Sausalito holiday parade to showcase Liberty Ship replica

A makerspace in Sausalito will bring a 18-foot replica of a World War II Liberty Ship to the city’s Fourth of July parade.

Felecia Gaston, founder of the Marin City nonprofit Performing Stars, said the project was conceived to complement Marin City’s 80th anniversary celebration this year.

Gaston said she hopes the ship will represent the historical connection between Sausalito and Marin City dating back to the World War II era.

“It’s another level of pride for us,” she said. “It is something that elevates our community. It highlights the history of Marin City and Marinship, especially of the Black workers.”

The Marinship yard in Sausalito was a hub of ship construction during World War II, drawing in tens of thousands of workers from the Midwest and South.

After the war, redlining restricted Black former shipyard workers from residing in nearby Sausalito or Mill Valley. Many Black workers instead resided in Marin City.

The unincorporated community developed into the county’s most predominantly minority area, beset with segregation, poverty and social inequities in the decades since.

Gaston said the Black experience at Marinship during World War II was patriotic and she hopes the Liberty Ship float represents that.

A half-dozen Marin City youths will ride on the float during the parade, and it will be accompanied by marchers, baton twirlers and a theater troupe dressed as Marinship workers.

“This is about promoting pride and character and self esteem and discipline,” she said. “It took all of that to be a shipyard worker. We’re highlighting the positive at all times and sharing the Black experience.”

Alec Shaw, manager at the nonprofit makerspace Marin Made, said he considers himself to be something of a history buff. He said he hopes to capture the authenticity of the ship construction to inspire local youths about education and craftsmanship.

“I have a huge appetite for anything community-minded,” he said. “Whenever I do something like this I get back tenfold in happiness to people.”

Shaw said he first came into contact with Gaston about three years ago when a group of Marin City youths visited the space to learn about welding.

“Since then that kind of put me on her radar for availability of different projects,” he said. “We’re here basically at the pleasure of the community to facilitate things that people need.”

The developers first designed and constructed a scaled-down model of the ship before setting out to make the larger float.

Shaw used a water jet cutter, a tool that uses highly pressurized water, to cut through materials to construct the various pieces of the ship. He said he conceived of the ship in pieces and developed them separately before binding them together as a completed vessel.

The full-scale model is 14 feet long, 6 feet wide and 5 feet tall, and it sits on a trailer 3 feet off the ground. It is constructed out of half-inch steel and three-quarter-inch plywood.

Shaw sees his role in the project as a civic duty. He said he was happy to contribute his time and energy to an effort that would inspire and educate local youths.

“I think Marinship is a really, really cool place. It’s like a little time capsule over there,” he said.

Shaw will follow alongside the ship during the parade to monitor how it appears to the public.

“If I was a kid and I saw this thing coming down the street I would think that I would want to be on it because it’s not every day that you see a ship model going down the street,” he said. “It’s just a fun way to celebrate a fun holiday.”

The ship will be disassembled, stored and reused for other exhibitions throughout the year, including at exhibitions scheduled for later this summer.

Sausalito’s Fourth of July parade begins at 10 a.m. Monday. The event, the first to feature a parade and fireworks since 2019, will include bands, classic cars, local officials and organizations.

The parade route begins at the intersection of Second and Main streets and travels to Bridgeway and Caledonia Street. A judging tent will be at the corner of Caledonia and Litho streets.

The parade will be followed by a community picnic in Dunphy Park and a fireworks show at Gabrielson Park.