Shipyard Gals

In 1944, three stateside women had a job to do, but it wasn't easy.... On the run from corrupt and violent police back in El Salvador, Elena, an outspoken journalist, is desperate to find work and send money home to her family. But the 1944 California wartime shipyard is a dangerous place. Hostile male co-workers shake her friends off rope ladders, and Elena's torn welding gloves cause a serious burn. Rachel, a naïve nurse determined to prove herself at the chaotic shipyard clinic, treats her wound. Elena also makes friends with Ruby Mae, a young Black woman fresh from Baton Rouge, who is stunned to discover the Bay Area isn't the escape from racism she'd yearned for. But when a nearby US Naval base, Port Chicago, explodes, killing 200 Black sailors, Elena risks arrest and deportation if she reports the truth of the disaster and subsequent mutiny trial. Rachel can't sleep after treating the horrific injuries of the wounded sailors. Ruby Mae may be fired for calling out harassment on the job. Each woman must lean on her friends and summon the courage to speak out against injustice in this historical novel encompassing the Rosie the Riveter era and one of the worst incidents in Naval history, the Port Chicago Disaster.