strength of the nation's Navy. This brought an expansion of business to the yard, with 17,000 employees working in December 1941 and 32,000 in 1943, including 1,200 women. Payroll reached $ (equivalent to $ in today's dollars) around this time, and contracts amounted to around $ (equivalent to $ in today's dollars). The speed of construction at the yard increased, as the keel of was laid immediately after was launched. The speed of the construction ran in line with the building of more ships. was cut up and relocated three times in order to accommodate the construction of other ships. Much like World War I, the yard expanded, and built the Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard in order to accommodate the increased construction demands. Sixteen ways were constructed on over , and 227 ships were produced with 23,500 workers. The yard produced in fourteen and a half months, and in a record of sixteen and a half months. The yard built ninety-two vessels of eleven classes during the war, and earned the Army-Navy "E" Award for excellence of construction of vessels, which was awarded on 15 May 1942, with four stars being added during the course of the war. Additionally, the yard produced , which was renamed from USS Cabot after the sinking of when yard workers petitioned for a renaming of the ship. During the war, the yard was possibly the origin of the popular expression "Kilroy was here." Although it was not known originally where the phrase came from, the American Transit Association ran a contest trying to find the origin of the phrase in 1946. Welding inspector James J. Kilroy ended up sending his account in, and was deemed the winner. In an attempt to make sure that riveters would be prevented from defrauding the shipyard of their accurate workload, he scrawled the phrase in chalk on the ships that he was inspecting. Ships that the phrase was printed on included , USS Lexington, and various troop carriers. While the shipyard was at its peak of operations during the war, it was not uncommon for German U boats to stalk ships leaving the yard and engage them once offshore. Post-war After the war, the yard was faced with new opportunities. As the war greatly expanded the yard, the yard now had extra space. Thus, the Hingham yard was closed, and the yard diversified its interests. The yard constructed a