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BUZZ WITH SHIPBUILD- ING in the 1940s, the Port of Duluth- Superior's seven shipyards churned out nearly 200 steel vessels during World War II. This total ranked in the upper echelon of United States production hubs during an era of unmatched American shipbuild- ing dominance. Federal appropriations fueled the surge, injecting $350 million into the U.S. Maritime Commission's Emer- gency Shipbuilding Program. This rap- idly mobilized the industry nationwide, leading to the production of nearly 6,000 vessels by August 1945. One of those ships—the Magnus Hitch—slid from Superior's Globe Ship- building dock 80 years ago this month and nine days before Japan's formal sur- render. News accounts deemed her "the first 'peace ship' launched on the Great Lakes since Pearl Harbor." She was also the last ocean freighter ever built in the Port of Duluth-Superior. MAKING A SPLASH One of 29 steel-hull vessels constructed at the foot of Hill Avenue between 1940-1945, the diesel-powered Magnus Hitch was 338 feet in length and 50 feet wide—a C1-M-AV1 oceangoing cargo ship of the largest size built at the Globe yard during wartime. She was the last of 11 such ships constructed there, the final three named after sailors' knots: Bight Knot, Ocean Plait and Magnus Hitch. According to the Duluth News Tribune, the fourth of Globe's C1-M-AV1 ships— the Pembina—set a national record for rapid construction, needing only 158 days from keel-laying to delivery. That vessel launched in October 1944, when Globe reached its peak employment level of women (229) and remained near its overall staffing high of 2,200. Ten months later, when Magnus Hitch splashed into Superior Bay on Aug. 24, 1945, Globe's total headcount hovered around 1,500. Voyta Wrabetz, chairman of the Wisconsin Industrial Commission, offered remarks at the ceremony, joined by Milwaukee banker and art aficionado Eliot Grant Fitch, a World War I veteran and Yale University graduate whose 20-year-old daughter, Janet, christened Magnus Hitch as its sponsor. She would later graduate summa cum laude from the University of Wisconsin, become a doctor of oriental medicine, and dabble in art herself, according to her 2018 obituary. William C. Olson, assistant general manager of the Globe Shipbuilding Com- pany, oversaw the christening as master of ceremonies. The mood, like Magnus Hitch, was buoyant. But amidst the promise of peace and a glistening new ship lurked growing apprehension. Wartime contracts were Globe's life- blood. Without them, the order book looked bleak. Clarence Skamser, company president, offered his reduced workforce only a promise from maritime officials that if any Great Lakes shipyard would get more contracts, it would be the Globe yard. He returned emptyhanded from a prospecting mission to Cleveland and Washington, D.C., telling the Duluth News Tribune of fruitless talks with mil- itary officers, lend-lease administrators, private businesses—even foreign gov- ernment representatives. The last ship–or just a long pause? 1945 | By Jayson Hron SEASONS OF YORE 6 | NORTH STAR PORT | SUMMER 2025 A PHOTOS / University of Wisconsin-Superior/Jim Dan Hill Library Special Collections and Archives