Submarine Boat Company, Newark NJ

The Submarine Boat Company was a subsidiary of the Electric Boat Company, organized for the WWI merchant shipbuilding effort.  Together with Merchant Shipbuilding, in Bristol PA, and American International Shipbuilding, in Hog Island PA, it was an assembly yard, up to 80% of each hull being prefabricated elsewhere. At its peak, it employed 25,000 people, second only to Hog Island.  The company's 150-ship contract with the U.S. Shipping Board was cut short at 118, but they built the last 32 ships anyway, for a shipping company called Transamerica that they formed for the purpose: this was not a success, however, and the company folded.  In the table below, it's amazing to note the number of times the names of these ships were changed while they were still under construction: what was that all about?  The shipyard was located where the automobile terminal just south of the I-78 New Jersey Turnpike Extension is now.  See it from the air on Google here.  It was reactivated for WWII by Federal Shipbuilding.