Wartime Welders

Welders create the hubs of turbines to be used in the manufacturing of cargo ships in 1942 for the American Victory Fleet in World War II. The ships were built in large numbers in North America, starting in 1942, to replace losses caused by German submarines. By the end of the war, 531 were constructed.

“The cold fact is that the United Nations victory for which we are all striving may not be ours if the men and materials needed for it are forced to lie idle in this country until there are enough ships to move them to the scattered points of the great Allied battlefront,” wrote Rear Admiral Emory S. Land in The New York Times Magazine on June 14, 1942.

“The production of new ships is being carried on at an accelerated pace never before attempted by any nation. The introduction of assembly-line methods, together with developments in welding – World War ships were riveted – have been two major factors which have contributed largely to speeding up production.”

The rear admiral added, “It must be borne in mind that the shipbuilding industry itself is not like some others which may be converted rapidly from one type of endeavor to another. Everything must be built from the ground up. Welding machines by the thousands had to be manufactured, ways and other facilities had to be erected and thousands of workers had to be trained to carry out the project.”