Swan Island Shipyard

The yard in 1945

The Kaiser Company (Portland, Oregon), commonly known as the Swan Island Shipyard, was a shipyard on Swan Island in Portland, Oregon, United States. ^[1] It was constructed by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company in 1942 as part of the U.S. Maritime Commission's Emergency Shipbuilding Program in World War II. ^[2] The Swan Island yard was one of three Kaiser shipyards in the Portland area, along with the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation and the Vancouver Shipyard. ^[3]

Before the opening of the shipyard, Swan Island was the location of the Swan Island Airport. The Port of Portland leased the airport to the U.S. federal government in March 1942. ^{[4] [5]} The completed Swan Island yard began production in July 1942 with eight shipways. ^[6] The shipyard was one of four in the United States specifically designed to produce T2 tankers. ^[2] It produced 147 tankers over the course of the war, all of them of the T2-SE-A1 design. ^[7]

References

1. "Kaiser Swan Island Shipyard". ShipbuildingHistory.com. Retrieved 11 August 2025.
2. Sawyer & Mitchell 1974, pp. 94–95.
3. Oliver, Gordon. "Kaiser Shipyards". The Oregon Encyclopedia . Portland State University, Oregon Historical Society. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
4. "Swan Isle Airport Leased to U.S. for Shipbuilding". The Oregonian . 10 March 1942. Sec. 3, p. 3.
5. "Once Scenic Swan Island Yields Its Beauty to the Need for Tankers". The Oregonian. 13 April 1942. Sec. 3, p. 4.
6. "Swan Island Industrial Project for War Takes Form; 5000 Workers There Now; 40,000 Due Later This Year". The Sunday Oregonian. 26 July 1942. Sec. 1, p. 21.
7. Sawyer & Mitchell 1974, pp. 129–143.

Sources

• Sawyer, L. A.; Mitchell, W. H. (1974). Victory Ships and Tankers: The History of the "Victory" Type Cargo Ships and of the Tankers Built in the United States of America During World War II. Cambridge, Maryland: Cornell Maritime Press. ISBN   0-87033-182-5.

Further reading

• Hymes Jr., James L. (1995). "The Kaiser Child Service Centers—50 Years Later: Some Memories and Lessons". The Journal of Education . 177 (3): 23–38. JSTOR   42742369.
• La Du, Robert R. (2016). Her Finest Hour: Shipbuilding in the Portland Area During World War II. New York: Page Publishing. ISBN   978-1-68348-800-2.
• Simmons, Diane (Spring 2018). "Rejection, Reception, and Rejection Again: Women in Oregon's World War II Shipyards". Oregon Historical Quarterly . 119 (1): 96–119. doi:10.5403/oregonhistq.119.1.0096.

External links

• Media related to Swan Island Shipyard at Wikimedia Commons

45°33′58″N122°43′19″W / 45.566°N 122.722°W / 45.566; -122.722