Jahncke Shipyard Launch

In 1917 workers at Jahncke Shipyard in Madisonville were kept busy turning out ships for the wartime effort.   This photograph shows a completed wooden cargo vessel just before it was launched. Hulls of other ships are seen to the left and the right. 

 

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The ships were built on a "cost-plus" basis, and Jahncke contracted to build 12 of the 3,500 ton ships, as well as 12 steel ships of 5,000 tons each. As many as 2,000 men were employed in Madisonville shipyards between 1917 and 1918, with a weekly payroll of $80,000. The picture came from a 75th anniversary yearbook put out by Jahncke Services in 1950. 

 More Jahncke Shipyard pictures from 1918:

 

 

 

Launching "SS Balabac", September 29, 1918, Jahncke Shipyard, Madisonville

 

 

Five Ships under various stages of construction, "Jahncke Shipyard" 1918, Madisonville

 

 

Jahncke Shipyard, Madisonville, 1918
(courtesy: Walter F. Jahncke Collection, Steven Grant Jahncke)