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U.S. Navy. Via ibiblio.org
Port Hueneme (119.209W
34.153N) is located in southern California northwest of Los Angeles. The town was founded
as Hueneme in 1872 but changed its name to Port Hueneme when
construction of the port commenced
1939. The port was opened on 7 July 1940 and remains the only deep
water port between Los Angeles
and San Francisco. The port
location took advantage of the presence of the underwater Hueneme
Canyon, which brought a natural deep channel within 300 feet of the
shore; an underground river that reaches the coast at this point and
would help keep the channel clear of silt; and the offshore Channel
Islands, which provided a natural breakwater.
The Navy took over the port on 5 March 1942 as an Advanced Base Depot to supplement the depot at Oakland,
which was inadequate for the projected need. The location of the port,
away from the major shipping ports, was also considered
advantageous. It was
rapidly expanded to an area of 600 acres (447 hectares) with six docks
with a capacity for nine ships and ramps for loading LSTs. The port had warehouse space of 719,000 square feet (66,800 m2) and another 19,000,000 square feet (1,800,000 m2) of open storage space.
The Seabees established their main West
Coast depot nearby, and there was also an amphibious landing training school. The harbor was
handling 150,000 tons of cargo per month when the war ended, having peaked at 225,000 tons in June 1945.
References
Building the Navy's Bases in World War II (1947; accessed 2012-6-16)
City of
Port Hueneme (accessed 2009-6-20)
History of
the Port of Hueneme (accessed 2009-6-20)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2009, 2012 by Kent G. Budge. Index
