Maryland Drydock Company

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The Maryland Drydock Company was a shipbuilding company that operated in Baltimore, Maryland during the 20th century.

The company started life in 1920 as the Globe Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Maryland. Its President at this time was B. C. Cooke. The company bought land along the Patapsco River across the Bay from Fort McHenry. It later changed its name to the simpler "Maryland Drydock Company". Sometime after 1950, its name appears to have been changed again, to the Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock Company.

Maryland Drydock specialized in ship conversions, upgrades and repairs rather than with shipbuilding per se. During World War II, the company was employed in the conversion of numerous warships built at other yards for the US war effort. Unlike many other shipbuilding companies of the period, it survived the postwar downturn in the shipbuilding industry.

In 1970, the company's yard in Baltimore was purchased by the manufacturer of Fruhauf trailers which spent $30 million upgrading the site. Unfortunately, adverse economic conditions caused the yard to close in 1984 and much of the site was razed, although one drydock was preserved and was being used by Kurt Metal for the scrapping of old ships in 1995.

[edit] List of vessels built by the company

This is very likely an incomplete list. You can help by expanding it.

  • Gov. Harry W. Nice (ferry), launched 1936, used in Puget Sound.
  • Gov. Herbert R. O'Conor (ferry), launched 1946, used in Puget Sound.
  • M/V Islander (ferry), launched 1950.

[edit] References