Henry J. Kaiser was born in 1882 in Spout Brook N.Y. When he was 13 he
left school to go work on cars. When he switched to ships he developed his
own method which was using an assembly line instead of the regular way of
making ships. Henry J. Kaiser was a contractor, and he made troop transports
and aircraft
carriers, called baby flat-tops.
Henry Kaiser opened the shipyard on the Columbia River in Vancouver. They
needed seasoned lumber, wooden vessels, and working men. As many as 38,000
employees produced more than 140 ships. After the war ended 50 years ago,
the shipyards closed. Wooden walls are still used to construct ships today.
He started the Kaiser
Permanente Health Care program for his workers. The
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation also has a World Wide Web page.
How Boats Float