Craig Shipbuilding Company

33°46′14″N 118°12′50″W / 33.770586°N 118.213819°W / 33.770586; -118.213819

John Craig (1838-1934) founder of Craig Shipbuilding
Light Vessel No.57 at Toledo, Ohio
SS Puritan later became SS George M. Cox in 1933
SS City of South Haven (American Passenger Steamship, 1903) Underway prior to World War I, with her decks crowded with passengers. This Great Lakes steamer was USS City of South Haven (ID # 2527) in 1918–1919
Broadwater (APA-139) alongside Bellerophon (ARL-31) in San Francisco Bay, October 1945
USS L-7 in port, in 1917
USS Ozaukee (ID-3429) around the time of her completion in September 1918.

Craig Shipbuilding was a shipbuilding company in Long Beach, California. To support the World War I demand for ships Craig Shipbuilding shipyard switched over to military construction and built: US Navy Submarines and Cargo Ships. Craig Shipbuilding was started in 1906 by John F. Craig. John F. Craig had worked in Toledo, Ohio with his father, John Craig (1838-1934), and Blythe Craig, both shipbuilders, their first ship was built in 1864 at Craig Shipbuilding Toledo. John F. Craig opened his shipbuilding company in Port of Long Beach on the south side of Channel 3, the current location of Pier 41 in the inner harbor, becoming the port's first shipyard. In 1908 Craig Shipbuilding was given the contract to finishing dredging of the Port of Long Beach inner harbor and to dredge the channel connecting it to the Pacific Ocean. In 1917 Craig sold the shipyard to the short-lived California Shipbuilding Company. but then opened a new shipyard next to the one he just sold and called it the Long Beach Shipbuilding Company. The Long Beach Shipbuilding Company built cargo ships in 1918, 1919, and 1920 for the United States Shipping Board.

In 1918 California Shipbuilding started to have difficulties completing contracts that it had purchased with the Craig Shipyard, including two submarines and a lighthouse tender. In 1921, Craig purchased his original shipyard back and renamed it back to Craig Shipbuilding. At the same time he renamed the Long Beach Shipbuilding to Craig Shipbuilding and ran both as one company. The tow shipyard did repair work on built yachts.

The United States Maritime Commission started a shipbuilding program in 1939, to support the World War 2 demand for ships. Craig leased the Long Beach Shipbuilding yard to the Consolidated Steel Corporation. Consolidated Steel built Type C1-B and C1-M cargo merchant ships and two Type P1 passenger ships at the leased yard from prefabricated sections erected at their Maywood plant inland. Consolidated Steel operated two other large shipyards, one nearby in the Port of Los Angeles West Basin in Wilmington, which was also supplied by Maywood, the other in Orange, Texas, and two other small boatyards. After World war 2, the Consolidated-leased yard closed. Craig shipyard continued to do repair work as the Long Beach Marine Repair and closed in 1970.[1]

  1. ^ Craig Shipbuilding shipbuildinghistory.com