Moore Dry Dock Company

Moore Dry Dock Company was a ship repair and shipbuilding company in Oakland, California.

In 1905, Robert S. Moore, his brother Joseph A. Moore, and John Thomas Scott purchased the National Iron Works located in the Hunter's Point section of San Francisco, and founded a new company, the Moore & Scott Iron Works Moore had previously been vice president of the Risdon Iron Works. Scott was a nephew of Henry T. Scott and Irving M. Scott, owners of the nearby Union Iron Works, where John had risen from apprentice to superintendent. Their new business was soon destroyed by fire resulting from the San Francisco earthquake. They quickly recovered and were back in business before the end of 1906.[1][2]

In 1909, Moore and Scott decided to move across the Bay, and so purchased the W.A. Boole and Son Shipyard in Oakland located at the foot of Adeline along the Oakland Estuary.

In 1917, Moore bought out Scott and changed he business name to Moore Shipbuilding Company. In 1922, the company was renamed again as Moore Dry Dock Company. It operated primarily as a repair yard. Its shipbuilding capabilities were expanded in the World War II era, building over 100 ships for the U.S. Navy and merchant marine.[3] Moore ranked 82nd among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.[4] With the end of the war, shipbuilding ceased, but repair operations continued. Moore Dry Dock Company finally closed in 1961.

The yard was notable for its employment of several thousand African Americans, in both skilled and unskilled positions, at a time when they confronted major racial discrimination on the job.

At the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park an inscription honoring the wartime contributions made by the Bay Area Shipyards during World War II states that "Moore Dry Dock handled the difficult jobs of production, repair and conversion that slowed overall output in other yards."

In 1950, the Moore facility was the target of a union picket when sailors were having a dispute with a ship owner whose ship was in Moore's dry dock at the time. The court battle which ensued eventually lead to the Moore Dry Dock Standards for Primary Picketing at a Secondary Site (Sailors' Union of the Pacific (Moore Dry Dock Co.), 92 NLRB 547, 27 LRRM 1108 (1950)).[5]

Moore Dry Dock Company ceased operations in 1961. Its former site, at the foot of Adeline Street, on the Oakland Estuary, is now occupied by Schnitzer Steel Industries, a large scrap metal recycling concern, based in Portland, Oregon.[6]

See also

References
  1. FireHydrant.Org
  2. A guide to the Moore Dry Dock Company photographs, 1878-1933, Historical notes, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, Online Archive of California
  3. Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, pp. 261, 265, Random House, New York, NY, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4.
  4. Peck, Merton J. & Scherer, Frederic M. The Weapons Acquisition Process: An Economic Analysis (1962) Harvard Business School p.619
  5. Rainsberger, Paul K. Federal Labor Laws, XXVIII. Common Situs Picketing, University of Missouri – Labor Education Program. Revised, February 2004. Retrieved 2010-10-31.
  6. "Moore Dry Dock Co. Becomes Schnitzer Steel". Waterfront Action. 2005. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
  • Lane, Frederic C. Ships for Victory. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8018-6752-5
  • Arroyo, Cuahutémoc (Faculty Mentor: Professor Leon F. Litwack). "Jim Crow" Shipyards: Black Labor and Race Relations in East Bay Shipyards During World War II. The Berkeley McNair Journal, The UC Berkeley McNair Scholars Program. - downloaded from Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University on August 19, 2007
  • Veronico, Nicholas A. World War II Shipyards by the Bay. San Francisco: Arcadia Publishing, 2007. Ch. 5 Peninsula and East Bay Shipbuilding. ISBN 978-0-7385-4717-6
  • World War II Shipbuilding in the San Francisco Bay Area. Excerpt from Bonnett, Wayne. Build Ships!: San Francisco Bay Wartime Shipbuilding Photographs, 1940-1945. Sausalito, Calif.:Windgate Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-915269-20-4. Access from National Park Service website August 20, 2007.
  • Moore, James R. The Story of Moore Dry Dock Company: A Picture History. Sausalito, Calif.:Windgate Press, 1994. ISBN 978-0-915269-14-3
  • Moore Dry Dock Company. Progress. Oakland, 1920 (OCLC 47048256)
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