Avondale Shipyards, New Orleans LA

Avondale Shipyards was founded in 1938 as Avondale Marine Ways, in Westwego LA, on the west bank of the Mississippi river in New Orleans.  Initially it was a barge builder but was adapted to build small cargo ships.  It expanded to the present site in 1946.  The original owners sold it to Ogden Corporation in 1959, which sold it to Connell Partnership in 1985, together with a number of other Ogden interests.  The shipyard was spun off as Avondale Industries in 1987 following major clashes of personalities between the shipyard's management and Connell's management.  The new company was publicly traded until it was acquired by Litton Industries in 1999 and became Litton Ship Systems Avondale Operations.  At this point, the shipyard finally lost its long-running battle against the unionization of its workforce.  Litton was itself acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2001 and Avondale was integrated with Ingalls and became formally known as Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Avondale Operations.  Rational people still call it Avondale.  In January 2008, Ship Systems was integrated with Newport News as part of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding.  Visit the shipyard at www.ss.northropgrumman.com and see it from the air on Google here.

Avondale's hull numbers are now up in the 2500s, because most of their output has been barges (including over 1000 LASH barges) and small vessels.  Boats and barges built by Avondale Marine Ways, in Westwego, were given numbers in the same series as the main yard.  Avondale Marine Ways closed in 1963 but was revived in 1988 as Avondale's Boats Division and the boats built there were given a new series of numbers.  Avondale also set up remote yards in Gulfport MS, one to build MHCs, as follow yard to Intermarine USA , the other to build LCACs, as follow yard to Textron Marine Systems.