Ship and Drill Rig Building at Port Brownsville, Texas
Norman Rozeff, July 2009
Over time and because of World War II security secrecy some important history has become obscured and forgotten. The Port of Brownsville played a role in winning World War II, albeit a minor one. The whole story begins earlier.
Before World War I there was little shipbuilding activity in the state of Texas. This was because the state lacked deep water harbors and ports. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917 a demand was created and several shipyards were developed to build wooden cargo ships. The state had an ample supply of wood. Unfortunately these yards were closed after the war.
The Merchant Marine Act of 1936 stimulated the shipbuilding industry nationwide. Texas was not to be denied. By 1941 when the U.S. entered World War II Texas had four large shipyards. The war effort was immense, and the logistics of the war demanded all manner of water vessels. In the 6-year period 1940-1945 the shipbuilding industry in Texas employed close to 100,000 people and produced 1,521 ships, boats and craft. The breakdown was 336 oceangoing cargo ships, 202 oceangoing naval vessels, and 923 tugs, small ships, and inshore craft.
It was the latter category that involved the Port of Brownsville. In that period the U.S. Navy manned four operation offices here. These were: Captain of the Port for Brownsville, TX, Brownsville Field Censorship Station, Branch Intelligence Office (Brownsville), and the Brownsville Shipbuilding Corporation.
One of the organizers of the Brownsville Shipbuilding Corp. that came into existence on 9/7/41 was Otis E. Stuart, the longtime manager of the Stuart Place subdivision west of Harlingen. His brother-in-law Woods Christian, president of the First National Bank of Brownsville was treasurer. S. Finley Ewing, a former Harlingen mayor, was president. M. C. Laake was vice-president and superintendent of construction. Harry M. Scott, who owned the Charro Courts and would later own the National Bank, was secretary. One year to the day of its founding five ships were launched and the keels for five more laid.
This corporation fell under the administration of the Defense Plant Corporation (DPC) that among other fabrication efforts would build 467 barges at 34 shipyards. It was responsible for drafting the blueprints for construction of various craft. In Brownsville seventeen (numbered 171-188) of the barge/tank DPC type were fabricated. These deck barges were of wood and 170' in length for utilization by the US Army.
The Port facility would do more. It built 12 steel hulled subchasers of the PC type for the US Navy. PC stood for Patrol, Coastal. These were 173' 8" in length, had a beam of 23' and with twin screws could operate up to17 knots speed. While their armament could vary, many carried a 3"/50 gun, one 40mm and perhaps several 20mm anti-aircraft guns, and machine guns. All had depth charges for their main job was to pursue and sink enemy submarines. The Port built 20 inshore tugs (MT) for the US Army. These were 26' or 28' vessels used to assist in mooring. A total of 1,214 had been built across 40 shipyards in the country.
Texas businesses in the 1940s were not by any means union friendly. In 1943 the Brownsville Shipyard Workers Federal Labor Union, #23343 brought a complaint against the company. The trial examiner's ruling concluded that the " Brownsville Ship Building Corporation, had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor practices and recommending that it cease and desist there from and take certain affirmative action as set out in the copy of the Intermediate Report attached hereto." The ruling was later affirmed and the company was ordered to: 1. Cease and desist from: (a) Discouraging membership in Brownsville Shipyard Workers Federal Labor Union, #23343, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, or any other labor organization of its employees, by discharging or refusing to reinstate any of its employees, or in any other manner discriminating in regard to their hire and tenure of employment or any term or condition of their employment. (b) In any other manner interfering with, restraining, or coercing its employees in the exercise of the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities for the purposes of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, as guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act. Additional affirmative action was laid for the company and general manager Tuggle.
The fate of many of the wooden barges constructed here and elsewhere is set forth by Samuel T. Pees in his Oil History. He relates:
The Demise of the Wooden Barge
The wooden barge experienced an odd resurgence during WW II. Although the majority of barges were steel, some barge operators felt that there could be a use for new wooden barges for dry-cargo and for oil. Objections arose, mainly a general worry about inflammable cargo in wooden vessels and seawater contamination (leaks) in the coastal waterways. Nevertheless, 269 wooden barges were built by October 1943, but they were like a drug on the market in spite of the great needs of war. The Army and Navy used 189 of them, private companies used 3, but 77 were tied at the wharfs and never used, at least not during the war (Frey & Ide, 1946). This wartime episode was the swansong of the wooden oil barges. Even then, at the peak in their "career", to sight one was a rare occurrence because of the prodigious number of steel barges in use in the waterways.
The 1950s saw almost no shipbuilding activity. The port was transforming itself into a industrial chemical complex and a bulk cargo shipper. In 1964 however $50,000 was budgeted for industrial site preparation for a new shipyard. The Rockwell Yacht and Supply Co. eventually employed 65 at the port but in the economic downturn of 1967 ceased operations.
In 1971 the dismantling business started at the port with three firms—Lauria, Consolidated Steel, and Andy International. Within four year the number of such firms had doubled. It was this year however that the Houston-based firm of Marathon Manufacturing Co. signed a letter of intent to construct a $30 million shipyard for construction of offshore drilling platforms. The lease would involve 130 acres and the Brownsville Navigation District would issue $6 million in revenue bonds to help finance the shipyard facilities. On October 21, 1973 the Pentagone 83, its first platform, was launched to begin its voyage to the North Sea.
Construction activity at the port had picked up in 1972 when what was to become the Marathon LeTourneau Company began receiving orders from the oil industry. Its Brownsville shipyard was sold in 1985 to local interests and then in 1991 to Keppel FELS (now Keppel Offshore & Marine), which renamed it AMFELS and re-entered the rig building business. In the period 1972-1984 at its Brownsville yard Marathon LeTourneau built five towboats, four semi-submersible drilling platforms, 37 jack-up type platforms and one tender. AMFELS went on to construct eight drilling barges, one skimmer vessel, one tank barge, two deck barges, one multi-purpose support ship, one tension type platform, two accommodation platforms, seventeen and jack-ups. In 2009 four jack-ups are in progress.
Lastly there is Amtex General Contractors LLC. that entered the shipbuilding and repair industry in 2003. It has annual sales of about $9 million and employs about 500 individuals.
Since all this activity is generally out of sight to the public, many Valleyites may not have realized what a dynamic and significant ship/platform construction industry exists here, nor of the role the port played in the WWII war effort. Now you do..