The Consolidated Steel Corporation was an American steel and shipbuilding business. Formed on 18 December 1928,[1] the company built ships during World War II in two main locations: Wilmington, California and Orange, Texas. It was created by the merger of Llewellyn Iron Works, Baker Iron Works and Union Iron Works,[2] all of Los Angeles. The company entered the shipbuilding business in 1939.[3] In 1948, now a pioneer producer of large-diameter pipelines, Consolidated Steel was renamed Consolidated Western Steel and acquired by U.S. Steel and operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
The San Diego-based Consolidated Aircraft Corp. is not related and neither is the Union Iron Works of San Francisco. The company did not produce steel (the Llewellyn Iron Works did so during 1916–1923), neither from iron ores nor from pig iron, but rather fabricated standard steel mill product (plates and bars) into steel products (buildings, ships, pipes). In the 1950s, the company contributed ground equipment to the Project Nike missile system. In 1964, Consolidated was merged into the American Bridge Division of U.S. Steel.
The Orange, Texas shipyard lay on the banks of the Sabine River at (30°05′11″N93°43′28″W / 30.086351°N 93.72434°W / 30.086351; -93.72434[4]), a few miles upstream of the Sabine Pass that grants access to the Gulf of Mexico (Pennsylvania Shipyards, Inc. in Beaumont, Texas made use of it as well). Consolidated Steel bought the Orange Car and Steel Company (railcars) property in February 1940[5] with the original intention of going into the business of barge and tug construction. Before November 1922 this company was called the Southern Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Company,[6] which operated 5 building ways for wooden hull construction for the United States Shipping Board,[7] of which 6 were launched and at least one, Gonzalis (1918), was fitted with engines.
The modest facilities were expanded when Consolidated Steel was awarded destroyer contracts from the U.S. Navy in September 1940. After the war the site was sold to U.S. Steel together with Consolidated's assets in Los Angeles and whatever was obtained from the merger with Western Pipe and Steel elsewhere. However, the wholly-owned subsidiary and soon after the U.S. Steel corporate division both continued to operate as Consolidated Western Steel. The government-owned shipyard facilities were eventually bought by Consolidated Western Steel for $1,001,000 in the Summer of 1949, but not to be used for shipbuilding beyond the obligations imposed as part of the deal, to maintain this capability for some time.[8] Another pipe mill was built in Orange during the boom years. At its peak durning the war, it employed 20,000 people. The first ship launched was the destroyer USSAulick on March 2, 1942. The last ship launched was the destroyer USSCarpenter on December 28, 1945. United States Naval Station Orange was the overseer of the Navy projects.[9][10]
Contracts for 12 Fletchers were authorized with the Two-Ocean Navy Act and awarded later in 1940[11]Fletchers were produced no more than six concurrently. Gearings were produced no more than ten concurrently. There were six slipways that could build one destroyer or destroyer escort and there were two side launching ways that could each build two destroyers or 3 destroyer escorts. The stern-first launching ways must obviously have been there first, see also launch photographs e.g.[12][13][14]
The Consolidated Steel Wilmington shipyard (33°46′04″N118°16′21″W / 33.76767°N 118.27254°W / 33.76767; -118.27254) in Wilmington, California was an emergency yard built in 1941 in the Port of Los AngelesWest Basin after Consolidated Steel was awarded Maritime Commission contracts. At its peak, it employed 12,000 people, working on eight shipways on the 95-acre facility at 1100 W Harry Bridges Blvd, Wilmington. Production peaked on May 29, 1944, when it launched three large ships in only a 2+1⁄2-hour period. The yard was built as a temporary facility and, like most such war plants, it was closed after the war ended.
Together, the shipyards ranked Consolidated 29th among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.[17]
Fifteen of the C1-B were built with steam turbines supplied by Joshua Hendy Iron Works ("JH") instead of those built by Westinghouse ("WH"). Hendy also provided the 36 triple expansion steam engines that went into the patrol frigates.
The yard changed to a 2-shift rotation (10.5 hours) on June 12, 1944.[18]
On Liberty Fleet Day, September 27, 1941, the yard launched SS Alcoa Polaris, a C1-B type cargo vessel, as one of the fourteen ships launched nationwide on the same day to show the magnitude of the shipbuilding program.[113][114]
Two type p1 passenger ships, model P1-S2-L2. The P1-S2-L2 Doyen-classattack transports were two ships. The first American assault military transports. Made with an aft ramp for the launching of small landing craft or for the unloading of tanks.
The Union, Baker and Llewellyn Iron Works were competitors prior to consolidation in the markets of steel fabrication and erection in the Los Angeles area.[147]
In August 1930 plans were being implemented to erect the typical shops of a steel plant on the tract at Slauson and Eastern. The projected cost was $1,000,000 including machinery. Predecessor plants were to be dismantled and moved to the new location.[148]
During World War II 761[149]Landing craft mechanized were constructed to completion in the plant and their motors and hull integrity tested on site in a large water tank.[150]
Consolidated built the first blast furnace of the Kaiser Fontana integrated mill in 1942.[151]
In 1949 the plant was 60 acres in size with equipment for the manufacture and erection of heavy steel products. Including 26 to 36-inch welded pipe, structural steel for industrial and commercial buildings, bridges and railcar frames; cement kilns; penstocks; storage tanks (gas, oil, water, chemicals).[152]
After the war
Shortly after the end of the war, in September 1945, Consolidated Steel bought the assets of the Western Pipe and Steel Company of California, another wartime shipbuilding firm, for $6,217,373.[153] The property consisted of main plants at South San Francisco and Vernon and small plants serving local industries in Taft, Fresno and Phoenix.[154][155]
In October 1946 a shipyard on Manicani Island off the coast of Samar in the Philippines came under the control of Consolidated and Bechtel interests under the name of Philippine Consolidated Shipyards. Initial contracts from the U.S. Navy for conversion, repair and construction of small craft,[156] which was completed in August 1947 after which Philippine Consolidated carried on with similar work in Manila and Cavite.[157]
The company name was changed to Consolidated Western Steel Corp. on 1 July 1948.[159] A separate company with the same name was incorporated in Delaware on 31 August 1948,[160] marking the acquisition for $12,481,221[161] by U.S. Steel.
In January 1949, Consolidated was contracted to build a new blast furnace at the Kaiser Fontana steel mill.[162] This was furnace #2, blown on October 13, 1949.
October 1949, construction is planned of a new pipe mill in Houston near the ship channel with a projected capacity of 50 miles of large diameter pipe per month.[163] The project is cancelled, the mill is instead built in Orange, Texas.[164] A general purpose plate shop and a 85x900 feet pipe mill became operational in March 1950.[165] Also during that time the Orange plant was fabricating the large 34 feet, 10 inches diameter pipe sections for the Baytown Tunnel that crossed the Houston ship channel.[166]
September 1949, Consolidated is applying for a certificate to operate in Pennsylvania to assist in the construction of a new welded pipe mill in McKeesport.[167]
Effective 31 December 1951, in an internal corporate restructuring, the subsidiary corporation became the Consolidated Western Steel Division of the United States Steel Company with Alden G. Roach as president, who was also president of the newly formed Columbia-Geneva Steel Division.[168][169]
In May 1955, a new pipe mill in Provo starts shipments for the Pacific Northwest Pipeline Corp..[170] The relocation of all pipeline operations to Utah was first announced in September 1954.[171]
The small diameter pipe mill was moved from Berkeley to the new pipe plant at Provo after the large diameter portion had reached full production and the transfer was completed in January 1956.[172]
During much of the 1950s, Consolidated was part of Project Nike, producing $146.2 million worth of launcher loaders, earning $9.3 million in profits.[173] The first generation Nike-Ajax loaders were a Douglas Aircraft design, the enlarged Nike-Hercules loaders were Consolidated Western's design.[174] Many thousands were produced at a price on the order of $20,000 to $30,000 each.[175]
In March 1957 a design study for a heavy water reactor pressure vessel was released, prepared on behalf of the Atomic Energy Commission.[176]
In 1964, in an internal corporate restructuring, the Consolidated Western Steel Division was merged with the American Bridge Division to form a single steel fabrication division within U.S. Steel (the American Bridge DIvision).[177] Occurrences of the former name in the press dropped sharply at that point.
Line Pipe
Name
Location
From
To
Length
Diameters
Taxas-California
California
Blythe
Santa Fe Springs
214
30
Trans-Arabia
Saudi Arabia
980
30, 31
Transcontinental
United States
1840
PG&E Super Inch
California
Topock
Milpitas
34
Kirkuk-Baniyas
Iraq and Syria
Kirkuk
Baniyas
490
30, 32
California
Needles
Newhall
241
In September 1946 production was to commence on 214 miles and 60,000 tons of 30-inch pipe for the Southern California Gas Company for a contract value of $6m.[178] This 214 mile section between Blythe and Santa Fe Springs was the western section of the first of the El Paso Natural Gas Company's pipelines supplying California from natural gas fields in Texas.[179] Steel plates were provided by the Geneva Steel mill.[180] The pipeline became operational on 13 November 1947.[181] The source material for the process was 30 feet long, 92 inch wide plates, the welded pipe segments were hydraulically expanded (i.e. cold formed) in a closed die, yielding very straight pipe of improved strength. The capacity of the plant in 1947 was 9 miles of pipe per week. Shipped pipes were 60 feet in length, 2 sections welded together at the factory.[182]
In early 1947 Consolidated was contracted to provide 980 miles of pipe for the Bechtel-built Trans-Arabian Pipeline (oil), the National Tube Company of Pittsburgh (a U.S. Steel subsidiary) was to supply another 70 miles.[183] A second production line was installed at the Maywood plant[184] for the construction of 31-inch pipe, which made up 50% of the order and this allowed the volume of shipping and shipping costs be cut in half with one pipe segment stored inside one larger pipe segment. The Trans-Arabian Pipe Line Co. underwrote the cost to increase production capacity to 3 miles per day.[185] The January 1949 issue of U.S. Steel News stated a capacity of 3.5 miles of pipe per day at the Maywood plant.[186] The SSWilliam Tllghman with the first load of pipes[187] (a little more than 5 miles[188]) departed Long Beach for Ras Tanura on 7 November 1947.,[189] followed by the SSGeorge Chamberlain, SSJoplin Victory, SSWilliam H. Kendrick, SSKenyon Victory and others.
During delays caused by failure of Tapline to obtain export licenses, 30 and 31-inch pipe was diverted to the Tennessee Gas Transmission Co. to loop the 661 miles between Victoria, Texas and Cornwell, West Virginia laid in 1947 and 1948 with 204 miles of 30/31-inch loop line.[190]
In January 1949 CWS began fabrication of 1840 miles of pipe for the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company's Texas-New York pipeline (natural gas).[191] (FPC Docket No. G-704, certificate issued 29 May 1948[192]) The plates for this pipeline came from Kaiser Fontana. The Basalt Rock Company at Napa (Bay area) also turned Kaiser plates into pipe for that project. The Fontana mill was making plates at an approximate rate of 20,000 tons per month for Consolidated in late 1949.[193]
June 1949, contracts are awarded for Pacific Gas and Electric's 34-inch "Super-Inch" Pipe Line (natural gas) from Topock to Milpitas.[194] Ditching started June 29, 1949 for the 80-mile section between Llanda (near Hollister) and Milpitas, which was to be used as an underground storage reservoir until completion of the whole line, to be ready for the 1949/1950 winter season.[195][196] The pipe segments were produced in South San Francisco and joined in pairs or if conditions permitted in groups of three at a depot near Santa Clara. The depot was then moved to Barstow in late 1949 or early 1950 when the northern leg was about completed. Stockpiling began for the ensuing completion of the pipe, which started from the Arizona border at Topock, heading west.[197]
September 1950, construction to begin on 30-inch pipe for the Kirkuk–Baniyas oil pipeline,[198] which was to loop the existing 12-inch and 16-inch lines of the Kirkuk–Haifa oil pipeline. Diameters of 30 and 32 inches. Plates fabricated by Geneva Steel. First first shipment sails on 30 September 1950, Construction by Bechtel commenced in November 1950, shortly after the completion of the Trans-Arabia. Last shipment leaves the Port of Los Angeles February 1952 aboard the SSDay Beam.[199] The line went into operation in April 1952.
August 1952, fabrication of parts of a 953-mile 24-inch crude oil pipeline from Wink, Texas to Norwalk, California to begin in a few months.[200]
Consolidated was contracted for 20 miles of 30-inch pipe for an expansion of the California portion of the Texas Pipeline (natural gas) in November 1952, the project expected to be finished in March 1953.[201]
The Provo pipe mill produced 241 miles of 30-inch pipe to be laid in the first half of 1957 between Needles and Newhall, Pacific Lightning Corp subsidiaries (conjecture: SoCalGas), total project cost $24,000,000.[202]
Baker Iron Works
The Baker Iron Works had its start at Los Angeles, California, about 1874,[203][204] when Milo Stannard Baker (1828–1894) acquired a small machine shop there. The business, begun on a small scale as M.S. Baker & Company, grew quite rapidly. A much larger facility was erected in 1886 and in June of that year the business was incorporated as the Baker Iron Works with capital stock of $75,000. Five directors were named: Milo S. Baker, E.H. Booth, Charles F. Kimball, Fred L. Baker (Milo's son), and H.T. Neuree. Less than a year later, Baker erected a $15,000 building on Buena Vista Street near College.
Baker Iron Works had a great many different products, manufacturing mining, milling, pumping, hoisting, oil and well drilling machinery, streetcars, boilers, oven and heating furnaces, as well as a line of architectural iron. It seems to have been especially noteworthy for steam boiler fabrication, installation and maintenance. According to one authority, in 1889 Baker produced the first locomotive built in Los Angeles, designed by Milo's son Fred, vice president of the firm.[citation needed]
Another authority[citation needed] says Baker built horse cars and perhaps street cars for Los Angeles, Pasadena and other communities in the Los Angeles area and that they built some larger cars for the Santa Ana & Orange Motor Road in 1898. According to this authority, after Pacific Electric bought this line, the cars were revamped and continued in service until 1920. It is claimed that in the early 1890s, Street Railway Journal reportedly ranked Baker "among the principal car builders on the Pacific Coast."
In 1887, Baker constructed six street cars for the City & Central Street Railway.[citation needed]
According to an article in the 1 January 1890 issue of the Los Angeles Times, the Baker Works then occupied some 25,000 square feet (2,300m2) and provided employment to 75 men. A large variety of manufacturing was being done. The foundry was making iron and brass castings to fit nearly all kinds of machinery for mining and milling purposes, besides pumping plants for large and small waterworks, and steam plants for all the variety of uses to which steam was put. They manufactured their own boilers. They were also manufacturing oil-boring tools and rigs, and constructing elevators—both passenger and freight—in all varieties: hydraulic steam or hand. It was claimed by the newspaper that Baker had installed nearly all the first class passenger elevators in Southern California. The article said they manufacture street-cars and did other railroad work to order and claimed to make the best gang plows and road and field rollers that could be obtained anywhere. They also installed heating and ventilating plants for public buildings, both steam, hot water and hot air. And they did architectural iron-work. Milo S. Baker was then president, J.E. Sills was vice-president and treasurer, and Fred L. Baker (Milo's son) was secretary and plant superintendent.
In 1891, Baker was awarded the contract to build the Santa Ana Water Works. In six months, for a total price of $58,000, Baker put in nine miles (14km) of street mains, sixty fire hydrants and gates valves, one reservoir 10×78×78 feet (3.0×23.8×23.8m), build one fire-proof power house, two sixty-horsepower (45kW) boilers and brick stock, two 10 by 16 by 10+1⁄2 by 10 feet (3.0m ×4.9m ×3.2m ×3.0m) compound condensing engines of 2,060,000 US gallons (7,800m3) capacity every 24 hours, All this complete and functioning: truly a "turn-key" operation. {109}
After the turn of the 20th century, Baker seems to have specialized in steel fabrication and elevator building. Fred L. Baker headed the company as president after his father's death.[203] Over the next 30 years they did the steel work and/or elevators for—among many others— Los Angeles' first skyscraper, the twelve-storey Union Trust Building, the Public Service Building, the Queen of Angels Hospital, the YWCA Hotel, the United Artists-California Petroleum Building, the University of California at Westwood, The Masonic Temple at Glendale, the Los Angeles-First National Bank at Glendale, the Los Angeles-First National Bank at Hollywood and the University of Redlands at Redlands.
Fred L. Baker acted as president of the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. The keels for the first three ships hastily laid down in the yard in July 1917 were fabricated in the Baker Iron Works shops.[205]
↑ Pacific American Steamship Association; Shipowners Association of the Pacific Coast (March 1942). "Consolidated Delivers Alcoa Polaris". Pacific Marine Review. San Francisco: J.S. Hines: 51. Retrieved 19 December 2020.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Maritime Administration. "Alcoa Polaris". Ship History Database Vessel Status Card. U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.
Type C1 was a designation for cargo ships built for the United States Maritime Commission before and during World War II. Total production was 493 ships built from 1940 to 1945. The first C1 types were the smallest of the three original Maritime Commission designs, meant for shorter routes where high speed and capacity were less important. Only a handful were delivered prior to Pearl Harbor. But many C1-A and C1-B ships were already in the works and were delivered during 1942. Many were converted to military purposes including troop transports during the war.
SS Mariposa was a luxury ocean liner launched in 1931, one of four ships in the Matson Lines "White Fleet", which included SS Monterey, SS Malolo, and SS Lurline. She was later renamed SS Homeric.
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SS Empire Javelin was an Infantry Landing Ship or "LSI (Large)" in service with the UK in the latter part of the Second World War. Launched on 25 October 1943, she was a United States Maritime Commission C1-S-AY1 subtype, one of thirteen similar ships built by Consolidated Steel Corporation.
USS Lloyd E. Acree (DE-356) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The primary purpose of the destroyer escort was to escort and protect ships in convoy, in addition to other tasks as assigned, such as patrol or radar picket.
The Western Pipe and Steel Company (WPS) was an American manufacturing company that is best remembered today for its construction of ships for the Maritime Commission in World War II. It also built ships for the U.S. Shipping Board in World War I and took part in the construction of the giant Grand Coulee Dam project in the 1930s.
The Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation was an American corporation which built escort carriers, destroyers, cargo ships and auxiliaries for the United States Navy and merchant marine during World War II in two yards in Puget Sound, Washington. It was the largest producer of destroyers (45) on the West Coast and the largest producer of escort carriers of various classes (56) of any United States yard active during World War II.
SS California was the World's first major ocean liner built with turbo-electric propulsion. When launched in 1927 she was also the largest merchant ship yet built in the US, although she was a modest size compared with the biggest European liners of her era.
USS George F. Elliott (AP-105) was a cargo liner built for the Mississippi Shipping Company as SS Delbrasil for operation between New Orleans and the east coast of South America in 1939 by its operator, Delta Line. The ship entered that service and operated until taken over by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) on 28 April 1942 for operation by Delta Line acting as WSA's agent. On 25 August 1943 WSA allocated the ship to the Navy for conversion to a troop transport commissioned and operated by the Navy for the duration of the war. Ownership of the ship was transferred from Mississippi Shipping to WSA on 4 February 1944 while under Navy operation and was retained until sale to American South African Lines on 22 December 1948. The ship was renamed African Endeavor until returned as a trade in to the Maritime Commission on 22 September 1960 for layup in the James River reserve fleet and later sold to Boston Metals for scrapping.
HMS Sainfoin was a landing ship, infantry of the Royal Navy that was built in 1943 by Consolidated Steel Corporation, Wilmington, California, United States as the merchant vessel Cape Washington. She was transferred to the Ministry of War Transport in 1944 and renamed Empire Crossbow. Later that year, she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and commissioned as HMS Sainfoin, with the pennant number F183. In 1946, she was returned to merchant service as Empire Crossbow. She was transferred to the United States in 1947 and renamed Cape Washington. The ship was then laid up until scrapped in 1964.
The American-Hawaiian Steamship Company was founded in 1899 to carry cargos of sugar from Hawaii to the United States and manufactured goods back to Hawaii. Brothers-in-law George Dearborn and Lewis Henry Lapham were the key players in the founding of the company. The company began in 1899 with three ships, operated nine by 1904 and was operating seventeen by 1911 with three on order.
USS Yokes (APD-69), ex-DE-668, was a United States Navy high-speed transport in commission from 1944 to 1946.
SS Empire Cobbett was a 9,811 GRT tanker which was built in 1942 by Furness Shipbuilding Co Ltd, Haverton Hill-on-Tees for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). In 1946 she was sold into merchant service and renamed San Wilfrido. She was scrapped in 1959.
SS Themistocles was a UK steam ocean liner and refrigerated cargo ship. She was launched in 1910 in Ireland and scrapped in 1947 in Scotland. She was built for Aberdeen Line, White Star Line managed her for a few years, and she spent the latter part of her career with Shaw, Savill & Albion Line.
The SS Harry Luckenbach, built as a cargo ship ordered by the Luckenbach Steamship Company and built at Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1919. The as yet unnamed ship was requisitioned by the United States Shipping Board (USSB) before completion and converted to a troop transport. The USSB allocated the ship, which had been fitted out with temporary troop accommodation in its cargo spaces, to the Navy which commissioned the ship on 7 July 1919 as USS Sol Navis with the Identification number 4031A. The ship was decommissioned October 1919 after two trips to France.
MS Cape Flattery was a United States Maritime Commission type C1-B cargo ship built in 1940–41 by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding, Tacoma, Washington, for the commission to be assigned to the American Mail Line for transpacific service. After the United States entry into the war the ship was operated by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) through American Mail as agents. The ship, after about a year of operation, became a troop transport for the remainder of the war.
Craig Shipbuilding was a shipbuilding company in Long Beach, California. To support the World War I demand for ships Craig Shipbuilding shipyard switched over to military construction and built: US Navy Submarines and Cargo Ships. Craig Shipbuilding was started in 1906 by John F. Craig. John F. Craig had worked in Toledo, Ohio with his father, John Craig (1838-1934), and Blythe Craig, both shipbuilders, their first ship was built in 1864 at Craig Shipbuilding Toledo. John F. Craig opened his shipbuilding company in Port of Long Beach on the south side of Channel 3, the current location of Pier 41 in the inner harbor, becoming the port's first shipyard. In 1908 Craig Shipbuilding was given the contract to finishing dredging of the Port of Long Beach inner harbor and to dredge the channel connecting it to the Pacific ocean. In 1917 Craig sold the shipyard to the short-lived California Shipbuilding Company. but then opened a new shipyard next to the one he just sold and called it the Long Beach Shipbuilding Company. The Long Beach Shipbuilding Company built cargo ships in 1918, 1919, and 1920 for the United States Shipping Board.
Missourian was an early American motor cargo ship which was built in 1921 in Chester, Pennsylvania, for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. She was sold to the British Ministry of War Transport in 1940 and renamed Empire Swan. Transferred to the Belgian government in 1942, she was renamed Belgian Freighter. She was sold to the Compagnie Maritime Belge in 1946 and renamed Capitaine Potié.
Californian was an early American motor cargo ship which was built in 1921 in Chester, Pennsylvania for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. She was sold to the British Ministry of War Transport in 1940 and renamed Empire Kite, and renamed Empire Seal later that year. She was torpedoed and sunk in February 1942.
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