Bath Iron Works

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bath Iron Works (BIW) is located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine. Since it was founded in 1884 by Thomas W. Hyde, BIW has built private, commercial, and military vessels. Its biggest customer has been the U.S. Navy, for which BIW has built (and often designed) a battleship, frigates, cruisers, and destroyers, including the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer—the most advanced surface warship in the world. BIW was purchased in 1995 by General Dynamics. BIW has since at least the 1970s been the largest private employer in the state of Maine, though that title may recently have slipped to the Hannaford grocery chain.

In World War II, the toughness of warships launched by Maine workers gave rise to the saying: "Bath-built is best-built". In 1988, the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58), commissioned two years earlier at Bath, survived a mine explosion that tore a hole in its engine room and flooded two compartments.

BIW repaired the Roberts in 1988-89 in unique fashion. The guided missile frigate was towed to the company's dry dock in Portland, Maine, and put up on blocks, where its damaged engineroom was cut out of the ship. Meanwhile, workers in Bath built a 315-ton replacement. When it was ready, the module was floated south to Portland, placed on the dry dock, slid into place under the Roberts, jacked up, and welded into place.

"A Bath boat is the Stradivarius of destroyers!"

[edit] Ships built

• Virginia class battleship
  • USS Georgia, launched in 1904
• Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate
  • USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58), launched in 1984
• Arleigh Burke class destroyer
  • USS Bainbridge, launched in 2005

[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 Coordinates: 43.908020° -69.813058°
  • WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia
  • Street map from MapQuest or Google Local
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
  • Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth

[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 and the training of its precommissioning crew at BIW.)
• 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

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

Subsidiaries: Bath Iron Works | Electric Boat | General Dynamics Land Systems | Gulfstream Aerospace | NASSCO Products: Arleigh Burke class destroyer | Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle | Los Angeles class submarine | M1 Abrams | Ohio class submarine | Seawolf class submarine | Stryker

Annual Revenue: $19.4 billion USD (23% FY 2004) | Employees: 81,900 | Stock Symbol: NYSE: GD | Website: www.gendyn.com