COCHRANE COLLECTION TOP PAGE
AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF U.S. SHIPYARDS, 1943-1945 (COCHRANE COLLECTION)
The Bath Iron Works, Inc., at Bath, Maine on 22 May 1945. Photo No. BA 342435 (Bureau of Aeronautics).
Aerial Photographs of Navy Yards (and Stations) and Large Private Shipyards in the U.S.
arranged by Naval Districts (1943-1945)
In late 1943 the Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Ships, Vice Admiral Edward L. Cochrane, began to document for posterity the huge shipbuilding infrastructure that his bureau and other offices had assembled to build and repair the ships of the world's largest Navy and merchant marine. He arranged with the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics to have aircraft overfly the shipyards and take photographs, and he then had the photographs collected in a set of 30 horizontally-oriented 10"x8" green cloth-covered three ring binders arranged by naval districts which he kept in his office. These binders, with a duplicate set and some loose images in five archive boxes (UA 225-229) are now in the photograph collection of the Naval History and Heritage Command. In 2010 Shipscribe scanned 193 photos (including a few from the boxes, so identified) that best represented all of the yards. Of these, 11 were taken in late 1943 (only 2 before November), 69 in 1944, and 113 in 1945. The collection contains multiple photographs for some yards, of which only one was normally scanned. It omitted most builders of smaller ships including nearly all wooden types and service craft, along with one large yard, North Carolina S.B. at Wilmington, N.C., and possibly a second, Brown Shipbuilding Co. at Houston, Tex. Some or all of these photographs may also be available in the National Archives, locations unknown. Note that at many yards work was winding down by the beginning of 1945. The output and histories of most of these yards (except some repair yards) can be found in the invaluable website www.ShipbuildingHistory.com by Tim Colton.
- First Naval District (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.)
- Second Naval District (Rhode Island, merged with First Naval District 1919.)
- Third Naval District (Connecticut, New York, and northern New Jersey.)
- Fourth Naval District (Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware.)
- Fifth Naval District (Maryland and Virginia less D.C. and Annapolis areas, West Virginia, and coastal North Carolina.)
- Sixth Naval District (South Carolina, Georgia, interior North Carolina, and the Jacksonville region of Florida.)
- Seventh Naval District (Florida except the Jacksonville region and the western panhandle.)
- Eighth Naval District (Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and the western panhandle of Florida.)
- Ninth Naval District (Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas.)
- Tenth Naval District (Caribbean islands and bases). No shipyards.
- Eleventh Naval District (New Mexico, Arizona, the Las Vegas region of Nevada, and southern California.)
- Twelfth Naval District (Colorado, Utah, Nevada except the Las Vegas region, and northern California including San Francisco.)
- Thirteenth Naval District (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.)
- Fourteenth Naval District (Hawaiian Islands and islands west of them)
- Fifteenth (Panama Canal Zone), Sixteenth (Philippine Islands, when reoccupied) and Seventeenth (Alaska) Naval Districts. No shipyards.
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Page made 26 May 2021