USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Historic Quincy, Massachusetts > Part 6
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page eighty-five
Launching of the U.S.S. Canberra - 1943
Launching of the U.S.S. Hancock - 1944
U.S.s. HANCOCK
The responsibilities and obligations placed upon the Quincy Yard by this staggering production program have been so tremendous that at times it was doubtful if they could be fulfilled. Today the program is a reality. The Quincy Yard is far ahead of schedule in its shipbuild- ing program. For example, the battleship Massachusetts, the most powerful fighting machine ever built by the Quincy Yard, went to play a meritorious part in invasion of North Africa nearly a full year before she was to be commissioned. At Casablanca, the Massachusetts sank the 35,000-ton French battleship Jean Bart during the American landing, November, 1942. On February 6, 1943, the Massachusetts passed through the Panama Canal and joined the Pacific Fleet for the second phase of her two-ocean war.
The battleship Nevada, of the Oklahoma Class of 1911, one of the "Old Ladies" of the Navy, launched July 11, 1914, is an outstanding excellent example of Fore River construction. She was badly dam- aged at Pearl Harbor and beached. However, she was of such excel- lent construction that she was repaired and modernized, rejoining the fleet in 1942, and later played an important role in the invasion of France, and in the Pacific.
On April 4, 1942, the late Honorable William Franklin Knox, then Secretary of the Navy, advised the Fore River Yard that the Navy Board of Production Awards had designated it a recipient of the tradi- tional Navy "E" for production achievement. The Navy "E" Award was personally presented to the Yard by the late Secretary of the Navy, May 15, 1942. Since the original award, four stars denoting the fifth Navy "E" award have been added to the "Burgee" (a single swallow- tailed pennant, bearing the Navy fouled anchor and the Navy "E"), which the Yard proudly flies.
Aircraft carriers and other types of naval craft, now waging war in global waters, are enhancing the prestige of the Navy and the Quincy Yard.
Quincy citizenry are justly proud of all these ships, but the ship nearest to local hearts is that which bears the name of the city, the cruiser Quincy. This cruiser, second of its name, was launched June 26, 1943, and distinguished itself in the invasion of Northern and South- ern France, thus, in a sense, avenging the loss of the first cruiser Quincy, which was sunk by the Japanese in the Battle of Savo Island in the South Pacific, August 9, 1942.
Following the invasion of France, Admiral E. L. Cochrane, Chief of the Bureau of Ships, United States Navy, telegraphed the Quincy Yard: "The Bethlehem-built cruiser Quincy has been giving a splen- did account of herself in support of the Allied invasion of Western Europe. Steaming up and down the Normandy beachhead, the Quincy helped to soften enemy resistance by bombarding field batteries, pill boxes, wireless stations and other important German installations.
page eighty-seven
U.S.S. Quincy II
U.S.S. Massachusetts passing through the Quincy Point Bridge on leaving the Quincy Yard of the Bethlehem Steel Company for its commissioning at Boston - 1942
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The performance of the Quincy is in keeping with the high quality of workmanship which characterizes the Navy vessels constructed at your yard."
In appreciation of the heroic part played by the U.S.S. Quincy II during the invasion of France, the City of Quincy played host to the crew on October 17, 1944, and to the officers on Navy Day, October 27, 1944. At the officers' reception, the citizens of Quincy presented to the Quincy a "Mechanical Cow." Thus the officers and crew of the Quincy will be supplied with fresh milk, cream, and ice cream, no matter how far from home they may be.
The Quincy Yard, under the efficient management of William H. Collins, is today one of the great shipyards of the world. "For the three years beginning December 7, 1941, the Quincy Yard has launched a total of eighty-eight ships of eleven different types. This is an aver- age of one ship each twelve and one-half days for the three years." During the year of 1944, the Quincy Yard launched thirty-seven ships. This is an average of one ship each nine and seven-eighths days. Since the outbreak of World War II, the Quincy Yard has built every class of combat ship, except submarines. No other shipyard in the United States has built such a diversification of naval vessels as has been con- structed at the Quincy Yard.
Among the completed contracts are the battleship Massachusetts of the Indiana Class of 1938, launched September 23, 1941, fifteen months ahead of schedule, and several aircraft carriers of the Essex Class of 1940. Notable among these are the Lexington II, built to replace and avenge the Lexington I, ex-battle cruiser of 1916-1922, which was sunk by our own forces after being badly damaged by the Japanese in the Battle of Coral Sea, May 8, 1942; the Wasp II, built to replace and avenge the Wasp I, which was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine near Guadalcanal in the South Pacific, September 15, 1942; the Bunker Hill, launched on the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor; and the Hancock, named for the first signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence and a native son of Quincy. Also completed are the contracts for the following 13,000-ton heavy cruisers of the Baltimore Class of 1940: Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburg, Saint Paul, Quincy II, and Can- berra, the latter named for the capital of Australia and in honor of the gallant Australian cruiser Canberra, which was lost in the Battle of Savo Island along with the cruisers Quincy I and Vincennes I of the Astoria Class of 1929-1933, which had been sent forth from the Quincy Yard. The Canberra was the first warship of the United States Navy to be named for a foreign city. The 10,000-ton light cruisers of the Cleveland Class of 1930-1940, include the Vincennes II, Pasadena, Topeka, and the Springfield, named in honor of Springfield, Illinois, and Springfield, Massachusetts. The 6,000-ton light cruisers of the Atlanta Class of 1939-1940 are the San Diego and the San Juan, the smallest cruisers built since the scouts of 1904.
page eighty-nine
reore
QUINCY ADAMS ---
YACHT
YARD
SACDS
...
Submarine Chasers (SC Boats)
As this is written, war conditions preclude further data regarding the completed or uncompleted commitments of the Quincy Yard.
In the field of special craft for the Army and Navy, the Northeast Shipbuilding Company and the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard, Incorpo- rated, notably uphold the proud tradition of "Quincy Built."
No other Yacht Yard in recent years has surpassed the reputation of the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard for fine workmanship and manage- ment. The Germantown property of the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard, located on the easterly side of Town River, was a part of the original Mount Wollaston Farm once owned by Colonel John Quincy, the great-grandfather of the sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams. In 1903, the site was purchased by "Captain" Charles Hanley, who later built the "Hanley Catboat" and other types of racing and pleasure craft, which won fame the nation over.
During the year of 1925, the Fred D. Lawley Corporation pur- chased the Hanley property and developed thereon one of the coun- try's best-located and finest-equipped yacht yards. In the following eight years nearly one hundred yachts and auxiliary craft were con- structed, among them the famous "Lawley 75," and the Massachusetts Bay-Buzzard's Bay Class.
In the fall of 1933, the late Harry Noyes, principal owner at that time and the one to whom the present success of the Yard should be attributed, reorganized the corporation and placed the management of the Yard under the control of Ralph E. Richmond. On February 16, 1934, the name of the corporation was changed to the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard, Incorporated. Three years later, a new corporation formed by Ralph E. Richmond, the present general manager and treasurer, purchased the Yard from the Noyes interests.
Under the Richmond management more than fifty outstanding yachts have been constructed and two new classes of racing craft, the "Adams" and the "Yankee," have originated at the Yard. Both of these classes were highly successful, and only the outbreak of war halted the establishment of additional fleets on both the coastal and inland waters.
The National Emergency found the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard ready to play its part. In the spring of 1941, the policy of the Yard called for the construction of one type of governmental craft, one hundred and ten foot wooden-hulled Submarine Chasers, and the suspension of all private work.
During the Battle of the Atlantic when the United States was in desperate need of anti-submarine craft, the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard made shipbuilding history by delivering more SC-boats of the one type in a shorter time than any other builder. In fact, at one time during this period, the Yard with some two hundred and fifty of the finest yacht artisans on its payroll, was turning out SC-boats at the rate of two a month, an almost incredible rate of production for a yard of its size and type.
page ninety-one
United States Army Tug
On February 4, 1942, the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard won the coveted Navy "E" for excellence in production, the first to be awarded in Quincy, and one of the very first to be awarded to the shipbuilding industry in the United States. Since the original award, the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard has been awarded four additional stars, denoting its fifth consecutive Navy "E" award.
The physical facilities of the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard include: one hundred and fifty thousand square feet of land; two hundred thousand feet of dredged basin; seven hundred and twenty feet of piers; three hundred feet of floats; three marine railways; one ten-ton outfitting derrick, and more than thirty-two thousand feet of under- cover storage. The yacht building plant includes: construction, motor, painting, joiner, and sheet metal shops; mould loft; heating plant, and storage buildings.
With its war orders as yet unfinished, the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard looks forward to its return to private work and to maintaining its lead among the nation's yacht builders.
The Northeast Shipbuilding Company, Quincy's youngest yard engaged in ship construction, is the outgrowth of a yacht yard estab- lished in Scituate, Massachusetts, in 1940. In August of 1942, the com- pany took over on a long term lease the yacht yards of L. O. Butts Company and F. D. Rolfe, both located on the westerly shore of Town River adjacent to the Southern Artery, the main thoroughfare to the South Shore, Cape Cod, and Boston.
Immediately following the acquisition of these yards, the North- east Shipbuilding Company, under the management of Charles D. Maginnis Jr., president and treasurer of the company, started to build Coastal and Ocean-Going Tugs of forty-six to one hundred and twenty- six feet in length, and one hundred and ten foot Deck Barges for the Army Transportation Corps. These wooden, diesel-powered tugs, fully armed with A.A. (Anti-Aircraft) guns, are now in use in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. In addition to its Army work, the Northeast Shipbuilding Company is engaged in commercial repairs and recon- version work for the Boston Port of Embarkation.
The physical facilities of the Northeast Shipbuilding Company include: seven building ways, capable of accommodating any type of wooden vessel up to one hundred and sixty-five feet; three marine railways, one for vessels up to one hundred and forty feet and two for vessels up to sixty-five feet in length; joiner shops and mills, which are stocked with modern tools of all types required for wooden ship con- struction; a machine shop, and a new mold loft capable of setting up any wooden vessel up to two hundred feet in length. For outfitting purposes, repair, and reconversion work, the company has leased Duane's Wharf. This modern steel and concrete wharf, about three hundred feet in length and from seventy to one hundred feet in width,
page ninety-three
is located at the foot of River Street, adjacent to the channel and the turning basin of Town River. Thus Quincy is provided with adequate wharfage for commerce by sea.
At the present time the executives of the Northeast Shipbuilding Company are formulating plans for the reconversion of its two Quincy yards from war production to peacetime building of pleasure yachts and commercial vessels such as trawlers and fishing boats of all types.
The Quincy Dry Dock and Yacht Corporation was established in 1930 by Michael J. Kennedy, the present president and general man- ager. The plant at that time was located at the abandoned Victory Plant at Squantum. In 1932, the corporation leased the Baker Yacht Basin, located in Quincy Point on the westerly side of Town River near its junction with Fore River. During the next decade the plant was expanded and developed and became one of the busiest plants in this section of the country, specializing in both storage and repairs of pleasure craft and in the overhauling, the conversion, and the repair- ing of commercial craft, such as fishing trawlers and draggers, dredges, lighthouse tenders, lightships, ferry boats, and other vessels of the United States Quartermaster Corps and the United States Coast Guard.
Since 1940, the Quincy Dry Dock and Yacht Corporation has de- voted its entire physical facilities and manpower to the service of the country. Much of its work has consisted of converting fishing vessels to mine-sweepers and small yachts to other types of auxiliary naval vessels. At the present time the plant, in addition to its work of over- hauling and repairing government craft, is engaged in decommission- ing small naval vessels no longer necessary to carry on the Battle of the Atlantic.
The physical facilities of the Quincy Dry Dock and Yacht Corpo- ration, which were purchased by the corporation in August of 1943, include: eleven and one-half acres of land; a storage basin eight hun- dred feet long and three hundred and fifty feet wide; a one thousand ton drydock for vessels up to two hundred feet in length; an eight hundred ton marine railway; two marine tramways for vessels up to fifty tons; two storage sheds one hundred and twenty-five feet long by seventy feet wide, and electrical, machine, carpenter, steel, pipe, and blacksmith shops.
The Quincy Dry Dock and Yacht Corporation anticipates that during 1945 its yard will devote much of its work to repairing certain types of invasion craft damaged by our enemies in actual combat. At the close of the war the yard will return to its former peace-time activ- ities of handling commercial and pleasure craft.
Quincy's achievement in shipbuilding is renowned. Quincy's future in shipbuilding is assured; for even when war contracts are completed, greatly enlarged facilities will enable it to compete with any shipbuilding center in the world in the field of naval, commercial, and pleasure craft construction.
page ninety-four
CHAPTER XVI
QUINCY TODAY
INDUSTRIAL Quincy is steadily moving, and always in the same direction - ahead.
Shortly after the establishment of Old Braintree a grant was made in the "Woods," now West Quincy, for an iron foundry. This was short lived, "for it was found that every pound of iron cost more than two pounds imported from Europe." Today Furnace Brook and Fur- nace Brook Parkway, one of Quincy's beautiful scenic drives, from Quincy Bay to the Blue Hills Reservation, remind us of this early industry. Moreover, several foundries - iron, brass, bronze, copper and aluminum - carry on the interrupted tradition that began on Furnace Brook three centuries ago.
Early colonial and town records of numerous curriers, cord- wainers, and heel makers, prove the importance of leather making. Later in the period between the Revolution and the Civil War, Quincy was a leader in the manufacture of shoes. Although the Quincy shoe industry never recovered from the effects of the Civil War, numerous other industries have become important locally.
The machine industry for years has contributed to the city's pros- perity. Shipbuilding, yachtbuilding, granite quarrying, stone cutting and finishing, stone crushing, and building wrecking, as well as the production of soap and soap products, glycerine, marine engines, gears, packing and bottling machinery, scales, rivets and studs, machinery parts, tools, chemicals, conveyors and conveyor systems, scientific in- struments, amplifying and telephone equipment, storage batteries, floor machines, building materials, paints and varnishes, portable buildings, wood and steel, air raid protection equipment and supplies, furniture, starch, articles of leather and rubber, buttons, dresses, under- wear, cord and thread, rope, awnings, window screens, signs, tanks, ventilators, carbonated and fermented beverages, cymbals, ice and ice cream - all these employ the skill of Quincy residents.
Quincy's contribution to the war effort is outstanding. To date, the traditional Navy "E" or the joint Army and Navy "E" has been awarded to six of Quincy's industries for excellence in production achievement in their respective fields: the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard, Incorporated (Navy "E"); the Bethlehem Steel Company, Shipbuild- ing Division, Quincy Yard (Navy "E"); the Boston Gear Works, In- corporated; the Wollaston Brass and Aluminum Foundry; the Norfolk Iron Company, and the Murray and Tregurtha-Mathewson Machine Works. Several stars awarded for continued efficiency have been added to the "Burgee" flying over these plants.
page ninety-five
1.1
The first bank of circulation and deposit was established in Quincy, in 1836, and called the Quincy Stone Bank, now the Granite Trust Company. Today Quincy has three commercial banks: the Granite Trust Company (1836); the Norfolk County Trust Company (1935), established as the Mount Wollaston Bank (1853); the Quincy Trust Company (1915); one savings bank, the Quincy Savings Bank (1845); two co-operative banks, the Quincy Co-operative Bank (1889), and the Shipbuilders Co-operative Bank (1920); and one federal sav- ings and loan association, the Wollaston Federal Savings and Loan Association (1937), established as the Wollaston Co-operative Bank (1889). The combined assets of the banking institutions of Quincy total approximately $115,000,000. Thus all forms of business and industry are assured of adequate banking facilities.
Quincy's daily newspaper, the Quincy Patriot Ledger, first ap- peared on the streets and in the homes of Quincy, January 7, 1837, as the Quincy Patriot. It was a weekly journal devoted to "Morals, Edu- cation, Agriculture, News, and General Literature," published by two enterprising young men, John A. Green and Edward B. Osborne, each twenty-two years of age. This partnership dissolved at the end of three months. On the death of Mr. Green in 1861, Mrs. M. Elizabeth Green, his widow, a pioneer newspaper woman, became publisher with George W. Prescott as business manager. Eight years later Mr. Prescott be- came a partner in the firm of Green and Prescott. In 1889, the firm started the Quincy Daily Ledger. Five years later Mr. Prescott became sole owner and publisher and remained so until his death in 1908. The Quincy Patriot and the Quincy Daily Ledger were consolidated in 1916. Today the . Quincy Patriot Ledger, under the George W. Prescott Publishing Company, Incorporated, has the distinction of more than one hundred years of continuous publication and service.
The Quincy Mutual Fire Insurance Company was established in Quincy, in March of 1851. The Quincy Mutual now has agencies in all the New England towns and cities, also in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Quincy is also the home office of the United States Mutual Liability Insurance Company. In addition many other large insurance companies of the country are represented in Quincy by a branch office or agent.
Activities undreamed of by the founders of the town and city, or even the parents of the present generation, are represented in the city today.
The modern methods of communications which provide the means of point-to-point contact - the telegraph, the telephone, and the wireless telegraphy, and the more recent inventions which enable communication to be established with great numbers of people simul- taneously - the radio, television, and related developments, have made the world so small, insofar as communications are concerned, that it is now the equivalent of a single community of the earlier years.
page ninety-seven
The development of modern methods of communication in Quincy is an interesting story. The first formal step to establish a Post Office in this country was made by the General Court of Massa- chusetts in 1639. Quincy's first Post Office was established in 1795, probably through the influence of John Adams, then Vice-President of the United States. His brother-in-law, Richard Cranch, was the first Postmaster of Quincy. The postage on a letter from Quincy to Boston was then six cents; to Springfield, ten cents, and to New York, fifteen cents. Today the swiftest postal-service is by Air-Mail.
Unfortunately the records of early telegraphic companies have been destroyed. There is evidence in the Acts and Resolves of Massa- chusetts, and in the Quincy Patriot, 1846-1860, that some telegraphic communication existed in Quincy during those years. However, con- tinuous telegraphic service has existed in Quincy since November 1, 1877. On that day, the Western Union Telegraph Company estab- lished electrical communication by extending its line from the Wol- laston, and Atlantic Depots of the Old Colony Railroad Company to the Quincy Depot. Today the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany provides telegram, telegram-money-order, cablegram, and radio- gram service anywhere at their office at 14 Maple Street or telephone service, by which one may dial "Operator" and ask for "Western Union."
On November 3, 1881, a meeting was held at Lyceum Hall for the purpose of securing adequate telephone conveniences in Quincy by direct or independent line. At that meeting, the American Bell Telephone Company agreed to establish a cut-off to Quincy from its Boston and Brockton line upon the payment of four hundred dol- lars and the guarantee that forty citizens would pay thirty-six dollars yearly for the use of the company's instruments.
More than six years after Thomas A. Watson distinctly heard Alexander Graham Bell say "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you," and the telephone had become a fact, the Quincy Patriot in its edition of April 15, 1882, announced that "the territory of Quincy and other towns and cities near Boston had lately passed under the control of the Suburban Telephone Company of Boston." The first public tele- phone station in Quincy was opened in 1882 in the drug store of Arthur B. Hayward. This was located in the Whicher Block at 5 Temple Street, now the site of the Quincy Patriot Ledger Building. The connection was a loop from the trunk line between Boston and Brockton through West Quincy. Owing to the interest manifested in the telephone, the company in September of that year, installed a magneto switch board on the second floor of the same building. At the close of the first year there were sixty-eight telephone subscribers among a population of ten thousand, five hundred and eighty-two.
On October 19, 1883, the Suburban Telephone Company was consolidated with the New England Telephone and Telegraph Com-
page ninety-eight
pany. Five years later the exchange was located in two rooms on the third floor of the Durgin and Merrill Block, now the Lincoln Stores Building at 1433 Hancock Street. Here a three-position, mul- tiple type switchboard equipped for one hundred and twenty sub- scribers' lines and twenty trunk lines was installed. The total cable facilities of the exchange consisted of about two hundred and fifty feet of kerite cable extending from a terminal pole on Granite Street to the terminals that represented the main frame of the exchange. In 1895, the sub-station list was about one hundred and thirty-six subscribers in the area covered by the exchange namely: Quincy, Braintree, Holbrook, Randolph, Weymouth, Hingham, Cohasset and Hull.
The new Quincy building of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, erected at a cost of two million dollars, is located at 1070 Hancock Street. It contains the Commercial Business office, the test center for Quincy, Milton, Braintree, Cohasset, Hing- ham, Hull, Randolph, Weymouth, and Quincy's three crossbar dial units, in which during a normal day an average of one hundred and seven thousand calls originate. More than fifteen thousand six hun- dred homes and two thousand and seventy business concerns are using the excellent service of this company, which requires more than twenty-one thousand, three hundred telephone instruments.
Two other public utility companies which should be given recog- nition for the important part they have played in the domestic and industrial life of the city are the Boston Consolidated Gas Company and the New England Power Association, both of Boston, successors to the Citizens' Gas-Light Company and the Quincy Electric Light and Power Company.
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