Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company

Launching of USS Robalo 9 May 1943, at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., Manitowoc, WI.

Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, located in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, was a major shipbuilder for the Great Lakes. It was founded in 1902, and made mainly steel ferries and ore haulers. During World War II, it built submarines, tank landing craft (LCTs), and self-propelled fuel barges called "YOs".^[1] Employment peaked during the military years at 7000. The shipyard closed in 1968, when Manitowoc Company bought Bay Shipbuilding Company and moved their shipbuilding operation to Sturgeon Bay.

Submarine Building Program

Shipyard President Charles C. West contacted the Bureau of Construction and Repair in 1939 to propose building destroyers at Manitowoc and transporting them through the Chicago River, Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, Illinois River, and Mississippi River in a floating drydock towed by the tugboat Minnesota. After evaluating the plan and surveying the shipyard, the Navy suggested building submarines instead. A contract for ten submarines was awarded on 9 September 1940. The Navy paid for lift machinery on Chicago's Western Avenue railroad bridge to clear a submarine. The 15-foot-draft submarines entered the floating drydock on the Illinois River to get through the 9-foot-deep Chain of Rocks Channel near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Submarines left the drydock at New Orleans and reinstalled periscope shears, periscopes, and radar masts which had been removed to clear bridges over the river.^[2]

Manitowoc had never built a submarine before, but the first was completed 228 days before the contract delivery date. Contracts were awarded for additional submarines, and the last submarine was completed by the date scheduled for the 10th submarine of the original contract. Total production of 28 submarines was completed for $5,190,681 less than the contract price.^[2][3]

List of Fleet Submarines Built by Manitowoc

One of the 28 Manitowoc submarines produced, used in the Pacific Theater, from 2 April 1943 to the end of the war, on 15 August 1945. Two lookouts are posted next to the periscope shears. Her bow planes are rigged in, main gun visible on deck aft. Notice the limber holes and saddle ballast tanks.

• 1942 USS Peto^{[4][5][6][7][8]} sank 7 ships in 10 World War II Pacific patrols^[9]
• 1942 USS Pogy^{[4][5][6][7][8]} sank 16 ships in 10 World War II Pacific patrols^[9]
• 1942 USS Pompon^{[4][5][6][7][8]} sank 3 ships in 9 World War II Pacific patrols^[10]
• 1942 USS Puffer^{[4][5][6][7][8]} sank 8 ships in 9 World War II Pacific patrols^[11]
• 1942 USS Rasher^{[4][5][6][7][8]} sank 18 ships in 8 World War II Pacific patrols, 2nd highest tonnage sunk by a US submarine during the war^[10]
• 1943 USS Raton^{[4][5][6][7][8]} sank 9 ships in 8 World War II Pacific patrols^[10]
• 1943 USS Ray^{[4][5][6][7][8]} sank 14 ships in 8 World War II Pacific patrols^[9]
• 1943 USS Redfin^{[4][5][6][7][8]} sank 5 ships in 7 World War II Pacific patrols^[12]
• 1943 USS Robalo^[4][5][6][7] 3 World War II Pacific patrols^[13]
• 1943 USS Rock^{[4][5][6][7][8]} sank 1 ship in 6 World War II Pacific patrols^[14]
• 1943 USS Golet^{[5][15][16][17]} 2 World War II Pacific patrols^[18]
• 1943 USS Guavina^{[5][8][15][16][17]} sank 5 ships in 6 World War II Pacific patrols^[14]
• 1943 USS Guitarro^{[5][8][15][16][17]} sank 6 ships in 5 World War II Pacific patrols^[19]
• 1943 USS Hammerhead^{[5][8][15][16][17]} sank 11 ships in 7 World War II Pacific patrols^[19]
• 1943 USS Hardhead^{[5][8][15][16][17]} sank 7 ships in 6 World War II Pacific patrols^[11]
• 1944 USS Hawkbill^{[5][8][15][16][17]} sank 6 ships in 5 World War II Pacific patrols^[11]
• 1944 USS Icefish^{[5][8][15][16][17]} sank 2 ships in 5 World War II Pacific patrols^[11]
• 1944 USS Jallao^{[5][8][15][16][17]} sank 2 ships in 4 World War II Pacific patrols^[9]
• 1944 USS Kete^{[5][16][17][20]} sank 3 ships in 2 World War II Pacific patrols^[21]
• 1944 USS Kraken^{[5][8][16][17][20]} 4 World War II Pacific patrols^[11]
• 1944 USS Lagarto^{[5][16][17][20]} sank 3 ships in 2 World War II Pacific patrols^[19]
• 1944 USS Lamprey^{[5][8][16][17][20]} 3 World War II Pacific patrols^[11]
• 1944 USS Lizardfish^{[5][8][16][17][20]} 2 World War II Pacific patrols^[19]
• 1944 USS Loggerhead^{[5][8][16][17][20]} 2 World War II Pacific patrols^[11]
• 1944 USS Macabi^{[5][8][16][17][20]} 1 World War II Pacific patrol^[9]
• 1944 USS Mapiro^{[5][8][16][17][20]}
• 1944 USS Menhaden^{[5][8][16][17][20]}
• 1945 USS Mero^{[5][8][16][17][20]}

Notes

1. Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, pp. 252-3, 258, Random House, New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4.
2. Nelson, William T., RADM USN "1,500 Miles in a Floating Dry Dock" United States Naval Institute Proceedings March 1980 pp. 86-89
3. Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, pp. 252-3, Random House, New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4.
4. Silverstone, Paul H. U.S. Warships of World War II Doubleday & Company (1968) p.197
5. Fahey, James C. The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet (Victory Edition) Ships and Aircraft (1945) p.32
6. Morison, Samuel Eliot History of United States Naval Operations in World War II (Volume 15) Little, Brown & Company (1962) p.58
7. Kafka, Roger and Pepperburg, Roy L. Warships of the World Cornell Maritime Press (1946) p.173
8. Preston, Anthony Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II Random House (1996) p.290
9. Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory, volume 2 J.B.Lippincott Company (1975) p.955
10. Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory, volume 2 J.B.Lippincott Company (1975) p.954
11. Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory, volume 2 J.B.Lippincott Company (1975) p.949
12. Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory, volume 2 J.B.Lippincott Company (1975) p.956
13. Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory, volume 2 J.B.Lippincott Company (1975) p.923
14. Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory, volume 2 J.B.Lippincott Company (1975) p.947
15. Silverstone, Paul H. U.S. Warships of World War II Doubleday & Company (1968) p.201
16. Morison, Samuel Eliot History of United States Naval Operations in World War II (Volume 15) Little, Brown & Company (1962) p.59
17. Kafka, Roger and Pepperburg, Roy L. Warships of the World Cornell Maritime Press (1946) p.170
18. Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory, volume 2 J.B.Lippincott Company (1975) p.924
19. Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory, volume 2 J.B.Lippincott Company (1975) p.948
20. Silverstone, Paul H. U.S. Warships of World War II Doubleday & Company (1968) p.202
21. Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory, volume 2 J.B.Lippincott Company (1975) p.944

External links

• Record of World War II Shipbuilding