Built in just 10 months, it was the nation's largest shipyard
Philadelphia's Hog Island was the first shipyard built for the
mass production of freighters as a result of the onset of World
War I. In 1917, the United States established several
government-owned shipyards to fulfill its wartime shipping
needs-to get troops and supplies to Europe as quickly as
possible. Contracts were signed over the next year and Hog
Island Shipyard, the largest of three such facilities, was
slated to build 180 ships-vessels that came to be known as Hog
Islanders. To meet the hastened schedule, the process of
shipbuilding had to be reinvented. Like a modern day assembly
line, Hog Island was the first shipyard designed to build 50
ships simultaneously. With groundbreaking ceremonies on
September 22, 1917, Hog Island celebrated its first launch just
10 months later on August 5, 1918. With approximately 100,000
people in attendance, including President and Mrs. Woodrow
Wilson, the ship known as Quistconck was ceremoniously christen