Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation

Prior to the outbreak of World War I, the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, a division of U.S. Steel in Birmingham, Alabama, recognized the opportunities which the Chickasaw area provided for shipbuilding with its location and deep waterway.

[1] Federal Shipbuilding developed the shipyard with twenty million dollars from the United States Navy.

However, before closing, the Chickasaw Shipbuilding and Car Company produced and launched fourteen cargo ships.

[3] While some town occupants left for other opportunities after the shipyard closing, the remaining residents formed a tight-knit community.

Only persons with connection to the shipyard could rent houses from the company while many previous occupants were forced to vacate.

Except for the fact that Gulf Shipbuilding owned the property, nothing distinguished Chickasaw from other towns and suburbs in the vicinity of Mobile.

In addition to door-to-door visits, the religious workers would distribute literature (The Watchtower and Consolation) along sidewalks in the business district.

[12] In January 1944, the Inferior Court of Mobile County found Marsh and the other Witnesses guilty of trespassing.

The Court had decided that certain fundamental liberties (freedoms of speech, press, and religion) held a preferred position over property rights.

[1] In 1979, Halter Marine reactivated the shipbuilding facility to provide service vessels and tugboats to the booming offshore industry.