U. S. S. Aulick

The Navy's own history of Aulick picks up where the launch ends. DD-569 was commissioned on October 27, 1942, and sailed for operations at the Russell Islands, Guam, Palau, Leyte and Mindanao, then picket and lifeguard duty off Okinawa from May to September 1945. On November 29, 1944, six Japanese planes attacked at the east entrance to Leyte Gulf. One struck the bridge area, and the attack killed 31 men and wounded 64. The ship earned five battle stars for World War II service and was decommissioned on April 18, 1946. Mrs. Thaddeus A. Thomson sponsored her launching.

What the plaque says

U. S. S. Aulick On September 9, 1940, a federal contract worth $82 million was issued to the Consolidated Steel Company to construct 12 Fletcher class naval destroyers here in Orange, Texas. This and other contracts coupled with the subsequent building of major shipyard facilities along the city's riverfront lifted the city out of a prolonged and deep economic decline which began in the early 1930s with the closing of area sawmills. The community celebrated the laying of the keels of the U. S. S. Aulick and U. S. S. Charles Ausburne on May 14, 1941. The Aulick became the first naval destroyer to be built in Texas and on Texas Independence Day, March 2, 1942, it was christened and launched amid a crowd of 6,000 people. The Aulick represented the second U. S. Naval warship to be named after War of 1812 Navy veteran John H. Aulick (1787-1861). by 1946 all 12 destroyers and over four hundred other ships had been completed here at a cost of over $876 million. Orange's well-developed shipyards encouraged major companies to build plants along the riverfront. Several petrochemical and industrial concerns followed suit in the 1950s and 1960s. Wartime shipyards operated by Consolidated, Levingston, and Weaver converted to peacetime activities. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stark Museum of Art — 0.6 mi
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 1.5 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 20 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 22 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• Levingston Shipbuilding Company and Edward T. Malloy — steps away
• Riverside Addition: World War II Housing in Orange — steps away
• Office of the Supervisor of Shipbuilding and Consolidated Steel Corporation — steps away
• Weaver Shipbuilding — steps away