Difference between revisions of "Union Iron Works"

From The Dreadnought Project
Jump to: navigation, search
(History)
Line 14: Line 14:
 
In 1908, [[Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation]] bought the Hunter's Point drydocks.
 
In 1908, [[Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation]] bought the Hunter's Point drydocks.
  
==Vessels constructed at Union Iron Works==
+
==Shipbuilding==
* [[U.S.S. Oregon (1893)]]
+
<div name=fredbot:ships></div name=fredbot:ships>
  
 
==Footnotes==
 
==Footnotes==

Revision as of 19:58, 25 April 2018

Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, was the only private shipbuilder capable of building the large warships in the Western United States prior to the First World War, and thus had a de facto monopoly on major warship construction contracts on the Pacific coast.

History

The Donohue Brothers, Scots-Irish immigrants, founded Union Iron Works in the south of Market area of San Francisco in 1849. After years as the premiere producer of mining, railroad, agricultural and locomotive machinery in California, Union Iron Works, led by I.M. Scott, entered the ship building business and relocated to Potrero Point where its shipyards still exist, making the site on the north side of the Potrero the longest running privately owned shipyard in the United States. The company also owned the Alameda Works Shipyard, located across the San Francisco Bay in Alameda.

In 1885, Union Iron Works launched the first steel-hulled ship on the west coast, the "Arago," built with steel from the Pacific Rolling Mills.

In 1886, UIW was awarded a one million dollar contract to build a Naval cruiser, the Charleston, which they completed in eighteen months. From the completion of the Arago in 1884 to 1902, UIW built seventy-five marine vessels, including two of the most famous vessels of the Spanish-American War, the Olympia and the Oregon. An 1892 description of the yards stated that between 1200 and 1500 men were employed and the yearly gross revenue was between two and four million. by the turn of the century, the area had increased and employment double to three thousand-five hundred workers. These industrial facilities used five types of power, distributed throughout; electricity, compressed air, steam, hydraulic and coal or gas fire.

In 1902, the Union Iron Works was absorbed into a combine called the United States Shipbuilding Corporation and was mired in three years of litigation. In 1905, the entire forty acre shipyard was purchased by Bethlehem Steel Corporation for one million dollars. Charles Schwab stood on the steps of the UIW office building on Twentieth Street during the auction. He was the only bidder. Schwab was widely believed to have engineered the demise of the U.S. Shipbuilding Corporation in order to gain control of the industry. Whether or not that was true, he certainly benefited from the collapse of the US Shipbuilding combine.

After 1905, the shipyard operated as part of Bethlehem Steel, and produced both warships and merchant ships.

In 1908, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation bought the Hunter's Point drydocks.

Shipbuilding

Footnotes

Bibliography