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Sausalito — The checkable facts
Quick answer
Sausalito sits across the Golden Gate from San Francisco and looks like it was always a yacht town. It was not. Bechtel built the Marinship yard on its mudflats in 1942; 20,000 workers launched 93 ships in three and a half years. A discrimination case from that yard, James v. Marinship, reached the California Supreme Court in 1944.
| Claim | Source |
|---|---|
| Marinship was founded in 1942 and ended operations in 1945 | Wikipedia — Marinship |
| At its peak 20,000 workers were employed at Marinship | Wikipedia — Marinship |
| In three and a half years it launched 15 Liberty ships, 16 fleet oilers and 62 tankers — 93 ships | Wikipedia — Marinship |
| In 1944 James v. Marinship held that African Americans could not be excluded from jobs by race | Wikipedia — Marinship |
| Thurgood Marshall argued the case successfully | Wikipedia — Marinship |
Frequently asked
What was Marinship?
An emergency wartime shipyard built by Bechtel on the Sausalito mudflats in 1942. At its peak 20,000 people worked there, in a town of a few thousand, running shifts around the clock. In three and a half years it launched 93 ships and then was dismantled almost as quickly as it had gone up.
What was James v. Marinship?
A 1944 California Supreme Court case brought by Joseph James, a Marinship worker. The Boilermakers local operating a closed shop admitted Black workers only to a segregated auxiliary with no real standing. Thurgood Marshall argued it, and the court held that a union with a closed shop cannot exclude people by race.
How many ships did Marinship build?
93 in three and a half years: 15 Liberty ships, 16 fleet oilers and 62 tankers. Build times collapsed over the run — the first took months, the last were coming off in a matter of weeks — which is the whole story of American wartime production in one shipyard.
Can you see the Sausalito houseboats?
Yes, but not from the tourist waterfront. The floating homes are north of the centre, off Bridgeway, and Issaquah Dock is the usual way in. About 400 remain. Walk out along the dock and you are in a neighbourhood with no streets, built after the war on abandoned barges, tugs and ferry hulls.
Why are there houseboats in Sausalito at all?
Because Marinship left the shallows of Richardson Bay full of scrap: barges, tugs, ferry hulls, lumber. People with no money and considerable ingenuity built on top of them. By the 1960s it was a bohemian colony — Jean Varda lived on a converted ferryboat, Alan Watts on another — and the 1970s evictions are still called the houseboat wars.
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