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 of San Francisco. Scott was nephew to Henry T. 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.
In 1909, Moore and Scott decided to move across the Bay, and so purchased the W. A. Boole & Son Shipyard, located in Oakland at the foot of Adeline Street[1] along the Oakland Estuary.
In 1917, Moore bought out Scott and changed the business name to Moore Shipbuilding Company. Henry T. Scott and John T. Scott tried to establish a rival business with the Pacific Coast Shipbuilding Company,[2] an enterprise that eventually did not outlive the World War I shipbuilding boom. The Design 1015 ship was also called the Moore & Scott Type.
In 1922, Moore Shipbuilding renamed to the Moore Dry Dock Company, operating primarily as a repair yard, amidst a severe lack of demand for new construction in the 1920s and early 1930s. Its shipbuilding capabilities were again promptly expanded for the World War II boom, providing 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] Shipbuilding ceased at war's end, but repair operations continued.
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 led 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 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]
18 May 1901, the Lahaina, the first ship built in Oakland, is launched from the yard of W. A. Boole & Son at the foot of Adeline street.[7] Adeline street is at the easternmost part of the property that later makes up Moore.
June 1901, a 3000-ton marine railway built by H. I. Crandall & Son of Massachusetts becomes operational in the Boole shipyard.[8]
26 March 1909, it is announced that Moore & Scott have acquired the Boole shipyard for ca. $500,000.[9]
World War 1
For World War 1 Moore Shipbuilding Company built for the US Shipping Board a number of ships, including some that become Empire ships:
World War 2
For the US war effort, Moore Dry Dock Company built:
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The area of the Port of Oakland was a major shipbuilding center of the Bay Area during the war peaks that started in 1916 and 1940 and ended in 1922 and 1946. Like for the rest of the country, shipbuilding either came to a complete halt for many of the yards or proceeded at a much reduced rate in the interwar years due to the saturation of the market and during a time of arms reduction treaties and economic austerity.
Moore Dry Dock at its peak in 1943
Outer Harbor
Union Construction Company (1918 — 1922) 37°49′02″N 122°18′56″W / 37.81727°N 122.31549°W / 37.81727; -122.31549 (Union Construction Co.)
Inner Harbor, north bank
Moore Dry Dock Company (1910 — 1956) 37°47′49.1″N 122°17′24.5″W / 37.796972°N 122.290139°W / 37.796972; -122.290139 (Moore)
Hanlon Dry Dock and Shipbuilding (1918 — 1921) 37°47′20″N 122°15′45″W / 37.78894°N 122.26242°W / 37.78894; -122.26242 (Hanlon)
^"Adeline Street, Oakland CA". Google Maps. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
^"In and About San Francisco". Pacific Marine Review. October 1917. p. 79.
^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.
^Rainsberger, Paul K. Federal Labor Laws, XXVIII. Common Situs Picketing, University of Missouri – Labor Education Program. Revised, February 2004. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
^"Moore Dry Dock Co. Becomes Schnitzer Steel". Waterfront Action. 2005. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
^"Happy Scenes Attend Launching of First Ship Built in Oakland". San Francisco Call. 19 May 1901. p. 32.
^"Business Notes". Marine Engineering. June 1901. p. 6.
^"Big Shipyard Sold". Sacramento Daily Union. 26 March 1909. p. 4.
^"Happy Scenes Attend Launching of First Ship Built in Oakland". San Francisco Call. 19 May 1901. p. 32.
^"Six-Masted Schooners". San Francisco Call. 7 January 1902. p. 4.
^"Prentiss Has Trial Trip". San Francisco Call. 11 April 1902. p. 7.
^"Women Are En Route". Los Angeles Herald. 24 April 1902. p. 12.
^"Twin to Koko Head". San Francisco Call. 8 May 1902. p. 7.
^"Santa Fe Tug Launched". San Francisco Call. 22 June 1902. p. 39.
^"Another Boole Barkentine". San Francisco Call. 4 October 1902. p. 7.
^"New Revenue Cutter Arcata will Engage in Harbor Duties". San Francisco Call. 7 January 1903. p. 10.
^"Lagunitas is Launched Successfully". San Francisco Call. 1 February 1903. p. 26.
^"Gasoline Schooner Launched". San Francisco Call. 7 February 1904. p. 39.
^"Big Steam Schooner To Be Launched Saturday". San Francisco Call. 26 June 1907. p. 9.
^"Schooner Sibyl Marston is Battered to Pieces". Los Angeles Herald. 14 January 1909. p. 3.
^"Empire Whimbrel", Uboat.net
^"Empire Starling", Uboat.net
^"R. M. Parker, Jr.", Uboat.net
^"Oregon", Uboat.net
^ a b"A guide to the Moore Dry Dock Company photographs, 1878-1933". Online Archive of California. University of California. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
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 19 August 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 20 August 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)
External links
Moore Dry Dock Company from Shipbuilding under the United States Maritime Commission 1936 to 1950. Accessed 23 August 2007.
List of ships built at Moore Dry Dock Company
Photo: Oakland Estuary westward: Moore-Scott shipyard in foreground
Oil painting entitled "Wartime" - a view of the Moore Shipyards painted by William A. Coulter in 1919. Accessed 1 March 2013.
The Moore Shipbuilding Company, Pacific Marine Review, Volume 17 (1920), pp. 59–62. Accessed 1 March 2013.
A guide to the Moore Dry Dock Company photographs, 1878-1933