Rockport Shipyards at War: From WWI Cargo Ships to WWII Submarine Chasers

There is a Texas Maritime Museum in Rockport holding flags from two U.S. Navy submarine chasers — built right here, launched into Aransas Bay on July 4, 1941, five months before Pearl Harbor. It wasn't the town's first warship, either. In 1917, two lumbermen from Beeville with no shipbuilding experience landed a federal contract, and Rockport donated 13 acres of waterfront to make it happen. Over 900 workers descended on a town with nowhere to put them — the First National Bank converted its upper floor into worker lodging. The first completed ship was named by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson herself. Five days after the second one launched, the hurricane that killed 300+ people in the area hit the yard directly. Down the coast in Port Aransas, a concrete-hulled ship launched in 1920, rolled "like a barrel," made exactly one voyage to Mexico, and now lies in pieces near the North Jetty. By WWII, a second Rockport shipyard was back at it — 24 submarine chasers in four years. The Texas Maritime Museum's new exhibit, opening September 5, 2026, puts both wars in the same room for the first time.

Published August 27, 2026