Bethlehem Shipbuilding

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Located in Sparrows Point, Maryland, Bethlehem Shipbuilding (or Bethship) was a part of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Once part of a chain of shipyards operating under Bethlehem Steel Shipbuilding, the Sparrows Point yard was the only location remaining after the 1980s. BethShip, Inc. serviced and repaired ships and manufactured industrial products. Bethship consisted of a ship repair yard. Facilities at the yard include a graving dock, a floating drydock and two full-service outfitting piers which together provided nearly 3,000 feet of berthing space. In October 1997 the Sparrows Point Shipyard was sold to the Veritas Capital Fund, a New York-based merchant banking and investment firm which built a $300 million cold rolling mill complex on the site scheduled to open in 1999.

Veritas reorganized the facility as Baltimore Marine Industries Inc., and won several Navy contracts for new ship construction and dismantling of older tonnage. BMI was also awarded the contract for a fleet of deluxe cruise ships for an upstart cruise line that was never able to secure financing. With no orders on the horizon and no work aside from the two modest Navy contracts, BMI collapsed in bankruptcy in 2003. All assets were purchased by Barletta Industries Inc. in 2004 and reorganized as the Sparrows Point Shipyard and Industrial Complex. Barletta has pledged to modernize the facility and reopen the yard for commercial shipbuilding activities.

Other Bethship facilities included those in Quincy, Mass., Alameda and San Francisco, California, and Wilmington, Delaware. The Quincy yard was sold to General Dynamics Corporation in the mid 1980s, and closed shortly after. The Alameda yard was closed by Bethlehem Steel in the early 1970s, while the San Francisco facility was sold to British Aerospace in the mid 1990s and survives as BAE Systems San Francisco Ship Repair.