  
For three centuries, ships have been built at Pascagoula,
Mississippi, where the Pascagoula River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. In the early
1700s, the French government instructed its settlers "...to breed the buffalo, to
seek for pearls, to examine the wild mulberry for silk, and to fell timber for
shipbuilding."
The first ship built there for the French Royal Navy was
launched in 1718. For two centuries thereafter, the piney woods of southern Mississippi
furnished timber, turpentine, tar, pitch, and resin for a growing number of shipbuilders.
By the time wooden ships gave way to heavier vessels of iron and steel, the Pascagoula
area had become a major shipbuilding center and its residents were no longer so interested
in buffalo-breeding, pearl diving, or silk production.
In 1938, the Ingalls Iron Works Company of Birmingham,
Alabama, was searching for a site on which to operate a new shipyard -- one that could
compete for new cargo and passenger ship contracts from the United States Maritime
Commission. The company found what it needed in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in a 160 acre
tract on the east bank of the Pascagoula River, with a deep water channel, rail access and
room to grow. It also found the most vital asset of any successful organization -- men and
women eager to learn, ready to work and committed to the long-term proposition of
successfully meeting the challenges of an ever-changing industry.
The citizens of Pascagoula and Jackson County
wholeheartedly supported the new shipyard, and approved a bond issue to help develop the
site, which was developed utilizing Mississippi's BAWI (Balance Agriculture With Industry)
industrial revenue bond program. Ingalls Shipbuilding was officially incorporated to do
business in the state of Mississippi in November 1938, and the construction of the new
shipyard forged an inseparable bond between the community and the Company.
Production of ships began in early 1939, and immediately
Ingalls innovative spirit surfaced with the construction of the world's first all-welded
steel ship hull. The cargo ship SS EXCHEQUER was the first ship with the steel plates of
its hull welded end to end rather that overlapped and riveted. This technique
revolutionized shipbuilding worldwide.
Other cargo ships, as well as passenger liners, followed in
large numbers from Ingalls' shipways, until World War II redirected the shipyard's efforts
from building ships for commerce to building ships for defense.
Production during the war years ran around the clock, and
thousands of other industrious, patriotic men and women built more than 60 ships during
the war -- an average of one ship each month -- escort aircraft carriers, submarine
tenders, net layers, and troopships.
Following the war, many Ingalls-built warships returned to
Ingalls to be converted to cargo
carriers, as the Company returned to the business of providing even more ships for
America's maritime commerce fleet. Through the years, more than 100 oceangoing cargo ships
of all types were built by Ingalls -- C3 and C4 bulk cargo ships, C6 container ships,
passenger liners like SS DEL MAR, SS DEL NORTE and SS DEL SUD, as well as two of the
largest and most luxurious  passenger
ships ever built, SS BRASIL and SS ARGENTINA, which were, in fact the last two cruise
ships built in the United States.
Ingalls indeed has built a wide variety of commercial ships
and other structures over the years - seagoing hopper dredges, oil tankers, tow-boats,
offshore cargo vessels and oil supply boats, roll on/roll off container ships, tunnels, a
chemical tanker, offshore oil drilling rigs, rail cars, and locomotives. Throughout its
history, Ingalls employees have demonstrated time and again their adaptability to the
changing marketplace. Whatever the product to be built, they have been committed to
providing their very best.
It was just such a commitment that allowed Ingalls, in the
early 1950s, to redirect segments of its shipbuilding capabilities from producing
commercial vessels to producing highly sophisticated ships for the U.S. Navy's combatant
fleet. The first of these was a series of five tank landing ships, beginning with the
construction of USS VERNON COUNTY (LST 1161). These were followed almost immediately by a
series of eight dock landing ships, led by USS THOMASTON (LSD 28).
The decade of the 1950s also saw the birth of the atomic
age, and Ingalls was determined to be a part of this advance in technology. With an eye
toward the future, Ingalls, in 1955, redesigned one of its shipways to accommodate the
construction of submarines. The shipyard established a nuclear power division and set out
to qualify for this highly specialized and technologically advanced ship construction
program.
In 1957, Ingalls received its first submarine construction
contract, and the Company produced a total of 3 new  submarines for the Navy, including 12 nuclear-powered attack subs.
Extensive facilities, including a specially-built graving dock, also allowed Ingalls to
participate in submarine overhaul and refueling. By the time the shipyard's nuclear
facility was decommissioned in 1980, 11 U.S. Navy attack submarines had been overhauled
and/or refueled at Ingalls.
Being qualified for nuclear work produced additional
surface ship construction opportunities for the shipyard in the form of two submarine
tenders, USS HOLLAND (AS 32) and USS CANOPUS (AS 34). These ships were specifically
designed and built to service fleet ballistic missile submarines.
And before the end of the 1950s, Ingalls capability and  experience in producing Navy combatant
ships would lead to a contract to build the destroyers USS MORTON (DD 948) and USS PARSONS
(DD 949)...a ship type that would later become the backbone of the shipyard's business
base for decades to come.
California-based Litton Industries acquired Ingalls in
December 1961. Having played a major role in producing electronic systems, equipment and
components for the air and missile defense industries, and being experienced in providing
electronic equipment forthe vessels used in seismic exploration by its Western Geophysical
division, Litton saw an opportunity to apply its broad technological capabilities to
marine defense and commercial shipbuilding.
In 1962, Ingalls received a contract from Moore-McCormack
Lines of New York to build a series of six cargo ships. These ships, the first of which
was launched in 1964, were the first U.S.-built merchant ships to be fully automated,
allowing control of the ships' engines directly from the bridge.
This contract was followed by an award from American
President Lines for five advanced automated cargo liners. By using high-tensile,
lightweight steel in the hull design, Ingalls built an even faster ship, which had, by
virtue of the decreased hull weight, an increased capacity for cargo as well.
In the mid-1960s, Litton saw the approach of one of the
biggest shipbuilding booms in peace-time American history. There were scores of new ships
to be built to replace the aging naval fleet, and hundreds of modern commercial vessels
were required to get America back in the ranking among the world leaders in merchant
shipping.
In the summer of 1967, Litton began preparing for its
future in shipbuilding. Backed by more than three decades of successful shipbuilding
experience at its original east bank shipyard, Litton in June 1967 announced plans to
build on the west bank of the Pascagoula River a totally new ship manufacturing facility.
Litton's innovative idea was to build ships using modular techniques, and the new facility
would be the first major shipyard built in the United States since World War II.
The decision of where to locate this new shipyard was
influenced once again by the attitude of the people of Pascagoula, Jackson County and the
state of Mississippi. During a special session of the Mississippi Legislature in 1967, the
state approved an agreement to enter into a partnership with Litton Industries to sell
industrial revenue bonds for the construction of the new shipyard. Backed by full faith
and credit of the state of Mississippi, the bonds are retired utilizing annual lease
payments made to the state of Mississippi by Ingalls and Litton. Earlier, the citizens of
Pascagoula and Jackson County had reaffirmed their long-standing confidence in Ingalls and
in American shipbuilding by approving a bond program to provide local support for the
facilities.
Ground was broken for the new design and production
facility on January 11, 1968, on a 611-acre tract of land on the west bank of the
Pascagoula River, directly across from Ingalls' original facilities on the east bank of
the river. It would be come to be called the "Shipyard of the Future" and
"America's Shipyard," as Ingalls continued to revolutionize the American
shipbuilding industry.
On May 1, 1969, before the new west bank shipyard was even
completed, Ingalls was awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy to design and build a series of
TARAWA (LHA 1) Class general purpose amphibious assault ships. Then on June 13, 1970,
Ingalls was awarded an additional Navy contract, one that called for the design and
construction of 30 SPRUANCE (DD 963) Class multimission destroyers.
While the new shipyard was still under construction, Litton
received Maritime Administration contracts for eight commercial containerships. Production
at the new west bank design and production facility began on March 12, 1970, when the keel
was laid for the container ship SS AUSTRAL ENVOY, the first of four containerships to be
built for Farrell Lines.
The contracts for the TARAWA and SPRUANCE Class ships -- two of the
largest Navy shipbuilding contracts ever awarded represented a tremendous challenge to a
new shipyard. But more than a challenge, these new ships represented a gateway to the
future of Ingalls -- and the U.S. Navy's surface combatant fleet.
The TARAWA and SPRUANCE Class ships were highly
sophisticated, complex surface combatants -- the types of ships that the Navy would need
in significant numbers in future years. The two contracts also provided an opportunity for
Ingalls to develop the new shipyard and to perfect its new concepts for the benefit of the
company , its employees, the Navy, and the entire country.
For a period of time after the construction of the new
shipyard, Ingalls' east and west bank shipyards operated as separate divisions of Litton
Industries. But in July 1972, the shipyard operations were combined to form the present
Ingalls Shipbuilding division of Litton Industries.
 The early part of the 1970s was devoted to implementing the
new system of ship construction. The second half of the decade was a testament of the new
shipyard's success. In 1975, Ingalls began delivering destroyers and assault ships on an
average of one every six weeks -- then delivered the last eight ships one-a-month, setting
a peacetime production record. In all, 35 new surface combatant ships were delivered to
the U.S. Navy from the new shipyard between August 1975 and June 1980 -- just under five
years.
That production record represented 60 percent of all the
ships delivered to the Navy during the period from all the shipyards in the country. In
the simultaneous production line construction of destroyers and amphibious ships, Ingalls
reached all time high employment levels -- as high as 25,000 in 1977.
The latter part of the 1970s and early 1980s saw Ingalls
extend its destroyer production line with the four-ship KIDD (DDG 993) Class. In 1983,
Ingalls delivered a 31st SPRUANCE Class destroyer, USS HAYLER (DD 997).
In September 1978, following a major competition, Ingalls was selected by the
Navy as lead shipbuilder for the Aegis guided missile cruiser program. Over the life of
the program, Ingalls was awarded contracts to build 19 of the 27 cruisers in the program.
Ingalls delivered its 19 cruisers between December 1982 and April 1994.
|
