The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short) was founded in 1899 and opened its first shipyard in 1900. Located in Camden, New Jersey on the east shore of the Delaware River, New York Ship built more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United States Coast Guard, and other maritime concerns.
New York Ship's unusual covered ways produced everything from aircraft carriers, battleships, and luxury liners to barges and car floats. At its peak during World War II, NYSB was the largest and most productive shipyard in the world. Its best-known vessels include the destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245), the cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35), the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), the nuclear-powered cargo ship NS Savannah, and a quartet of cargo-passenger liners nicknamed the Four Aces.
During World War I, New York Ship expanded rapidly to fill orders from the U.S. Navy and the Emergency Fleet Corporation. A critical shortage of worker housing led to the construction of Yorkship Village, a planned community of 1000 brick homes designed by Electus Darwin Litchfield and financed by the War Department. Yorkship Village is now the Fairview section of the City of Camden.
New York Ship's World War II production included all nine Independence-class light carriers (CVL), built on Cleveland-class light cruiser hulls; the 35,000-ton battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57); and 98 LCTs (Landing Craft, Tank), many of which took part in the D-Day landings at Normandy.
After World War II, a much-diminished New York Ship subsisted on a trickle of contracts from the United States Maritime Administration and the U.S. Navy. The yard launched its last civilian vessel (SS Export Adventurer) in 1960, and its last naval vessel ordered (USS Camden) in 1967. The former yard's site is now part of the Port of Camden, handling breakbulk cargo.
The last completed submarine to be delivered to the U.S. Navy was USS Guardfish (SSN-612) and was commissioned December 1967. Although USS Camden was the last ship ordered, Guardfish had been ordered years before, but construction was halted from 1963 to 1965 because of the loss of the USS Thresher. USS Pogy (SSN-647) was under construction, and towed to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, MS in 1968 for completion, and NYS went bankrupt due to lack of orders from the Navy. This was in part due to the shipyard's substantial contributions to the Nixon campaign for president, and orders dried up with New York Ship soon after Kennedy was elected.
Submarines built here had the most perfectly round hulls ever produced (Thresher Class) because of the largest steel rollers used in the construction of the pressure hulls using HY-80 steel.
Read more about New York Shipbuilding Corporation: Ships Built
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