The Columbian Iron Works and Dry Dock Company (1872–1899), was located in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

on the Locust Point peninsula, adjacent to

Fort McHenry Fort McHenry is a historical American Coastal defense and fortification, coastal bastion fort, pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, Baltimore, Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War ...

. Founded by William T. Malster (1843–1907) who later partnered with William B. Reaney in 1879, it opened for business on 16 July 1880. The company was located on adjacent to Fort McHenry where it leased the property from the Baltimore Dry Dock Company. It built several early vessels of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

and

United States Revenue Cutter Service The United States Revenue Cutter Service was established by an Act of Congress () on 4 August 1790 as the Revenue-Marine at the recommendation of the nation's first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. The federal government bod ...

, including: * USRC ''Tench Coxe'' * USRC ''Seminole'' * USS ''Detroit'' * USS ''Petrel'' * USS ''Montgomery'' * USS ''Foote'' * USS ''Rodgers'' * USS ''Winslow'' * USS ''McKee'' * USS ''Tingey'' It also built the ''

Argonaut The Argonauts ( ; ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, ''Argo'', named after ...

'', a

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

Simon Lake Simon Lake (September 4, 1866 – June 23, 1945) was a Quaker American mechanical engineer and naval architect who obtained over two hundred patents for advances in naval design and competed with John Philip Holland to build the first submarines ...

, and ''Plunger'', a submarine designed by

John Philip Holland John Philip Holland (; February 24, 1841August 12, 1914) was an Irish marine engineer who developed the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the US Navy, USS Holland (SS-1) and the first Royal Navy submarine, ''Holland 1''. Early lif ...

for the U.S. Navy that was not accepted. The company built the lighthouse tender USLHT ''Arbutus''. It went into receivership in 1899 and was reorganized as Baltimore Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company and was purchased by William B. Skinner and Sons in 1905. In 1915, Skinner and Sons went into receivership and was reorganized as the Baltimore Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Corporation. This company was taken over by

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Until its closure in 2003, it was one of the world's largest steel-producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its success ...

in September 1921.

References

*"Ask for More Time – Columbian Iron Works Creditors Desire an Extension to Finish Work." ''The New York Times.'' December 28, 1899, Wednesday Page 3, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1899/12/28/102500443.pdf *"Columbian Iron Works Failure." ''The New York Times'' December 21, 1899, Wednesday Page 4, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1899/12/21/117936615.pdf *Keith, Robert C. ''Baltimore Harbor: A Pictorial History.'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 2005. p. 93 *Knowles, Richard. ''John P. Holland, 1841-1914: Inventor of the Modern Submarine''. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1998. p. 74 *"Columbian Iron Works" in ''Directory of Iron and Steel Works of the United States and Canada.'' Philadelphia: American Iron and Steel Association v. 13 (1896) p. 256 *"Another Cruiser Afloat – The Launch of the Montgomery at Baltimore – A New Two-Thousand-Ton War Vessel Now Ready for Her Machinery and Fittings – Christened by Miss Sophia Smith." ''The New York Times.'' December 6, 1891, Wednesday Page 16, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1891/12/06/103354840.pdf *"Argonaut Does It!" ''New York Sun'', Dec. 17, 1897 http://www.simonlake.com/html/argonaut_does_it_.html *Forrest, Clarence H. ''Official History of the Fire Department of the City of Baltimore: Together with Biographies and Portraits of Eminent Citizens of Baltimore.''Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1898. pg 154 *Hall, Clayton Coleman.
M1 Baltimore: Its History and Its People
Volume 1: History.'' New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1912. pp. 376–377 *"William T. Malster" ''The New York Times.'' March 3, 1907, Sunday Page 7, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/03/03/104981296.pdf *Howard, George Washington."William B. Reaney" in ''The Monumental City: Its Past History and Present Resources ''. Baltimore: J.D. Ehlers,1873. p. 822 *Howard, George Washington. "William T. Malster" in ''The Monumental City: Its Past History and Present Resources'' Baltimore: J.D. Ehlers, 1873. pp 670–673. *"Consolidation of Dry Docks – Negotiations Under Way for Two Companies in Baltimore." ''The New York Times.'' February 19, 1903, Thursday Page 1, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1903/02/19/101974141.pdf *"Columbian Iron Works Gets Extension" ''The New York Times.'' December 31, 1899, Wednesday Page 3, https://www.nytimes.com/1899/12/31/archives/columbian-iron-works-gets-extension.html {{coord, 39, 16, 11.07, N , 76, 35, 8.40, W, display=title Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States Locust Point, Baltimore Ships built in Baltimore