The Todd Pacific Shipyards Company, based in Seattle, Washington, has acquired and operated a number of shipbuilding and repair facilities on the West Coast since 1916. Although the company has decreased over the years, it continues to be a major factor in the shipbuilding industry.

In 1949, Todd Shipyards acquired the former United Shipbuilding site in San Francisco Bay, which adjoined the Oakland Inner Harbor. The Oakland facility concentrated on the repair and maintenance of a large variety of commercial vessels, including tugboats, freighters, and fishing boats. Between 1949 and 1959, the yard took on several repair and conversion projects. Some of these included a large repair job on the engines of the Swedish tanker Atlantic Queen and the conversion of freighters to carry cargo vans. Throughout the 1960s, the yard took on many "jumboizing" projects, including four Keystone T-2 tankers. The shipyard gained notoriety by constructing the largest drilling boat ever to hit the water. The yard has never completely closed, but with an eventual slow down in shipbuilding, repair, and conversion orders, the majority of the yard has been leased to private developers for industrial warehouse purposes.

The former Todd Shipyard facility is currently being examined for eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places. The facility comprises an assortment of structures built over a span of more than 50 years.

In common with many shipyards prior to the introduction of modern safety standards, workers at the San Francisco shipyard were routinely exposed to asbestos, which was commonly used as fireproofing and insulation material for the boilers and steam pipes on ships. Workers were rarely issued protective equipment such as gloves and respirators to protect them from asbestos fibers. Exposure to asbestos fibers has been established as a strong precursor to the development of lung cancer, asbestosis ( a crippling inflammation of the lungs), and mesothelioma.

The San Francisco facility has been at the center of a number of asbestos and mesothelioma related legal actions. While the company's bankruptcy in 1990 slowed the progress of many of the lawsuits, claims for the damage caused by the shipyard's practices are still being filed and acted upon. As of 2003, Todd Pacific Shipyards revealed it was still dealing with over 350 separate lawsuits involving over 500 claimants.

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