“When the Navy Yard whistle blows:” Remembering Day's End at the Philadelphia Shipyard
“The old story is that when the Navy yard whistle blows, a lot of those houses in South Philadelphia used to shake, because of what was in them. Whatever that was in there, belonged to the Navy yard.”
Found history: Interview with Edwin Kendrick about working in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard 1939-1980
Edwin Kendrick began working at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard as an apprentice right after high school, in August of 1939. He finished his apprenticeship in 1942 and worked as a mechanic helping to build ships, before he was eventually drafted into the Army. Once the war ended Kendrick went to school and returned to the shipyard where he worked until 1980. In this interview from 1999, he remembers the end of the workday at the shipyard during World War II, when production peaked and more than 40,000 people worked there:
“When they'd blow the whistle, if you're standing beside a ship that's under construction, let's say, right before quitting time, there's not a noise. Everybody stopped.
While there's construction, there's riveters, and burners and everything, a whole lot of noise. But then when it gets near 4:30, very quiet. And you don't see a thing. I remember the officers used to stand on the gangways, watching. Because they didn't want anybody leave before 4:30.
But once that whistle blew, boy those officers had to get out of the way because they come down that gangway. Like I say, I broke thermos bottles coming down the ropes and the ladders.
And then the problem is to get in and out. In those days there were automobiles. It's quitting time you go out the gate. And if you are starting towards the Broad Street gate you go slow but you go right out. If there's a stop, the question would be, Why are we not moving? There's a long line.
Well, the word comes back, they're searching the cars. A lot of people used to take stuff out, whatever they can. So everybody that had anything in the car would just get rid of it on the side. And what they used to do then, the Marines, they'd take a truck around and pick up all the stuff that was in their cars and put it back where it had to be.
The old story is that when the Navy yard whistle blows, a lot of those houses in South Philadelphia used to shake, because of what was in them. Whatever that was in there, belonged to the Navy yard.”
Found: An interview with Edwin Kendrick conducted by Charles Hardy III, March 8, 1999, accessed at: http://explorepahistory.com/odocument.php?docId=1-4-191
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard August 2020.
