Bethlehem San Francisco was founded as Union Brass & Iron Works in 1849, by Peter Donahue, one of San Francisco's three Donahue brothers, who were known as the "iron men". It was sold to Bethlehem Steel in 1906 but continued to use the Union Iron Works name until 1917, after Bethlehem acquired Quincy, Sparrows Point and a number of smaller yards, and standardized the yard names and the hull numbering system. The San Francisco shipyard was expanded in 1911 by the acquisition of the adjoining Risdon Iron Works, which had built locomotives, and this facility was used in WWI for destroyer construction. The yard remained in continuous operation throughout the inter-war years and was the only major shipbuilder on the West Coast prior to WWII. Bethlehem Steel sold the yard to the City in 1982, for a dollar. It was then leased to Southwest Marine under the name San Francisco Drydock and continues today as a division of BAE Systems. See it from the air on Google here.
The Alameda shipyard, formerly United Engineering Works, was added in 1916, at the onset of WWI, to build standard cargo ships for the U.S. Shipping Board. After WWI, the yard was converted to ship repair, although it built 10 troopships in WWII. The Alameda yard closed in 1956. In the table below, the ships that were built in Alameda are identified by an A after the hull number.
| Hull # | USSB, USMC or MARAD Hull # | Original Name | Original Owner | Ship Type | Gov't. Type or Design Code | Pennant # | GT | LDT or DWT | Delivered | Disposition |
|
Built in San Francisco |
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| 1 | Arago | Oregon Coal Co. | Psgr. Cargo | 947 | 1,450 | 1884 | Wrecked 1896 | |||
| 2 | Adeline | Steam Launch | 1885 | |||||||
| 3 | General McDowell | Psgr. Cargo | 150 | 309 | 1886 | |||||
| 4 | Balboa | 80 | 134 | 1885 | ||||||
| 5 | Emerald | Passenger | 20 | 40 | 1886 | |||||
| 6 | Premier | E. W. Spencer | Psgr. Cargo | 1,080 | 1887 | Later Charmer 1893, scrapped 1935 | ||||
| 7 | Charleston | US Navy | Cruiser | C | 2 | 3,730 | 26-Dec-89 | Wrecked in the Philippines 1899 | ||
| 8 | Number not used | |||||||||
| 9 | Pomona | Pacific Coast Line | Psgr. Cargo | 1,264 | 1,459 | Jul-88 | Wrecked near San Francisco 1908 | |||
| 10 | Active | US Navy | Tug | 173 | 256 | |||||
| 11 | San Francisco | US Navy | Cruiser | C | 5 | 4,083 | 15-Nov-90 | Renamed Yosemite 1931, scrapped 1939 | ||
| 12 | Romola | Launch | 3 | 4 | ||||||
| 13 | Colis | San Francisco Co. | Tug | 205 | 314 | 1989 | ||||
| 14 | Salmo | 58 | 30 | |||||||
| 15 | Monterey | US Navy | Monitor | BM | 6 | 4,084 | 13-Feb-93 | Scrapped 1922 | ||
| 16 | Whisper | 20 | 18 | |||||||
| 17 | Olympia | US Navy | Cruiser | C | 6 | 5,870 | 20-Feb-94 | Memorial in Philadelphia 1957 | ||
| 18 | Oregon | US Navy | Battleship | BB | 3 | 10,288 | 26-Jun-96 | Scrapped 1956 | ||
| 19 | Columbia | US Lightship Service | Light Ship | 250 | 425 | |||||
| 20 | Fearless | J. C. Spreckels & Bros. | Tug | 400 | 635 | Feb-92 | Later Iroquois 1898, LT 461 1942, scrapped 1952 | |||
| 21 | Peru | Pacific Mail Line | Passenger | 3,525 | 4,275 | Jun-92 | Later Lux 1919, missing in Mediterranean 1920 | |||
| 22 | El Primero | Edward Hopkins | Steam Yacht | 102 | 1893 | Now a charter cruise boat in West Vancouver BC: see a picture of her being launched here | ||||
| 23 | Gracie S | Bay Pilots Assn. | Pilot Boat | 52 | 13 | |||||
| 24 | Santa Lucia | Tug | ||||||||