Marinship memories stories of the birth of Marin City during World War II by those who lived it

today. When you visit Sausalito, you see beautiful Mount Tamil Pious and enjoy the expansive yachts and sailing boats of all types. It wasn't always this placid on this narrow strip of land across the golden gate from san Francisco. I'm noah griffin On December 8, 1941. When

the United States entered World War II. Some extraordinary changes began to take place in communities all over the nation. The Sausalito California area was no exception. A stretch of mud flats on the shore's of Richardson bay at the north end of Sausalito was selected by the

Bechtel Corporation when it received a contract from the United States Maritime Commission to construct a shipyard where ships were to be built for the war effort. To accomplish the rapid construction of the 210 acre shipyard. 2000 workers worked in shifts around the clock. Approximately 26,000 pilots

were driven into the bay mud to create the ship ways and to support the new warehouses and fabrication workshops. A 300 ft wide and half mile long deep water ship channel was dredged into Richardson Bay to allow the newly launched vessels to reach the main portion

of the san Francisco bay, Creating this channel required the removal of three million cubic yards of bay mud. Workers eager to take advantage of the well paying wartime jobs flocked to the west coast from all over the United States to work at the various shipyards, including

marine ship. In a related effort brought about by the need for the rapid construction of housing for 6000 guest workers marin city was created adjacent to the north end of the shipyard and just across the highway match box like structures were built on the hillside on

the flat lands. They built houses which were known by his residents as the flats. They were long, rectangular structures with about six apartments to a building. Workers toiled and shifts around the clock. It is remarkable to note that on June 27, 1942, only three months after

the odd set of construction of the shipyards. The first keel was laid for the Liberty ship William, a Richardson Six Liberty ships have been launched from Marin ship by the 1st anniversary of the Declaration of War. Workers needed in the shipyard was to cry heard throughout

the south, a cry heard by hungry and ambitious young men and women wanting a new life. They left their homes and families in 1942. In 1943 in many exodus from Louisiana, Alabama and texas. They left jobs that pay pennies an hour to as much as a

dollar 30 an hour. I am Felicia Gaston, a current resident of marin city, founder and executive director of performing stores of marin and founder of marin city Historical and Preservation Society, which will document and preserve the entire history of marin city from 1942 to present. Between

1942 and 1945 93 vessels were built 15 liberty ships, 62 tankers and 16 navy orders. It has been said they turned the tide of the war during that time a total of 75,000 people flooding into marin city seeking a better life. We're going to hear from

some of them and some of their Children delayed. Ella johnson Wilder who took the train from Shreveport Louisiana told it this way. There were two coaches for blacks. It was crowded. So I wrote all the way in an ill, we didn't come to rock the boat,

we came to win the war road. S a battle. And any small world welders, they tell us how they came to marin city about their work. Their family lives in their visions for the future. Ali Hector reminisces about the marine ship years? Bernie Hollandsworth remembers her

father, Otis Williams when my mother in law. Um I guess she came probably, I don't know whether she came in 42, but she was here first and then my sister in law came to san Francisco and then my husband came to san Francisco but got a

job here and then he said for me and with Children and I worked in san Francisco and show I got a transfer housing available in marin city. And that was then 44. I've been here since. Is that saying my cooker heard about, We have been hearing

about it all the time and he decided to come out and see. And he came out, he liked it. He went to work in the shipyards. He said for his wife she came out, she went back to work in the shipyards. He sent for my husband

and he told me he said well I'm going and if I don't like it I'll be right back but I'll send for you if I like it. And he said for me the same week he got here and I caught the train one Wednesday night I

arrived in San Francisco sunday and I had $8 in my pocket and I, my husband has been going over there you know get me meet the train and I wasn't there. And so he went to bed. I was left having my cousin came over here the

Golden Gate theater And I was sitting there with my boy and they looked and see they're all faces was strange. So that's how I got you. Yeah. And I came around here on sunday with work on a monday. That's how high tables and and and um

had run the ladder and uh and for height which I didn't know at the time is that's how they decided where to put you because I could climb the ladder and if you hit you know scared of heights. Well every put you on the ground. Well

I didn't know that at the time. So that way I stayed down the tanks a lot or either way up on a scaffold somewhere. So But in three months I passed the test as a journey and so that's where I stayed and I got to loving

it so well that that I could do it in my sleep, you know because it's got to be fun to play with but it wasn't fun to pull my lines because some of the men say you make the money we make so you know, y'all lie.

Yeah, you pull the line wrapped around you, your line might be tied up, you know like a plan, you know and start a block away to get the way you want to use it, you know, so that's what you have to wrap around your neck to

pull it good and my neck was so oh it looks like I have been walking on mhm And I remember at first when we graduated I wrote uh all over gone out there but we went in and shipped out together and we had to go up

on the ship, ship was real and some people, some of the ladies went home said no, no, I'm going home. Everyone thinks I'm going home to. So we kept trying, I back back down, I looked down and I back off and next time I got a

little fun and I said I'm going up to that level you got to go up this ladder if you won't work in here in the shipyard and on the ship and I went up there and I had been going up there ever since. Mhm. Yeah it

was that hot sometimes it was in the bottom time I was in the bottom and then people oh I can't call the main name, it's been so long. Richard Richard, he just live in the flat down there with him and they well the bottom was so

comfortable because um scaffold broke up tools fell and people died you know because heavy rigs and things you know and piece of steel would fall when I went down the ship either it was on the yard as well because they hook it up and you know

hook it up and didn't do a good job of it. Yeah and my mother in law she said when they covered them up to bring them to bring them down and sometimes she could see it a little bit of the hand sticking out and depending on

the color of it would let you know it wasn't me you know something maybe a little bit of sleeve or something that she made, what was he doing? What like like you well what my husband was a pipe dinner, what was death? Oh a blank and

and and so um when when when people didn't know you were over and it dropped the sludge I'm a big wrench or something and so you have to always you know think about that and of course nothing you could do about it because you got the

hood on your head down so you don't you can't see it coming and you don't feel it, you know, So people died, you know, it was dangerous and then of course some people came to work drunk and you didn't know what, you know until something happened.

So it was dangerous like that. Um wilder like you say, you have your hood down and if you make a to get a flat, you know, I've got three of them and I've got three piece of steel in my mind, I got they picked that out

and I got burned on on here, stay here for a long time. Yes, it was dangerous but it was kind of nice making more money. Well that was that was the reason we did in the first place, you know when you came from making pennies, you

know, and and long hours no unions, no union, you know, we've been here the boilermakers, the boilermakers union, so that that that was their way of I belong to, I didn't know what, but we have to go as you member me, you and be with over

there. But that it was so different. I have never been in a union in my life. Well, that's that's why the problem was always about the work of the black workers, the white workers. So the thing what you might not know about was what is now

known uh maybe being told about the discrimination in the terms that we were working on. Yeah and that's what came up a lot about the voting today because people remember back then you know what difference did it make you wasn't gonna get the opportunity to do

it anyway. Everybody everybody uh got along swell because they were saying that it was act as a family unit. Everybody helped everybody else. Hmm it would be. Oh um it was such a mixed it was such a mixed uh where we'd say such a mixture of

all kinds of ethnic groups and ages and and and and the work habit was so everybody would around the clock It was somebody going to work 24 hours a day. Um um I didn't have a babysitter uh because um when I lived in the city my

landlord uh the husband had a shift. He worked at a theater when they closed you know at two a.m. And so he cleaned up and his his wife kept house. My husband had graveyard shift. He went to work at 12 and I worked for the Munich

railway. So I got I got on my streetcar at four in the afternoon till six and maybe went back maybe seven o'clock eight till one a.m. In the morning. So it was somebody at the house and they had one child so I kept their they kept

mine because somebody was going and coming at all times and when we moved to marin city I worked today ship and my husband worked tonight shift. So when he come in in the morning he would bring the kiss uh just to this school they're building now

he bring him there And the youngest was in child care and the oldest was was in Kindergarten. And when I got off at five in the evening I picked him up and and that's you know and so your neighbor um if it rains they took my

clothes in if I hung them out in the morning cause they know I'm going to work. And of course if the ice man came, well I let the iceman in for them or the milkman and see when all this going to store because you had home

delivery. We used to leave out door was never locked the door and leave the money and then you could leave your money in the middle and the milk note in there sits on the porch and it was just that good there. And we did and we

did have to lock the door and you found your change. Nice man come in and get your money off the ice box, put the ice in there. So if your door was over, somebody passed by closing. Mhm. And so that that's that's and so that's that's

what we meant about neighbors took care of each other and we didn't have the convenience of stores and get some fresh meat. We go to a couple of two or three little stores up in south. The leader, the little small store in the curve around they're

still there. But then where I think it's a dress shop, it's a dress shop or something where purity market used to be right by the water well that you know and so that was a theater and a store, you know back then and that was the

shopping and on friday evening we go all the way to san rafael. It was on the street where the chickens were and and you could buy chickens and then you could team up with somebody and go to santa rosa petaluma and buy a whole hole and

the hole would be cut maybe four pieces maybe either they cut the whole thing up and buy together because that way all you could have is what you could pack around that ice, you know, no other way to keep it. So and I can't all the

fruit, I could go up to Nevada and Petaluma and buy because you could buy by the bush or you know or whatever and you have all these kids I meet all all the preserves and jams and things because you could just run out to the market,

you know and get and that's what we used to anyway. You know can and so now when they say natural food, well all we ever had was natural food, organic food. That's that's what we, that's what we had and you know that's what we were used

to. He was so yelled on and he went to some guy down there was a school down there like you say down there where bobby went there and he he'd go he'd meet me at the store when I get off of work and then you go

up to here with you know to go it wasn't daniel you know to go up the hill when he get in and one police down there was walking police, one police in marin city and he walked around and I wouldn't know it was a good place

to raise kids and would like if I go on and something happened to my security neighbor would see about them you know and oh that's what I can remember, I can remember a lot of things but. Mhm. Yeah like he saved when he had um when

you're close be out it's gonna rain your next door neighbor come take them and put them in the hospital because the house was never locked up and have to lock that. Um My Children, I never did have a baby so my Children never did have a

baby. So because I come straight to marin city and live with my three people had beds in every room in marin city in the in the my brother and his wife it was in the kitchen, me and my husband in one bedroom, my cousin and his

wife was in one bedroom and then they got another couple of corn out in another bedroom. You used all hours sleeping all are working at night the night Chicago blew up. We all ran out without the enemy take him that night and we all ran out

of living said oh they got you, we didn't have no TVs and telephones or nothing like that. And when they came from what our husband came from what they told us what happened. No I didn't have to have a babysitter cause my only son was quite

a bit. He was seven years old, seven years old now daughter. But I know they have to have a baby and we want to close together. Okay. I had 10 and 80 living now and so they all went to the south a leader and now school

district and they all went through, I had 12 graduates from town because I ended up raising a grandchild and a niece. So I had 12 to leave town okay. And they all scattered around and they all scattered around now and all on my own in different

places and around and so marin is their home for say no you know and when I went away on jobs here and there and somebody come back maybe every three or four years or something visit what have you. So they love it. So after seeing what

climates are like in so many other places there's no place like good old marin someplace else, it's so cold and nearly froze like either so hot frame it and you know and so living here it's got its own air conditioner with the good old fog and

stuff. So and I love it. Why don't we talk now about your hopes and dreams and things? Things you like to get your hopes and your dreams, things that you'd like to see. You know maybe changes in marine city or in the country. Obama 1 1

thing I don't I always had hoped to to see it rebuild and that has become a reality and I didn't think I would live long enough to see it and so I believe anything is possible that I've lived this long to see this much improvement. So

I see all kinds of possibilities of who knows what Mrs Paulson hopes and dreams that you have about Marine city, things that you'd like to see happen in marin city or things that have happened that you like. Things that you'd like to see happen in marin

city or things that have happened as Mrs small was talking about how it's developed and how she never thought she'd live so long to see it. Yeah that's true. Well I've had my bitters and sweet so no I'd like to live long enough to see everybody

get along but I don't think I will uh you know I lost my grandson and I'd like to see everybody get along in marin city all like they used to first game out here you didn't tell her tragedy happening in Leuven City. I wish it was

like it would be like it was when we first came out and then when it first came out there was no churches was no churches here at all. Church in marin city and my husband he was capital. He went to and we have to go Into

the city to church if you went if you didn't have much time with 111 all the time and that's what I desire to see people get back together. C but I think it's all over my wish and I hope in the ring my dad Otis r

Williams. Um all this wiggins came to vallejo California to work and the naval mayor island. And he left his family and Kent or Louisiana after hearing about a defense program which would allow him to come and work for defense or take a chance on maybe being

drafted into the army. So he chose to come here. And um 1952. No not 1952 1942. And at the beginning of the war I think it was the war years. And after approximately six months he transferred to sausalito to the shipyard and he lived in marin

city in the dormitories with many other workers that lived in the dormitory and within maybe six months more or maybe less we arrived the family my mom Helen Williams and the two daughters. My sister Corinne and I And my dad was a painter in the shipyards.

He seemed to enjoy his work very much. It was his topic of conversation constantly for many, many years. He spoke about the shipyards and the danger sometimes of spray painting and taking a chance of possibly taking a little dip in the bay and the night before

he was to do the painting on the outside. He seemed to be restless. So he mentioned it one time after. Then whenever there was a place of danger that he might work, he didn't say anything until until it was finished. And then he would tell a

story about it. We had an uncle that also lived here in marin city with his family and he worked in the shipyard also. They did different jobs but that seemed to be their conversation and among all many people that live in marin city the conversation constantly

about their work. Women worked in the shipyards right along with the men and they work shifts day evening and night and all of them had something to talk about their work welders. Um The pipe fitters and the painters like I said and then the cleanup people.

So there was always something to talk about and that seemed to be uh a shipyard community in marin city. We were in government housing here and it kind of reminds you of the air base, living living on an air base with the federal housing there, it

seemed the same in marin city. So my dad Worked five days a week. Uh sometimes weekends they're seldom, but he was really into painting. He loved the idea of painting those ships and whenever one was finished, he invited us the kids and my mom to come

down and see the ship being christened. That was the highlight for us, the kids to go and watch that. And he would say well I had something to do with that, the finishing of that ship. You know, I know about the insides, I know where the

hole is and he knew all of these things. However, he was still a loner type person, he was known in the community but yet he stayed to himself very quiet but we knew how far to go with it and that wasn't very far because he let

us know that of course in those days everybody respected adults and you respected them in a different way than they do now. You know, there was no first name calling, it was always mr Williams from all the kids, you know. And even some of those youngsters

that have grown up today, they still refer to him as mr Williams, never first name calling. So my dad was like a pioneer in marin city, he could tell things that I didn't don't know really, I can't remember because I was young when we came here

I guess I was about seven or 8 when I arrived in marin city and he just after the shipyards he went to something else, some other construction work. But I think his happy days were in the shipyard because the community was in the shipyard and around

and that seemed to be telephone conversations with those that had phones weekends. They met each other in the grocery store, they talk about the shipyard, what they did, what ship they were working on, what ship was doing to begin work on. So it was a good

I think a good experience for him, a good life experience. And even in his older days re reminisced about the shipyard, he was speak to the younger people in the community now a different generation of course. But he would speak to them and say you don't

really realize what hard work is. I did what you called hard work when my dad would come home in the evenings from work. Uh we would run to him and want to know how was your day. And he would say oh I'm so tired and but

I'll talk to you after we have supper. So he thought we would forget and we would all have we have family dinners then so we would all have our supper and maybe I would say something at the table and he would say say after you do

dishes then we'll talk when all your work is taken care of. So my sister and I would clear the table do dishes and then I wanna know tell me something which ship you worked on today, what did you do? And what colors did you use? I

was really interested in all of that and he would be squirming a little bit because he said I'm tired and I want to read the paper and I would say you promised after after we have supper you're gonna tell. So he would explain the day and

I would listen and I didn't know what he was talking about because I didn't know any parts of a ship other than going into a roof. Excuse me. But he would tell us what area of the ship he could be in maybe the front or the

back or but he would never say outside because it was dangerous and he didn't never want us to really know that he did too much outside and he worked in the daytime and he often said he was happy that he didn't have to work the swing

shift on the midnight shift. So he had lots of different stories to tell us about even down to how cold it was working on the ship and how they had to wear two pairs of pants and The thick underwear and all of these two or 3

shirts and a jacket on, you know but he really really enjoyed that part of his life. You went into construction but I don't I think it had the same effect because he related the shipyards with doing something for our country and it meant something to him.

The air base was here at that time, Hamilton's Air Force base and many of the servicemen used to come down to the one church in our town and then we would invite them over to have dinner and they would talk to my dad about the shipyard

versus the service or the war or what might happen later. And that way we always had something going, although we had nobody in our house in the service, we always had something going about defense and airplanes and all this kind of rhetoric that they talk about.

And uh He was just into that. And of course, later when we were 12, I was 12 years old. My brother was born and ross California there and growing up and it's like he grew up overnight. So when he I became a teenager then my dad

was working construction but he had to go back in memory to the beginning of his error with the shipyard. And tell my brother in detail the beginning to the end of how he started work came out here, why he came out here what he did and

my brother wanted to know that story because I really think he used it in a class and in high school later in high school and in grammar school too and they had to tell something for current events. My brother used to tell about my dad and

his his experience because it was an experience. He was a young man at that time and leaving his leaving home, leaving his family to come to California was quite an experience for him and he really cherished those memories. Hm But as things went on and he

grew older and like I said memories memories with his daily conversation upon retirement from work completely from work that's what he would do. Go around meet with his buddies and they would talk about the old good old times and it began with Galileo and the shipyard

there sausalito how marin city was built and up till today we lived in those war war homes he called him, he had a different name for them but he always had something to talk about in the past. It was a good past and a good memory.

My husband was working in new Orleans said and he heard there's no money out here so he decided to move to California but they sent him to but he paid him back he didn't like he stayed in san Francisco and I went different jobs before I

worked at the shipyard. Didn't understand I was going to just go to school to learn how to. Well first was attacker then I went back to school and I passed the test and I became a gentleman and I will tell the shipyard was closed and we

did make more money. It wasn't that much as it is now but they didn't make no money Should be just over I think I had over $300 in the bank and that was pretty good. And well I had two boys then and I wanted to make

more money to send my boys to college and I did they all have a good college education and good jobs. And I've been here over 60 years. My cousin lived in marin city was a welder in sausalito marin shipyard. She wrote that we should come here

and work. So I came out on the train. They only had two coaches for black people. And I rode in the aisle on my suitcase. I sat on my suitcase the distance from three California. So I started making a dollar 20 an hour where I had

made a little more perhaps than a dollar 20 a week entry. Things was really looking up for me. It seems like we all live alike. Yeah we were living in the same place and some of the same houses and it seems like people just seem like

people as people