Marinship Corporation was a shipbuilding company of the United States during World War II, created to build the shipping required for the war effort. Founded in 1942, the shipyard built 93 cargo ships and oil tankers, before ending operations 1945.Wartime demand for more shipsIn early 1942, the demands of World War II resulted in a requirement for greatly increased shipbuilding capacity.To meet this demand, the US shipbuilder W.A. Bechtel Co. decided to build a shipyard at a former Northwestern Pacific Railroad repair yard situated at Richardson's Bay in Marin County, at the north end of Sausalito, California and just three miles (5 km) north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The site was chosen because the shoreline in the vicinity of the proposed shipyard was relatively uncluttered, unlike much of the rest of San Francisco Bay or other major Pacific ports.. It had no official name while it was being built but was referred to as the "Marin Shipbuilding Division of W.A. Bechtel Company" and that lengthy title was shortened to Marin-Ship or what known today as "Marinship" with a street in Sausalito named Marinship Way.Six ship launching ways were planned, but the old repair yard, purchased from Southern Pacific Railroad, and located at the base of Spring Street, was found to have inadequate space to accommodate this need. The loss of some ships in the Pacific by the Navy triggered the emergency need for even more ships by their customer the Maritime Commission. Using this as their legal reason, the new company took government war powers condemnation actions against local property owners, in order to add the additional land they needed to expand the shipyard.
