Bath Iron Works
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bath Iron Works (BIW) is a shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine. Since its foundation in 1884 by Thomas W. Hyde, Bath Iron Works has built private, commercial and military vessels. Its largest customer has historically been the United States Navy, for which the shipyard has built and sometimes designed battleships, frigates, cruisers and destroyers including the Arleigh Burke class, which is among the most advanced surface warships in the world. BIW was purchased in 1995 by General Dynamics and may be the largest private employer in Maine, with the possible exception of the Hannaford Brothers Supermarket Chain.
In World War II, the toughness of warships launched by Maine workers gave rise to the saying "Bath-built is best-built." [1]
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[edit] History
Bath Iron Works was incorporated in 1884 by General Thomas W. Hyde, a native of Bath who served under General Philip Sheridan in the American Civil War. After the war, Hyde had acquired a local shop involved in the manufacture of windlasses and other iron hardware used on the decks of the many wooden ships built in Bath's many shipyards. Hyde expanded the business by improving existing practices, entering new markets, and sometimes by acquiring other existing businesses in town.
By 1882, Hyde Windlass was expanding with an eye to entering the new and growing business of iron shipbuilding, and on February 28, 1890 the recently-incorporated Bath Iron Works won its first contract for complete vessels, two iron gunboats for the U.S. Navy. The Machias, one of these 190-foot gunboats, was the first ship actually launched by the company; during World War I, the gunboat's commanding officer was Chester Nimitz.
In 1892 the yard won a contract for a 2,500-ton steel passenger steamer, the City of Lowell, the company's first commercial contract for a steel vessel. In the 1890s the company would also build several yachts for wealthy sailors.
In 1899, General Hyde, suffering from Bright's Disease, which would kill him later that year, resigned from management of the shipyard, leaving his sons Edward and John in charge.
That year the shipyard began construction of the Georgia, the only battleship to be built in Bath. The ship dominated the yard for five years until its launching in 1904, at times the only ship under construction; it offered numerous challenges in its scale, particularly for the yard attempting to cope with the weight of armor and weapons involved. In sea trials, the Georgia averaged 19.26 knots (35.67 km/h) for four hours, making her the fastest ship in her class and (at the time) the fastest battleship in the Navy.
The company continued to place heavy reliance on Navy contracts through the First World War, with the Navy providing 86% of the value of new contracts between 1905 and 1917. However, the yard also produced fishing trawlers, freighters, and yachts throughout the first half of the century. In 1981, the shipyard contracted with Falcon Transport for two tankers which are, to date, the last commercial vessels built by BIW.
At peak production during World War II (1943–1944), the shipyard was launching a new destroyer every 17 days.
[edit] Ships built
- Virginia-class battleship
- USS Georgia (BB-15), launched in 1904
- Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates
- USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58), launched in 1984 and repaired after being punctured by a mine in 1988
- USS Simpson (FFG-56), launched August 31, 1984. Holds the honor of being one of only two ships currently in commission in the US Navy to have sunk an enemy vessel using shipboard weaponry, the other being the USS Constitution
- Arleigh Burke class destroyers
- USS Bainbridge (DDG-96), launched in 2005
- USS Gridley (DDG-101), launched in 2006
[edit] External links
- Bath Iron Works website
- USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) under repair at BIW's Portland dry dock
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps or MapQuest
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, or WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
[edit] Further reading
- Eskew, Garnett Laidlaw (1958). Cradle of Ships. New York: Putnam. ASIN B0007E5VY4. (First general history of BIW.)
- Peniston, Bradley (2006). No Higher Honor: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-661-5. (Describes the construction of a Perry-class guided missile frigate, the training of its precommissioning crew at BIW, and the complex repair job that returned it to duty.)
- Sanders, Michael S. (1999). The Yard: Building a Destroyer at the Bath Iron Works. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-019246-1. (Describes the construction of USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) at BIW.)
- Snow, Ralph L. (1987). Bath Iron Works: The First Hundred Years. Bath, Maine: Maine Maritime Museum. ISBN 0-9619449-0-0. (The definitive work on BIW from 1884-1987.)
- Toppan, Andrew (2002). Bath Iron Works (Images of America: Maine). South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-1059-9. (Historic and contemporary photos of BIW.)
| General Dynamics Corporation |
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Corporate Directors: Nicholas Chabraja | James Crown | Lester Crown | William Fricks | Charles Goodman | Jay Johnson | George Joulwan | Paul Kaminski | John Keane | Lester Lyles | Carl Mundy | Robert Walmsley |
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Subsidiaries: Bath Iron Works | Electric Boat | Land Systems | Gulfstream | NASSCO | MOWAG |
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Annual Revenue: $19.4 billion USD ( |
