New York Shipbuilding Corporation
Despite the name, the yard was in Camden, New Jersey, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. New York Ship was one of the great American shipyards of the 20th century, building everything from battleships to aircraft carriers to ocean liners. At its peak during WWII, the yard employed 35,000 workers and launched cruisers, carriers, and destroyers at a pace that helped turn the tide in the Pacific.
Heritage
New York Ship built some of the most important warships in American history, including the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis (the ship that delivered the Hiroshima bomb components and was later sunk with catastrophic loss of life). The yard's closure in 1967 was part of the broader collapse of American shipbuilding on the East Coast, and Camden never really recovered from losing its largest employer.
Vessels (2)
USS Indianapolis
USS Indianapolis delivered the components of the atomic bomb that would destroy Hiroshima. On the return trip, without escort, a Japanese submarine sank her with two torpedoes. Of 1,196 crew, roughly 900 made it into the water. They floated for four and a half days before rescue. Sharks, dehydration, salt water poisoning, and exposure killed approximately 580 men. Only 316 survived. It remains the worst shark attack in recorded history and the single largest loss of life from a single ship in U.S. Navy history. Captain McVay was court-martialed — the only U.S. Navy captain court-martialed for losing a ship to enemy action during WWII. He killed himself in 1968.
USS Missouri
USS Missouri is where World War II ended. On September 2, 1945, the Japanese delegation came aboard and signed the instrument of surrender on her deck in Tokyo Bay. That single event made Missouri the most historically significant warship of the 20th century, but it shouldn't overshadow what she actually was: an Iowa-class battleship, the most powerful surface warship class ever built by the United States. She served in Korea, shelling coastal positions, and was recommissioned in the 1980s as part of Reagan's 600-ship Navy, refitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. She fired Tomahawks and her 16-inch guns in Desert Storm in 1991. She is the last American battleship to have fired her guns in combat.