01/02/08

HINGHAM - Ian Menzies was an executive officer in the British Royal Navy when he first came to Hingham in 1943. He was preparing to take over what would become the destroyer escort HMS Stayner, then under construction at the Hingham Shipyard as part of the 1941 Lend-Lease Act that provided Britain with American-built warships.

Along with the captain of the ship, Menzies spent three months in town, getting to know the ship and the shipyard.

‘‘The work was happening 24 hours a day. It was always lit up, and it was sort of an amazing center of excitement and vitality,’’ said Menzies, now a retired Boston Globe editor and Patriot Ledger columnist. ‘‘Normally a shipyard built a couple of ships at a time, not 16. You could feel the pulse of the shipyard.’’

As the shipyard property moves closer to becoming an upscale seaside center of homes, restaurants and shops, residents who once worked there are recalling its years as one of the most productive wartime shipbuilders in the country.

They are pleased that developers plan to recognize its history, and are happy that new development at the site will commemorate the history and accomplishments of those who worked there.

An updated version of development plans filed with the town this past week indicates that informational placards about the shipyard and its workers will be installed, as well as a monument. The seaside community will be called The Launch.

‘‘If they had a little museum I would donate my uniform,’’ said Menzies, who met his wife while in Hingham and later returned to the town to live. He said it would be good for young people to learn what went on at the shipyard. ‘‘It’s hard to realize 16 boats in line, and the main building, which was four football fields in length.’’

The shipyard employed 23,000 men and women during World War II. The workers build 227 ships in only three years and set a record in 1944 for building a destroyer in less than a month.

A landing ship tank (LST) goes down the ways sideways at the Hingham Shipyard in October 1944. Hingham was one of the most productive U.S. shipyards in World War II; employing 23,000 men and women, it built 227 ships in three years. (File photo)

 ‘‘People came on the train from all over to work at the yard. At first, production was slow, but when they really got into the swing of things, they sometimes launched two ships a day,’’ said Ann Collins, who was married to the late William Collins Jr., the son of the Fore River Shipyard general manager, William H. Collins Sr.

Stan Hersey was just 16 and in high school when he worked for a catering company that brought food and drinks around to the workers in the yard. When he turned 17, he went to the Bethlehem Steel office at the yard and signed up to be a ship fitter’s assistant.

‘‘Everyone was working, and the war effort was unbelievable,’’ said Hersey, a lifelong resident of Hingham. ‘‘President Roosevelt would rev us up with his Fireside Chats and everyone was involved.’’

After a year in that position, Hersey joined the Navy, where he served in the European Theater.

‘‘It was a great achievement for those who worked there,’’ Hersey said. ‘‘Everyone had to do their part for the war, and that was mine. We were proud.’’

Hingham life revolved around the shipyard then.

Collins, a member of the first class of the Navy WAVES until she married, said most Hingham residents were connected to the shipyard in some way.

Her husband, a Navy man, served aboard the destroyer escort USS Bates, built under his father’s management at the Hingham shipyard. After the Bates was sunk by kamikazes in the Pacific, Collins returned and worked at the Hingham Shipyard, the Fall River Shipyard and the East Boston Repair Yard, and eventually became the general manager of the Sparrow’s Point Shipyard in Baltimore.

The Hingham shipyard played a large role in Menzies’ life as well.

He met his wife, the late Barbara Newton Menzies, at one of the parties thrown after the launching of a ship. They were married at Hingham’s Old Ship Church in 1945 and lived in Scotland for a year before moving back to her hometown of Hingham.

Many items were saved from the original shipyard, some of which, including an eagle statue made by workers from scrap steel, are being stored.

‘‘Once it’s gone, it’s gone, and if we don’t have a museum or something there will be nothing to show future generations that there was shipyard,’’ Stan Hersey said. ‘‘I’m hoping to see a beautiful place to go, that would greatly benefit the town.’’