Historic Shipyards

Historic Shipyards. Riverfront Wilmington.

"This is the great art, the modern triumph of skill and labor. There go the ships." , Harper's New Monthly Magazine, April 1878

, The Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation purchased the Harlan and Hollingsworth shipyard in 1917. The shipyard was then immediately commandeered by the United States Shipping Baord-Emergency Fleet Corporation for a massive effort to aid the European Allies in World War I. Called the "bridge of ships," the program required a huge buildup of equipment including the giant cranes seen here lining the riverfront. The yard operated three shifts a day, seven days a week, and turned out nine tankers, fourteen cargo ships, and forty-seven various other vessels., So much building caused a glut of ships after the War, and a year after this photo was taken in 1925, all shipbuilding on the site had ceased. Bethlehem sold the shipyard to the Dravo Corporation in 1927., Wooden Boats , From workboats built for sailing the coastal waterways to schooners for overseas trade, the first ships built in Wilmington, were made of wood. The brig Nancy was said to be the first to fly the U.S. flag in a foreign port., Iron and Steel , The Bangor, built by Harlan and Hollingsworth, was Aemrica's first ocean going iron-hulled propeller steamship. Powered by twin screw propeller engines, the Bangor also had three schooner-rigged masts., Early Navy War Ships , During the Civil War, the Union Navy used Wilmington-based ships as blockade gunboats, troop transports and supply vessels. Harlan and Hollingsworth built three Monitor-class warships like this one shown in the 1864 bird's eye view., Ferryboats and Steamers , At the end of the 19th century there was a strong market for ferries, both side wheelers and stern wheelers. The excursion steamer Brandywine was built in 1885 for the Wilson Line., World War I Ships , Among the warships protecting American convoys were submarine chasers like #345 above, built at the Jackson and Sharp Plant of the American Car and Foundry Company in 1917., World War II Ships , The S.S. Cape Corwin was one of 15 type C1-A cargo vessels built in Wilmington by Pusey and Jones during World War II.