Newport Shipyard history

The drydock was opened April 29, 1889, and the maritime press hailed it as the 'wonder of the age.' The first shipbuilding job was a reconstruction project, but the contract for Hull No.

According to the official history, William Tazewell's Newport News Shipbuilding: The First Century, Huntington protested to the Secretary of the Navy in 1890 about competition from the Norfolk Navy Yard, a harbinger of many such disputes over government versus private shipbuilding in the future.

The shipyard delivered its first vessel, a tugboat, in 1891.

Newport's first successful bids for construction of naval vessels, three gunboats, followed in 1893.

By 1897, the company had built three warships for the United States Navy.

In 1899, contracts for new vessels exceeded $10.5 million and 4,500 men were employed at the yard.

Huntington was said to be one of the largest, if not the largest, landholders in the country, and ran his vast interests from his New York office until his death in 1900.

During his tenure at Newport News, he successfully steered the company through a long period that included two wars and the Great Depression. Thus, after Huntington's death, the man most instrumental in guiding the shipyard was Homer L. Ferguson, a former navy officer and student of naval architecture and marine engineering, who came on board at the yard in 1905 and was made assistant superintendent of hull construction.

Minton alleged that Exxon was aware of the dangers of asbestos exposure, and even developed guidelines to protect its own workers at refineries as early as 1937, but Exxon did not warn shipyard workers or crewmembers.

By 1940, the shipyard's order book included seven aircraft carriers and four cruisers for the United States Navy.

In the years following the war, Newport News focused on repair work and conversions as well as some new construction challenges, including the building of the famous passenger liner United States. Its first Liberty ship was launched by the end of 1941.

A memorable day in the yard's history came on February 8, 1950, when the keel assembly for the United States, the largest passenger ship ever built in the nation, was laid.

Launched in the summer of 1951, it was the world's fastest passenger ship and the first built at the yard in ten years.

Working with the United States Navy and Westinghouse, the company in 1954 had developed and built a prototype nuclear reactor for a carrier propulsion system.

The age of the supertankers had also arrived, and on August 7, 1958, the largest tanker yet built in the United States, the Sansinena, was launched at the yard.

The Robert E. Lee, christened December 18, 1959, was the first of 14 Polaris-class subs built at the yard.

In 1960, the shipyard, in partnership with the Navy, launched the Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered "super" aircraft carrier.

Moreover, by the fall of 1967, Newport News faced serious financial problems, as aerospace giants were moving into shipbuilding, leaving Newport News dangerously undercapitalized to compete.

Newport News was privately held until it was acquired by Tenneco in 1968.

Indeed, the navy depended on the yard for all kinds of ships; it was chosen as the lead yard in designing the Los Angeles class of attack subs, launched on April 6, 1974.

The company constructed the new North Yard, where the liquefied natural gas carrier El Paso Southern was launched in 1977, followed by other supertankers.

But Tenneco officials recognized the shipyard's potential, especially after plans for a 600-ship navy were announced in 1981.

1982: Newport News is awarded $3.1 billion United States Navy contract.

In 1983 the company posted record sales and income for the fourth straight year, with profits of $150 million and employment at 29,000.

In fact, the Tenneco annual report for 1984 reported that 'Improvements in earnings over the last five years are a direct result of innovative engineering concepts in modular construction and incentive-based contracts with the United States Navy.'

In 1990, he was diagnosed as having pulmonary asbestosis.

Newport News reentered the commercial cargo ship market in a big way in October 1994 when it signed a $150 million tanker contract with Eletson Corp., a major Greek shipping company.

After 46 years of service at Newport News, company Chairman William R. Phillips retired in October 1995, which paved the way for the promotion of William P. Fricks.

Tenneco spun it off as an independent company in 1996 and its stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange, but it was immediately a takeover target.

The company's profit in 1998 was $66 million on sales of $1.86 billion.

As of December 31, 2000, the last full year before the company was acquired by Northrop Grumman, Newport News Shipbuilding employed approximately 17,000 employees.

Officers: Thomas C. Shievelbein, Pres., 2001 base salary $435,000

"newport news shipbuilding." hoover's online, 2002. available at http://www.hoovers.com.

Assisting mesothelioma patients and their loved ones since 2006.

In March 2011, Northrop Grumman used Newport News and Ingalls to create Huntington Ingalls Industries.

It reviewed a 2020 study showing seafarers from five Nordic countries have more than double the risk of developing mesothelioma compared to the general public.

Lemen, R.A. and Landrigan, P.J. (2021, August). Sailors and the Risk of Asbestos-Related Cancer.