Drift-Out in the Shipyards

West Coast shipyard workers quit their jobs in droves.

Labor turnover at the shipyards had always been high, but the yards had usually been able to hire replacements. Puget Sound yards were suffering a net loss of 2,500 workers a month.

Workers were tired. Some wanted to get in a few licks on the farm. Some wanted to go fishing. Many, worried about cutbacks, wanted to get into secure, peacetime jobs.

But as far as the Navy was concerned, now was the worst possible time for a man to quit. With the quickening of the war in the Pacific, the greatest need was for rapid ship repair. The Navy no longer made any bones about it: its ships were taking punishment from desperate Jap bombers and Kamikaze planes. One day last week Fleet Admiral Nimitz admitted damage to eleven of his light naval units in the space of 18 hours.

At week's end the 2,200-ton destroyer Laffey limped into Seattle's Elliott Bay from an encounter off Okinawa (see WORLD BATTLEFRONTS). Six suicidal Jap pilots had smashed their planes into her. Thousands of man-hours would be required to put her back in the war. One day, more ships than could be accommodated at repair docks waited in Elliott Bay. Repair work was given top priority.

Watching his workers drift away, a shipyard official said: "I think ultimately our new-destroyer-construction program here will cease."

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