New England Shipbuilding Corporation

There were two New England Shipbuilding Yards — East Yard and West Yard. In 1941, the East Yard began constructing "Ocean" type ships for the British. This facility, known as Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding, was located to the east of Cushing Point in South Portland, Maine. In 1941, the Maritime Commission decided to build another shipyard to the west of Cushing Point to be operated by the South Portland Shipbuilding Company. This became known as the "West" Yard. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the two facilities were consolidated and operated as one yard.

While experiencing some delays during 1942, the yards' performance improved in 1943 and the facilities were expanded. While neither yard became one of the fastest yards in the construction of Liberty ships, they reduced their total number of man hours per ship considerably as the war progessed. Beginning in May, 1943, the yards dropped the number of man hours required to build a Liberty ship from 760,000 man hours per ship to 410,000 man hours in 1945 when the construction program ended.

These two yards constructed a total of 236 Liberty ships as well as 8 others for the transport of boxed aircraft.

Asbestos Use at New England Shipbuilding Corporation

The ships built at these two shipyard locations were powered by steam reciprocating engines. These engines and the associated steam powered auxiliary machinery all used asbestos insulation. There were thousands of pounds of asbestos insulating materials used on each of these ships.

The shipyard workers at New England Shipbuilding were exposed to these asbestos products on a regular basis as they worked three shifts each day to build these vessels. Seamen who later sailed on these ships were exposed to the asbestos dust generated through the routine operation and maintenance of the asbestos covered equipment, piping, and machinery.

These seamen and shipyard workers were unaware of the dangers associated with breathing asbestos dust and were not warned by the companies that manufactured these products. Many of these manufacturers knew and kept the dangers hidden from these workers who remain at risk of developing mesothelioma because of such exposures to asbestos.