Machine workers class

Creator

Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. (Manitowoc, Wis.)

Date

• 1943

Summary

• In this picture of a 1943 Machine Workers class at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, seven men and two women of varying ages and wearing various kinds of work clothes sit at school desks studying their texts under the direction of class instructor Pete Morris. To meet the demand for skilled machinists and welders to work on the submarines being built by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, the company set up training programs through the Manitowoc, Two Rivers, and Sheboygan vocational schools. Students took 32 to 80 hours of classes at the schools, and then went on the payroll at the shipyards to finish their training. They received incentive pay increases as they successfully completed specific assignments. The company also held training classes for veteran employees who needed to learn new skills for the submarine building program. Many of those classes were held at night. In this photograph, probably taken in a training room at the shipyards, a map of the shipyards is visible on the blackboard at the back of the room, with submarine outlines shown in place in the various building berths. This photograph was originally published in the company newsletter "The Keel Block," April-May 1943. Identified left to right in the front row are instructor P. J. Morris, Caroline Wilmas, Marion Defferding, L. Sannemann, and G. Ronk. In the back row left to right are P. Werner, G. Baird, A. Kunstmann, P. Wergen, and M. Poppy.