Ship Launching Bottle

In celebration of Memorial Day on May 30, 1919, the Hog Island Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, launched five freighters in 48 minutes. This bottle was smashed against the bow of the Luxpalile by Laura Andrew, wife of the ship-construction manager at Hog Island, as she christened the last ship. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels spoke to 50,000 spectators before the launchings, and declared that Hog Island would become the center of American shipbuilding. “Never again will the United States be guilty of the folly of trusting its foreign commerce to foreign bottoms,” he said, referring to the country’s reliance on Allies’ vessels during World War I because its merchant fleet was so small. “We will not quit the shipbuilding industry. We will put it on a solid and firm and sound basis. We will build big ships and bigger ships . . . . The genius, statesmanship, and skill of America must be united in the development of a merchant marine,” Daniels concluded as the first ship was launched.

The shipyard at Hog Island was part of a model project during World War I to produce prefabricated ships. Before then, builders touted their abilities to construct a variety of customized vessels within a single shipyard. But the growing demand for a larger merchant fleet convinced some that yards should specialize in a few standard types. Inspired by automaker Henry Ford’s production of Eagle-class submarine chasers, a template system was developed for the construction of identical parts that would be assembled elsewhere, such as at shipyards like Hog Island.

Subcontractors prefabricated 95 percent of each “Hog Islander,” the nickname for vessels built at the shipyard, and shipped the materials to one of Hog Island’s storage sites located along 80 miles of Pennsylvania Railroad tracks. From there, the parts would be assembled by some of Hog Island’s 30,000 workers and placed on one of 50 slipways, the ramps used to construct and later launch a ship. This theoretical procedure, however, never matched the realities of the operation. Hog Island’s sheer size and dependence on numerous subcontractors likely contributed to its failure to complete even one of the 122 vessels in time to be used during the war. A postwar recession forced Hog Island to close in 1921, but builders learned from the experiment. New shipyards were only a quarter of the size of Hog Island, and many avoided substantial use of subcontractors. But the greatest consequence was the proven success of prefabricating ships. The Liberty and Victory ships, critical for Allied victories in World War II, were inspired by the standardization of Hog Island.