By James Heinz
What started as a company specializing in masonry jobs, including making concrete sidewalks for the city of Milwaukee, became a shipbuilder during World War II.
The company was Froemming Brothers, founded in 1919 by Ben Froemming and his brothers Walter and Herbert. Bernard Arthur Froemming started the firm when he was 18 years old, according to the Milwaukee War Memorial Center website. By the early 1940s, the company had developed into an engineering construction company building roads in Texas, bridges in Pennsylvania and Mississippi, an airport for the Panama Canal project, and tunnels in the Midwest.
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In 1941, an appeal from Milwaukee Mayor Carl Zeidler to bring shipbuilding back to the city prompted Ben to take the challenge. Even though they had no shipbuilding history, the Froemming brothers bid for contracts worth millions of dollars from the U.S. Maritime Commission.
The Milwaukee War Memorial Center reports that the Froemming firm acquired twelve acres along the kinnickinnic River, just north of Beecher and First Streets. Within sixty days, the new shipyard was ready for operation.
Froemming Brothers’ first order was for eight seagoing tug boats, with a class designation of V4-M-A1. The first vessel was launched July 21, 1942, and the others were completed by 1943.
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At the time, the V4-M-A1 class was the largest and most powerful tug in the world, per Wikipedia. Each vessel was 195 feet long, with a 37.5 foot beam, a draft of 15.5 feet, and displaced 1,613 gross tons. The steel hulled tugs had a maximum speed of 14 knots, propelled by engines manufactured by two companies. National Supply Company made 8-cylinder, 3,200 brake horsepower engines; Enterprise Engine & Trading Company made 6-cylinder, 2,340 brake horsepower engines.
The tugs were named after lighthouses built in 1943: Point Loma, Anacapa, Point Vincente, Point Arguello, Sankaty Head, Yaquina Head, Bald Island, and Fire Island. Sankaty Head helped with the Normandy landings, according to Ship Building History. The Sankaty Head was part of the Normandy landings in June 1944, notes the US Merchant Marine website that has recorded the names of American merchant marine vessels involved in the invasion.
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While Froemming was building the tugs, it secured a contract to build four Tacoma class anti-submarine frigates, Wikipedia states. Completed in 1943 and 1944, the ships were named Allentown, Bath, Machias and Sandusky. Their specifications: displacement, 1,430 tons; length, 304 feet; armament, three 3-inch guns, four 40-mm anti-aircraft guns, and four depth charge throwers.
The United States loaned the frigates to the Soviet Navy in 1945. They were returned to the US four years later.
The War Memorial Center reports that Froemming won one more contract during the war for fourteen cargo ships in the Alamosa class. Shipscribe states that some of the ships were cancelled or completed under other authorities. Designed by the Maritime Administration, the ships were intended for rapid construction. Each ship was 339 feet long with a 50-foot beam. They were powered by a single diesel, 1,750 horsepower engine made by the Nordberg Manufacturing Company of Milwaukee. The last ship in this batch was launched Nov. 1, 1945. They were named after United States counties that started with the letter C –– the Claiborne, Chicot, Clarion, Chatham, Codington, Charlevoix, Craighead, and Colquitt. Most of these cargo ships saw only brief service before the war ended on Sept. 2, 1945.
The Froemming-built ships, like some others made on the Great Lakes, were sailed to Chicago, where they were partially dismantled to allow them to pass under bridges. They were then carried on floating drydocks through a system of waterways to the Mississippi River, and from there to New Orleans where they were accepted by the Navy, Shipscribe reports.
World War II submarines built by a forerunner of Fincantieri Marinette Marine at Manitowoc, Wis., were transported on floating drydocks to the Mississippi River and then to New Orleans.
The Milwaukee Public Library’s Remember When digital collection recalls that the Foremming Brothers’ shipyard employed 2,400 people, around the clock, at the peak of its operations. Ben died in 1945. The last ship he built, in October 1945, was christened the Ben Froemming.
Sources
Milwaukee’s War Memorial Center
American Merchant Marine at War
Home page and story page photo:
Launch of the USS CLAIBORNE, a cargo ship, manufactured by Froemming Brothers, Inc., Milwaukee, Wis.
Credit: Milwaukee Public Library
See more photos of vessels manufactured by Froemming Brothers:
Credit: Wikipedia
Credit: Wikipedia
Credit: Wikipedia
James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
