Moore Dry Dock Company

Moore Dry Dock Company was a ship repair and shipbuilding company in Oakland, California.

In 1905, Robert S. Moore, his brother Joseph A. Moore, and John Thomas Scott purchased the National Iron Works located in the Hunter's Point section of San Francisco, and founded a new company, the Moore & Scott Iron Works Moore had previously been vice president of the Risdon Iron Works. Scott was a nephew of Henry T. Scott and Irving M. Scott, owners of the nearby Union Iron Works, where John had risen from apprentice to superintendent. Their new business was soon destroyed by fire resulting from the San Francisco earthquake. They quickly recovered and were back in business before the end of 1906.[1][2]

In 1909, Moore and Scott decided to move across the Bay, and so purchased the W.A. Boole and Son Shipyard in Oakland located at the foot of Adeline along the Oakland Estuary.

In 1917, Moore bought out Scott and changed he business name to Moore Shipbuilding Company. In 1922, the company was renamed again as Moore Dry Dock Company. It operated primarily as a repair yard. Its shipbuilding capabilities were expanded in the World War II era, building over 100 ships for the U.S. Navy and merchant marine.[3] Moore ranked 82nd among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.[4] With the end of the war, shipbuilding ceased, but repair operations continued. Moore Dry Dock Company finally closed in 1961.

The yard was notable for its employment of several thousand African Americans, in both skilled and unskilled positions, at a time when they confronted major racial discrimination on the job.

At the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park an inscription honoring the wartime contributions made by the Bay Area Shipyards during World War II states that "Moore Dry Dock handled the difficult jobs of production, repair and conversion that slowed overall output in other yards."

In 1950, the Moore facility was the target of a union picket when sailors were having a dispute with a ship owner whose ship was in Moore's dry dock at the time. The court battle which ensued eventually lead to the Moore Dry Dock Standards for Primary Picketing at a Secondary Site (Sailors' Union of the Pacific (Moore Dry Dock Co.), 92 NLRB 547, 27 LRRM 1108 (1950)).[5]

Moore Dry Dock Company ceased operations in 1961. Its former site, at the foot of Adeline Street, on the Oakland Estuary, is now occupied by Schnitzer Steel Industries, a large scrap metal recycling concern, based in Portland, Oregon.[6]