Fred. J. Hoertz, Your work means victory: Build another one, 1917, United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation

On April 5, 1919, the steel-hulled freighter Worcester was launched in Groton. The freighter was built at the Groton Iron Works in support of the war effort for the Emergency Fleet Corporation of the United States Shipping Board. Groton Iron Works, formed in 1917, had a main yard on the Thames River in Groton and a second yard on the site of the former Palmer shipyard in Noank.