12 ships per month quota.  Calship continued its extraordinary performance record throughout 1943.  Every shipyard involved in the construction of Liberty Ships made efforts to improve the efficiencies of construction.  Calship was proud to be ranked third in the scale of total savings.  At the end of the war Calship was given title to all its facilities.

Asbestos Use at California Shipbuilding Corporation

A significant number of Liberty Ships were built at this yard and all had thousands of pounds of asbestos insulating products installed on them.  Shipyards workers who constructed these ships were exposed to the hazards of asbestos on a daily basis as they rushed through their work to support the war effort.  Not only were shipyard workers exposed to this asbestos, but the crewmen who subsequently manned these ships also breathed this asbestos dust as they operated and maintained these ships.  These seamen and shipyards workers remain at risk of developing mesothelioma because of this exposure to asbestos.