Hurley Development Chief Steward Ryan Hurley needs a history lesson.
A recent Columbian front page article on Navalia apartments, located at 1600 Washington St., has Hurley saying that the apartment building resembles a ship. “It’s an homage to the Kaiser Shipyards workers who came to Vancouver during World War II to build battleships” (“Navalia Apartments to offer ‘safe harbor’ in Uptown Village,” The Columbian, May 24).
Since my father was one of those shipyard workers, I appreciate any acknowledgement of their work. However, unless Mr. Hurley is using a very broad brush and classifying any ship, civilian or navy that was used during World War II as a “battleship,” he needs to do some basic research.
A quick search of the online Oregon Historical Society’s Oregon Encyclopedia confirms that there were no battleships built in Vancouver, nor at the two shipyards in Portland.
“The Vancouver Shipyard’s output included 16 Liberty ships, 31 Victory ships, 49 escort carriers, 21 troop transport ships, and 30 LST landing ships.”
