Marine Industries Limited
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Marine Industries Limited (MIL) was a Canadian ship building company, in Sorel, Quebec, with a shipyard located on the Richelieu river about 1 km from the St. Lawrence River. It employed up to 10,000 people during the post WWII boom.
Opened in 1937, the yard saw many contracts during its early years for vessels used on the Great Lakes and Canada's Atlantic coast. In 1986 the federal government asked Quebec to rationalize its shipyards, which saw MIL merge with Davie Shipbuilding in Lauzon; the Sorel shipyard was called M.I.L. Tracy (for Tracy, Quebec) and the Lauzon shipyard was called M.I.L. Lauzon.
Shortly after the merger, the new company, MIL Davie Shipbuilding closed the Sorel shipyard along with the Versatile Vickers (Canadian Vickers) shipyard in Montreal, resulting in a total loss of 1,700 jobs.
MIL's Sorel shipyard was responsible for numerous important Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Coast Guard and CN Marine vessels.
Several ferries included:
- MV Abegweit (1947-1982, hull number 144)
- MV John Hamilton Gray (1968-2004, hull number 349)
- MV Ambrose Shea (1967-2000, hull number 321)
Several warships included:
- Iroquois (Tribal) class destroyers, commissioned 1972-73
- HMCS Iroquois (DDH 280), commissioned 1972
- HMCS Athabaskan (DDH 282), commissioned 1972
- HMCS Algonquin (DDH 283), commissioned 1973
- HMCS Huron (DDH 281), commissioned 1972; decommissioned 2005
