Long Beach Naval Shipyard

The Long Beach Naval Shipyard, which closed in 1997, was located on Terminal Island between the city of Long Beach and the San Pedro district of Los Angeles, approximately 23 miles south of the Los Angeles International Airport. The primary role of NSY Long Beach at the time of its closure was overhaul and maintenance of conventionally-powered US Navy surface ships, but it also had served as the homeport for several auxiliary ships during its operating history.LBNSY descriptionThe Long Beach NSY industrial area encompassed of the total owned. There were 120 permanent, 39 semi-permanent, and 6 temporary buildings, for a total of 165 buildings. There were 17 different shop work areas and of covered building space. The shipyard had three graving docks, and five industrial piers. There were 12307ft (measured linearly) of ship berthing space. Crane capacity ranged from to (portal) and from to (floating).One of the large cranes at Long Beach NSY, YD-171, was nicknamed "Herman the German" based on its origin as a floating crane for the Kriegsmarine (one of four ships in the class). It is a large self-propelled crane standing tall with a lifting capacity of, and was claimed to be the largest floating crane in operation as of 1957. "Herman the German" was seized as a war prize following the end of World War II. "Herman" was dismantled and transported across the Atlantic through the Panama Canal to Long Beach, where it subsequently served at the Long Beach NSY from 1946 (following its reassembly) to 1996. While serving at Long Beach, it participated in the refurbishment of the battleships USS Missouri and New Jersey in the 1980s and lifted the Hughes H-4 ("Spruce Goose") from its original hangar in Long Beach when it was relocated to its geodesic dome from 1980 to 1982 for tourist display by the Wrather Corporation. Following the closure of the shipyard, the crane was sold to the Panama Canal Commission and was transported on the semi-submersible ship "Sea Swan" (IMO 8001000) to the Panama Canal Zone, where it currently serves as the floating crane "Titan".