Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation was located at a bend of narrow Big Bayou Canot on the eastern outskirts of Chickasaw, Alabama, a northern suburb of Mobile.
   Here in 1917, U.S. Steel established Chickasaw Shipbuilding. The yard closed after World War I but was reopened in 1940 by Waterman Steamship Lines as Gulf Shipbuilding. It was one of eleven builders the Navy chose to produce 2100-ton Fletcher-class destroyers, and received $5 million for this purpose. It laid down four high-bridge ships in 1941 and three low-bridge ships the following year, delivering all seven in 1943–44. Delivery photos of these ships were taken in Mobile Bay, which they entered from the north via the Mobile River.
   In 1942, the company opened a second yard at Madisonville on the north shore of Louisiana’s Lake Ponchartrain, which built minelayers. Neither yard remains active.