Todd Shipyards was founded in 1916 in Brooklyn, New York, and grew to rank 26th among U.S. corporations in the value of its World War II production contracts. It was also one of the largest independent shipbuilding companies in the United States.[1] The company had dry docks, workshops, fabrication centers, and repair facilities in New York, New Jersey, Washington State, Texas, California, and many other locations.
While Todd Shipyards had a well-deserved reputation for excellence in maritime construction, conversion, and repair, it was also a significant source of asbestos exposure during its years of operation. Workers representing a wide range of skills and professions were exposed to asbestos-containing pumps, valves, gaskets, boilers, tanks, and other equipment, as well as insulation and other parts. Thousands of them were later diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases including malignant mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, and asbestosis.
Todd Shipyards’ History
Though Todd Shipyards’ official history begins in 1916 with the establishment of the William H. Todd Corporation, the company’s success was built on the superiority of iron ships over their earlier wooden versions during the Civil War. The engines and propellors of the S. S. Monitor, the Union’s armor-hulled warship, were built by DeLameter Iron Works, a company that moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn in 1889. After several acquisitions, DeLameter hired William H. Todd to help manage its ship repair and shipbuilding operations. Todd rose to the position of president of the company as it went through several ownership and name changes, and in 1915, he and several colleagues purchased what had become Robins Dry Dock and Repair Co., the Tietjen & Lang Dry Dock Company of Hoboken, New Jersey, and Seattle Construction and Dry Dock Company in Seattle Washington. The new companies became Todd Shipyards.[1]
The newly formed corporation took advantage of the demand for ships driven by World War I, and quickly earned a reputation for excellent, fast work and high-quality ship conversions and repairs. The company was a major defense contractor, producing nearly 90 percent of the first convoy deployed during World War I, and by the end of the war, it employed 18,000 workers over five plants on the Atlantic coast and two on the Pacific Coast. Though the company’s payroll fell to just 2,000 after the war’s end, over the next two decades its business grew with contracts to build and repair ships for the U.S. Navy and civilian contractors. The company opened a tanker repair yard in Texas in 1934 and reopened its Seattle shipyard two years later to meet customer demand.[1]
Todd Shipyards played as significant a role during World War II as it had during World War I. The shipyard built 60 cargo vessels for the British Purchasing Commission while also completing contract work for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Maritime Commission. At the peak of its operations, it employed nearly 57,000 workers who built more than 1,000 ships and repaired or converted another 23,000 ships. After the war, the company took over a shipyard in San Pedro, California that would become its Los Angeles division, one of its three major locations along with Galveston, Texas, and Seattle, Washington.[1]
The 1950s and 1960s saw the company become the largest independent shipbuilder in the country, fulfilling both civilian and military contacts. By the early 1970s, the majority of its business came from the private sector, but in the 1980s the company decided to take on more work for the military, which was expanding significantly during the Reagan Administration’s defense buildup. This decision impacted the steady flow of Todd Shipyards’ civilian contracts, and eventually led to its bankruptcy filing as it was forced to scale back its operations and reduce costs when military spending waned. The company ended up having to abandon its New Orleans and Houston shipyards, and as its revenues continued to fall and it posted significant losses, it was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[1]
How Did Todd Shipyards Use Asbestos?
From post-Civil War times to the mid-1970s, Todd Shipyards made heavy use of asbestos. The strong, durable, fireproof material provided answers to multiple shipbuilding needs while being inexpensive and highly accessible. Asbestos was used in the products that were installed in ships – including boilers and their parts and mechanical insulation — as well as in the insulation of the ship’s walls, hot water pipes, incinerators, and steam pipes.
Asbestos was such a popular component of industrial and commercial parts and materials that it was found in adhesives and sealants, pipe coverings, insulation tapes, and fireproofing materials. It contaminated turbines and valves, electrical components, and pumps that were onboard the ships as well as the corrugated sheeting that shipyard buildings were made from.
Which Todd Shipyards Workers Were Exposed to Asbestos?
Whether Todd Shipyard employees were working on military vessels or ships for the private sector, asbestos was inescapable in the company’s shipyards. Whether engaged in ship construction, conversion, or repair, laborers who worked with pumps, valves, boilers, generators, tanks, and other propulsion equipment were exposed to the carcinogenic material, and so too were those who built, equipped, insulated, wired, and painted the vessels.
The list of skilled tradespeople at risk at Todd Shipyards is extensive, but those whose work led to the greatest exposure include:
- General laborers
- Painters
- Boilermakers
- Insulation installers
- Pipefitters
- Mechanics
- Electricians
- Plumbers
- Welders
- Demolition workers and shipbreakers
Shipyard workers were not warned about the dangers of asbestos exposure and were not provided with any type of protection against inhaling the fibers or carrying them into their homes. This meant that in addition to employees, the family members of those who worked at the shipyard were also vulnerable to disease after secondary exposure to asbestos dust carried home on their loved one’s skin or clothing.
Almost all of the companies that provided the asbestos and asbestos-containing products to Todd Shipyards were aware that it was a carcinogen. Because they chose to continue selling the product without warning of the risks it posed, many were required to pay millions in compensation to those diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases. Hundreds of companies were eventually forced into bankruptcy by their asbestos liabilities and were required to set up asbestos trust funds to benefit those who would be diagnosed with these illnesses in the future.
For its part, Todd Shipyards was named as a defendant in many personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits filed by victims of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases and their survivors. At one point, the company faced almost 500 individual lawsuits, most of which were resolved from cash reserves and by the shipyards’ insurers. The company was able to avoid a significant number of lawsuits based on its effective use of the federal contractor defense, arguing that it was acting on behalf of and under the orders of the U.S. government.
Todd Shipyards Asbestos Lawsuits
Most of the Todd Shipyard workers who were diagnosed with asbestos-related illnesses filed lawsuits against the manufacturers that supplied asbestos-containing materials to the company’s shipyards, though a few also named the shipyard as a defendant in their claims. The lawsuits involving Todd Shipyard asbestos exposure included:
- George Kraemer, a 79-year-old, was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma after having been exposed to asbestos from the Todd Shipyard where his father worked when he was a toddler. Mr. Kraemer grew up in Seattle, and his father worked for the Todd Shipyard there in the months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and for years after. His father had used asbestos-contaminated wrapping to insulate pipes. He carried asbestos fibers home on his clothing, and both he and Mr. Kraemer’s uncle who worked at Todd Shipyard died of asbestos-related diseases in the 1980s. Mr. Kraemer filed suit against Lone Star Industries, the company that provided insulation to the shipyard. He was awarded $10 million in compensation.
- Sidney Osmundsen sued Todd Shipyards and its insurer after having worked in the company’s Los Angeles shipyard as a boilermaker. Though the lawsuit was challenged based on a failure to give timely notice, Mr. Osmundsen eventually won his case on appeal. The amount of compensation he received was not made public but is estimated to have been approximately $3 million.
What to Do if You Were Exposed to Asbestos at Todd Shipyards
Though the majority of Todd Shipyards’ shipbuilding activity took place in the years surrounding World War II, workers continued to be exposed to asbestos at the company’s sites through the mid-1970s when the public learned of its dangers and its use was discontinued. Those involved in the demolition of asbestos-containing ships also continue to be at risk. Asbestos-related illnesses have long latency periods, and it can take decades for symptoms to appear in those who’ve been exposed. Workers who spent time at Todd Shipyards’ sites should notify their physician of their history of exposure so that their health can be monitored, and the same is true of any family members who they lived with while working there.
If you’ve been diagnosed with an asbestos-related illness like mesothelioma or asbestos-related lung cancer, you may be eligible to file a personal injury lawsuit seeking compensation from the manufacturers who supplied the shipyard. To be sure that you can exercise your rights before the statute of limitations expires, contact a mesothelioma attorney as soon after diagnosis as possible. They can provide you with all the information you need about the options available to you.
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