The first USN ship to enter SF Bay was a Sloop-of-War, the USS Vincennes on August 14, 1841. She was part of the Wilkes Expedition.

First USN Establishment in SF Bay was Mare Island Naval Shipyard. A floating sectional dry dock ordered on June 1851 costing $610,000. It was built in New York and then shipped around Cape Horn. On January 4, 1853, 1500 acres were purchased on Mare Island for $83, 491. The dry dock lifted its first ship, the USS Warren on September 20, 1853.

Mare Island was the only dry dock and repair facility in all the Pacific until 1868.

Mare Island launched its first ship, the USS Saginaw, on March 3^rd 1859.

Union Iron constructs the first steel ship, the second USN ship built on the west coast when, in 1862, the yard re-assembles a Monitor, the USS Camanche, originally built in Jersey City, New Jersey.

In the pre WWI time frame competition in the SF Bay area for ship construction and repair was heavy. Union Iron in SF received most of the steel ship construction and California Dry Dock (aka Hunter’s Point) and other local yards did commercial work that used to go to Mare Island Naval Shipyard.

The Navy provides essential help during the 1906 earthquake, the Great White Fleet arrives in 1907 and Ely lands and takes off of the USS Pennsylvania while anchored in SF Bay.

Bethlehem Steel by 1907 purchases the assets of Union Iron, Risdon Iron and Hunter’s Point forcing Moore Dry Dock to move to Oakland.

WWI saw an increase of shipbuilding at both Mare Island and Union. Union built the first submarines on the West Coast, starting in 1902. Mare Island builds it first and only Battleship, the California, launched on 20 November, 1919.

The period between WWI and WWII is very slow for shipbuilding. Mare Island launches its first Submarine, the V-6 (Nautilus), two Cruisers, the San Francisco and Chicago in the 1930s.

NAS Sunnyvale (Mountain View) (Moffett) was commissioned on 12 April 1933. It was given to the Army after the Macon crashed. The Navy took it back on 16 April 1942. During WWII Moffett was used mainly for anti-submarine patrol using type K and L Blimps.

NAS Alameda was commissioned on 1 November 1940. During WWII it was mainly used for airframe assembly and repair (A&R).

Treasure Island was purchased by the Navy from the City of San Francisco on 28 February 1941. Hunter’s Point was purchased from Bethlehem on 18 December 1941.

The Naval Magazine, Port Chicago was established on 27 January 1942 and the inland area established on 20 January 1944. On 17 July 1944, a massive explosion killed over 300 men and destroyed the load out pier and two ships.

The Tiburon Net Depot was established at the site of a former coaling station .

A massive Naval Construction Replenishment Depot is established inland and is comprised of Camp Parks and Camp Shoemaker. Known as "Fleet City" it can house 80 Construction Battalions.

The Oakland Naval Supply Depot was opened in December 1941

The Navy acquired existing facilities to use as Hospitals at Yosemite, Oakland and Santa Cruz and built new Hospitals in San Leandro and Shoemaker.

Preflight schools are established at St. Mary’s College in Maraga and at the Del Mar Resort in Monterey. The Del Mar property eventually becomes the Naval Post Graduate School.

The ROTC is vastly expanded at UC, Berkeley

World War II shipbuilding expands to create the largest shipbuilding complex ever seen in the world

California-An Interpretive History. Walton Bean, McGraw Hill 1973

A Long Line of Ships, Arnold S. Lott, USNI, 1954

The Naval History of Treasure Island, Cruise Book, 1946

Various issues of the "Drydocker" an employees newspaper published by the yard

Various Newpaper and Magazine Articles

Marine Engineering and Shipping Review, November 1949

US Naval Academy Alumni Association Magazine the Shipmate, July-August 1978

Redwood City Tribune, August 30, 1997

Pacific Marine Review, October 1949

The Story of the Moore Dry Dock Company, Windgate Press, Sausalito, CA

Unpublished history on NAS & NEDEP Alameda, Prepared by LCDR B.L. Allbrandt, NR NADEP 0187, May 1996

Internet sites

http://www.moffettfieldmuseum.org/history/index.html

http://www.history.navy.mil/download/lta-06.pdf

Internet site

http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/index.htm

Swing Shift-Building the Liberty Ships, Joseph Fabry

The Liberty Ships-History of the "Emergency" Type Cargo ships, Sawyer and Mitchell

Internet site

http://www.coltoncompany.com/

World War II and the West-Reshaping the Economy, Gerald D Nash, U of Nebraska Press, 1990

The Navy and the Industrial Mobilization in World War II, Robert H. Connery, Princeton, 1951

Administration of the Navy Department in World War II, Furer, Washington, 1951

The National Geographic Magazine, March 1943

Catalog of United States Naval Postmarks, 5^th Edition, Dave Kent Editor, USCS, 1997

United States Numbered Military Post Offices-Assignments and Locations 1941-1994, Cosentini and Gruenzner, Military Postal History Society, 1994

Mellone’s USS Macon-Akron Photo Encyclopedia of USS Akron & Macon Event Covers, John Ullmann, FDC Publishing, 1996