A chronicle of America's intensive shipbuilding programme during World War II, this explores the development of revolutionary construction methods and the recruitment, training, housing and union activities of the workers.

Throughout the 19th century, the shipbuilding industry in America was both art and craft, one based on tradition, instinct, hand tools, and handmade ship models. Even as mechanization was introduced, the trade supported a system of apprenticeship, master builders, and family dynasties, and aesthetics remained the basis for design. Spanning the transition from wood to iron shipbuilding in America, Thiesen's history tells how practical and nontheoretical methods of shipbuilding began to be discarded by the 1880s in favor of technical and scientific methods. Perceiving that British warships were superior to its own, the United States Navy set out to adopt British design principles and methods. American shipbuilders wanted only to build better warships, but embracing British practices exposed them to new methods and technologies that aided in the transformation of American shipbuilding into an engineering-based industry. American shipbuilders soon improvised ways to turn U.S. shipyards into state-of-the-art facilities and, by the early 20th century, they forged ahead of the British in construction and production methods. The history of shipbuilding in America is a story of culture dictating technology. Thiesen describes the trans-Atlantic exchange of technical information that took place during this era and the role of the U.S. Navy in that transfer. He also profiles the lives of individual shipbuilders. Their stories will inspire enthusiasts of ships, shipbuilding, and shipbuilding technology, as well as historians and students of maritime history and the history of technology.

The U.S. shipbuilding industry now confronts grave challenges in providing essential support of national objectives. With recent emphasis on renewal of the U.S. naval fleet, followed by the defense builddown, U.S. shipbuilders have fallen far behind in commercial ship construction, and face powerful new competition from abroad. This book examines ways to reestablish the U.S. industry, to provide a technology base and R&D infrastructure sustaining both commercial and military goals. Comparing U.S. and foreign shipbuilders in four technological areas, the authors find that U.S. builders lag most severely in business process technologies, and in technologies of new products and materials. New advances in system technologies, such as simulation, are also needed, as are continuing developments in shipyard production technologies. The report identifies roles that various government agencies, academia, and, especially, industry itself must play for the U.S. shipbuilding industry to attempt a turnaround.

Written by a team of acclaimed practitioners and leading academics, this book brings together in one single volume an analysis of contemporary legal issues concerning ship building, sale and finance contracts. It offers a comprehensive, expert and thoroughly practical guide on what is a very complex area of law in today's international shipping industry. The book presents a detailed and critical analysis of standard and non-standard shipbuilding and sale contracts, including vital but often overlooked issues such as payment and refund guarantees, which have been at the forefront of recent litigation and practice. It also critically and thoroughly analyses several types of standard insurance contracts, including shipbuilder's risks and mortgagee's interests, which are not adequately dealt with elsewhere and it provides a critical and contemporary discussion on the legal and practical issues surrounding ship finance, ship mortgages and more esoteric issues such as the use of bareboat charters and financial derivatives. This book is an indispensable guide for legal practitioners, academics and industry professionals worldwide. The book is divided into 3 parts; Legal Issues relating to Ship Building, Ship Sale Contracts and Practice, and Legal and Practical Issues relating to Ship Finance. Each has been expertly contributed to by the leading practitioners and academics in the field from top firms, chambers and institutions including; Ince & Co, Quadrant Chambers, Haynes and Boone CDG, LLP, Holman Fenwick Willan LLP, Watson Farley & Williams LLP, 7 Kings Bench Walk, and Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law (IISTL) of Swansea University.

But large-scale naval construction in the 1920s eroded production flexibility, Heinrich argues, and since then, ill-conceived merchant marine policies and naval contracting procedures have brought about a structural crisis in American shipbuilding and the demise of the venerable Philadelphia shipyards.