Weaver Shipbuilding

Weaver stayed with wood for the war. Wikipedia, drawing on NavSource hull data, lists 24 YMS minesweepers from the yard, among them YMS 66 through 72 and YMS 247 through 258, and two wooden submarine chasers, SC 666 and SC 667. YMS 255 sank after a mine strike near Boulogne in 1944. After the war the yard built small wood and steel shrimp boats among 17 postwar vessels listed from 1949 to 1981, including the research vessel Sea Raven in 1956 and the pilot boat Houston Pilot No. 3 in 1970. It sold the shipyard operations in 1975.

What the plaque says

Weaver Shipbuilding Joe Weaver established Joseph Weaver and Son Shipyard in Orange in 1897. George Levingston, later founder of Levingston Shipbuilding Company, acquired an interest in Weaver and Son in 1898, and the company built barges for the Galveston Navigation District. Levingston later sold his interest in the company to Joe Weaver's son, L.E. "Ed" Weaver. Joseph Weaver and Son built barges, steam tugboats, and performed repair work. Although World War I brought a slight increase in production to Weaver and Son and the entire Orange shipbuilding industry, production slowed again after the war. The death of Joseph Weaver in 1930 signaled the beginning of a new partnership between L.E. Weaver and his son, L.A. Weaver. Upon L.E. Weaver's death in 1941, the company's name was changed to Weaver Shipyards when other family members joined the partnership.World War II again increased production at the Weaver yard, when contracts to construct wooden mine sweepers and sub chasers were awarded in 1941 and 1942. The wooden vessels did not attract the magnetic mines used by the Germans, and were designed to patrol the waters adjacent to their home bases. The first minsweeper, YMS 66, was launched on January 31, 1942.After the frenzied activity of Wolrd War II, Weaver Shipyards continued to build small vessels including wood and steel shrimp boats and also carried on with its ship repair work. The Weaver family sold the company in 1975, but regained control in the late 1980s. The Weaver Shipyards site continues to be owned by the Weaver family and remains invloved in maritime work through lease agreements. (2008)

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

• United States Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility — steps away
• Riverside Addition: World War II Housing in Orange — steps away
• U. S. S. Aulick — steps away
• Levingston Shipbuilding Company and Edward T. Malloy — steps away