This week the Sausalito Working Waterfront Coalition designed a series of posters to honor the Marinship's role for this Memorial Day Weekend. The coalition partnered with the Sausalito Historical Society, Lion's Club, Sausalito Foundation and Marin City Performing Stars to construct and erect the posters along Bridgeway adjacent to the Marinship. The posters were printed at Joanne's Print Shop.
The Marinship played an important role during World War II. Only three months after construction of the yard was started, the first ship keel was laid for the Liberty Ship William A. Richardson in June 1942. In all, 93 cargo ships and oil tankers were built at the yard. Historians believe the Marinship is the most intact remnant of the dozens of wartime shipyards.
Marinship has a legacy of creating innovative fabrication techniques that allowed ship production to exceed expectations. That tradition has continued to this day. The first hybrid ferry in the Bay Area, the Hornblower Alcatraz Ferry was retrofitted in the Marinship. More than 20 patents have come out of the Marinship from our active industrial sector in recent years.
Let's also not forget that in 1944, in the case of James v Marinship, the California Supreme Court held that African Americans could not be excluded from jobs based on race, even if the employer took no discriminatory action.
Now we will see if our City Council is willing to relegate this part of our history to museum display cases and put it on a path to gentrification that will change Sausalito forever. If they are, Sausalito will never forget.
