Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation
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The Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation (abbreviated MSC) was an American corporation established in 1917 by railroad heir
W. Averell Harriman William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891July 26, 1986) was an American politician, businessman, and diplomat. He was a founder of Harriman & Co. which merged with the older Brown Brothers to form the Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. investment ...
to build
merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are ...
s for the Allied war effort in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. The MSC operated two shipyards: the former shipyard of
John Roach & Sons John Roach & Sons was a major 19th-century American shipbuilding and manufacturing firm founded in 1864 by Irish-American immigrant John Roach. Between 1871 and 1885, the company was the largest shipbuilding firm in the United States, building mo ...
at
Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area (also known as the Delaware Valley) on the western bank of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. ...
, and a second, newly established emergency yard at
Bristol, Pennsylvania Bristol is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northeast of Center City, Philadelphia, Center City in Philadelphia opposite Burlington, New Jersey, on the Delaware River. Bristol was s ...
, operated by the MSC on behalf of the
U.S. Shipping Board The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was a corporation established as an emergency agency by the Merchant Marine Act of 1916 (Alexander Act), 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to ...
's
Emergency Fleet Corporation The Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) was established by the United States Shipping Board, sometimes referred to as the War Shipping Board, on 16 April 1917 pursuant to the Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729) to acquire, maintain, and operate merchant shi ...
(EFC). MSC completed only four ships before the war's end. However, both the U.S. Shipping Board and Harriman himself anticipated a shipbuilding boom in the postwar period, and consequently MSC continued to work on its wartime contracts, eventually building some 81 ships, including not only the USSB vessels but also four
minesweepers A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...
for the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
, a number of
oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk cargo, bulk transport of petroleum, oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quant ...
s for private companies, and four
passenger liner A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...
s Harriman built for his own
shipping line A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...
s. Both Harriman and the USSB were completely incorrect in their anticipation of a postwar shipbuilding boom, and by the early 1920s there was such an excess of shipping around the world that over 1,000 ships were laid up in ports in the United States. With no market for its services, Harriman wound up the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation in 1923.


Background

In 1908, the Roach family, which had operated the famous shipyard of
Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works The Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works (founded in 1871) was a major late-19th-century American shipyard located on the Delaware River in Chester, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the industrialist John Roach (shipbuilder), John Roac ...
at
Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area (also known as the Delaware Valley) on the western bank of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. ...
since 1871, decided to retire from the shipbuilding business. The shipyard lay idle for some years, until being purchased by mechanic and former naval officer Captain C. P. M. (Charles) Jack in late 1913.Heinrich, pp. 177-178. Sources differ as to the date Jack took over the yard. Hurley says he was doing ship conversions at the yard as early as 1912, while the PWHC says he purchased the yard in 1915. Possibly he leased the yard for a time before purchasing it, which might account for the discrepancies. Jack renamed the yard the Chester Shipbuilding Company, and used it mostly for converting freighters into oil tankers. Lacking steel fabrication facilities of his own, Jack contracted with the
American Bridge Company The American Bridge Company is a heavy/civil construction firm that specializes in building and renovating bridges and other large, complex structures. Founded in 1900, the company is headquartered in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsb ...
in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
to supply the plates for the ships' hulls and oil tanks. This innovation in building ships from prefabricated parts manufactured in distant locations was made possible by Jack's simplified hull designs, which made as much use as possible of flat steel plates that could be easily produced and which required a minimum of post-production fitting. Jack's prefabricated method would later be emulated by the Emergency Fleet Corporation in its emergency wartime shipyards. In addition to his ship conversions, Jack also built two complete oil tankers for a Norwegian company in 1916.


Harriman takeover

In February 1917, railroad heir
W. Averell Harriman William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891July 26, 1986) was an American politician, businessman, and diplomat. He was a founder of Harriman & Co. which merged with the older Brown Brothers to form the Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. investment ...
, anticipating the entry of the United States into World War I, bought the Chester Shipbuilding Company from Charles Jack. Retaining Jack as a consultant engineer, Harriman renamed the business the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation.Heinrich, p. 178. By the time the United States declared war in April, Harriman had secured orders with private companies for a total of 28 ships, including 22 freighters and 6 oil tankers. With the declaration of war however, the U.S. Shipping Board commandeered all the contracts, making itself the company's sole customer. To accelerate production, Harriman spent $3,000,000 upgrading the yard's facilities, increasing the number of building slipways from six to ten, and making further extensions and improvements.''New York Times'', August 28, 1917.


Bristol yard

In August 1917, Harriman secured a contract from the EFC for an additional 40 freighters. As the Chester yard was already busy with existing contracts, Harriman and the EFC agreed to build an entirely new shipyard to fulfill the order. Harriman pledged that the last ship would be delivered from the yard within eighteen months. A second contract, for an additional 20 freighters, was signed three months later, but this contract was cancelled in 1919. Harriman chose as the location for the new yard the city of Bristol, Pennsylvania, north of
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
and upriver from the coast—the northernmost location of any
Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...
shipyard. He purchased a block of property along the river, and built a yard containing a dozen slipways. Extensive dredging was necessary as the riverbank at this point was not deep enough for the launching of large ships.Heinrich, p. 189. When completed, the $12,000,000 yard was leased by the EFC but managed by the MSC. In addition to the yard itself, an entire township was built to provide housing for the shipyard's 3,000 workers and their families, estimated at 15,000 people in total. The township, which was given the name of "Harriman", was composed of 206 group houses, 26 single houses, 25 duplex houses and 212 apartments plus boarding houses and bachelor quarters, as well as a post office, hotel, hospital and other facilities. The EFC contracted the work to local realtors who arranged the mortgages. Construction of the township was the largest single housing project undertaken by the EFC during the First World War.PWHC, p. 390.


Wartime operations, 1917-1918

The Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation launched its first ship, a freighter named ''Sudbury'', at the Chester yard on 29 September 1917, and delivered it to the USSB on May 5, 1918. In spite of the company's best efforts however, only four ships of the 68 ordered by the USSB were delivered before the end of hostilities—one freighter and three tankers, all built at the Chester yard. The Chester yard also received a contract from the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
for the construction of four
minesweepers A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...
, but the first of these was also only delivered a few weeks after the war. Construction at the Bristol yard was delayed by the extensive dredging required to provide deep enough channels in which to launch the ships. A series of seven strikes in 1917, prompted by the failure of wages to keep pace with the large 25% increase in
inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...
brought about by wartime conditions, did not help matters, although the MSC quickly acquiesced to the wage demands, thus minimizing disruption. A further problem for the yard however was the inexperience of the employees, since all the experienced shipyard workers were already employed at existing yards. In the event, Harriman was unable to deliver a single ship from the Bristol yard in the first eighteen months, contrary to his stated intention to have all forty ships delivered in the same time frame. The first ship from Bristol was delivered nineteen months after the signing of the initial contract, which was four months too late to see service in the war.


Postwar period, 1919-1923

In the postwar period, a decision had to be made about whether or not to cancel the contracts for the as-yet 64 undelivered vessels, 22 of which were already on the slipways and work on the remainder having not yet begun. Both the USSB and Harriman himself anticipated a postwar shipbuilding boom, and so the decision was taken to complete the contracts. This decision would turn out to be woefully wrong, but the error was not yet apparent. Both of MSC's yards were kept busy with the existing USSB contracts until late 1920/early 1921, and in late 1920 the Chester yard was able to secure private contracts for the construction of four oil tankers. Harriman had recently acquired several shipping lines of his own, and he now began to build ships at the Chester yard for his own lines. In 1921, he built the 7,300-ton passenger-cargo ships ''Mount Carroll'' and ''Mount Clinton'' for his transatlantic shipping line United American Lines, and in 1921 he built two further passenger-cargo vessels, the 5,900-ton and for his Hawaiian-American Line.Heinrich, pp. 200-201. ''Mount Carroll'' and ''Mount Clinton'' had been outfitted as third-class passenger ships for employment in the immigrant trade, but when the Harding administration imposed immigration restrictions, Harriman was forced to refit the two ships as freighters. There were already far too many freighters in transatlantic service however, and Harriman was soon forced to sell both ships. Likewise, his two Hawaiian-American passenger liners were to fail due to stiff competition from the
Matson Navigation Company Matson may refer to: * Matson (surname) * Matson, Gloucester, England, a suburb of Gloucester * Matson, Missouri, an unincorporated community * 2586 Matson, an asteroid * Matson, Inc., a shipping company, formerly Matson Navigation Company * Matson ...
. The global oversupply of shipping was becoming increasingly evident. By 1922, more than a thousand steamships lay idle in the United States alone, and work in the shipbuilding industry was virtually nonexistent. When the last of the USSB orders rolled off the ways at Bristol, Harriman transferred the yard back to the ownership of the EFC, but he attempted to keep the Chester yard open by diversifying his product line. The MSC announced that it would diversify into "steel construction in general, manufacturing and power plant equipment, machinery and machine work, railroad equipment and material, and plate shop works." Due to increasing specialization however, the era in which shipbuilding companies could readily diversify into other fields had passed. Harriman was forced to close the Chester shipyard in 1923, and the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation was subsequently transformed into an investment vehicle known as Merchant-Sterling.


The ships

Unlike the other so-called "agency yards"—the yards built on behalf of the EFC—the MSC ships were not built to a USSB design. Rather, they were designed by the company itself, with Jack as a consultant engineer and with oversight by R. H. M. Robinson, the company's president who was also a well-known naval architect. The basic design was given the USSB number #1025, although some variants were given different numbers."The Harriman type: Shipping Board Design 1025"
from an original article by Daniel H. Jones which appeared in ''Plastic Ship Modeller'', 1995/2.
The #1025 type was of 8,800 tons deadweight, with a length of , beam and draft of .Bristol yard
globalsecurity.org.
Each ship was fitted with three
Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. is an American energy technology and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio. Historically, the company is best known for their stea ...
oil-burning
boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...
s (convertible to coal), delivering steam to 3,000
horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are t ...
Westinghouse oil-fired geared
turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...
s driving a single propeller, which gave a speed of 11 to . A total of 81 ships were built by the company—40 at the Bristol plant and 41 at Chester. All 40 ships from the Bristol yard were Type #1025 freighters. The Chester yard built 22 freighters, 10 oil tankers, four U.S. Navy minesweepers, four passenger-cargo liners, and one fireboat.Merchant Shipbuilding, Chester PA
- shipbuildinghistory.com.

- shipbuildinghistory.com.
More than half the ships were scrapped in the 1930s. Of those that survived into
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, most fell victim to
U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...
s. Only a handful of MSC ships survived into the postwar era. The longest-serving MSC ship was ''Yapalaga'', a freighter built at the Bristol yard in 1920. She was scrapped in 1970 having provided 50 years of service. The passenger-cargo liner ''Missourian'', built at Chester in 1922, was also scrapped in 1970.


Fate of the shipyards

Following the Harriman sale in 1923, the Chester shipyard, which had been in existence since 1859 and built close to 350 ships during the course of its history, was sold to the
Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...
and became a factory for Ford motor vehicles called
Chester Assembly Chester Assembly is a former Ford manufacturing plant in Chester, Pennsylvania. It was located at Front & Lloyd Streets and occupied over 50 acres when it was open, and occupied the former Roach's Shipyard and Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation ...
. The factory was closed in 1961. The Bristol shipyard was sold privately and the site utilized for a variety of purposes. Today it is partly occupied by a
marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...
. Some of the original shipyard buildings reportedly still exist. Harriman township, built to accommodate the shipyard's workers, was eventually incorporated into the borough of Bristol. The township, built in a distinctive neo-colonial style, is listed with the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
, and is known today as
Harriman Historic District The Harriman Historic District is located in the northern section of Bristol, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a residential area with 109 buildings, mostly houses, and the local secondary school. By 1921, production at the shipyard had dec ...
.Bristol Boro
livingplaces.com.


See also

*
Reaney, Son & Archbold Reaney, Son & Archbold was a 19th-century United States, American iron shipbuilding company located on the Delaware River at Chester, Pennsylvania. The company was established in 1859 by Thomas Reaney (formerly of the firm Neafie & Levy, Reaney, N ...
*
Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works The Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works (founded in 1871) was a major late-19th-century American shipyard located on the Delaware River in Chester, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the industrialist John Roach (shipbuilder), John Roac ...
*
John Roach & Sons John Roach & Sons was a major 19th-century American shipbuilding and manufacturing firm founded in 1864 by Irish-American immigrant John Roach. Between 1871 and 1885, the company was the largest shipbuilding firm in the United States, building mo ...
*
Harriman Historic District The Harriman Historic District is located in the northern section of Bristol, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a residential area with 109 buildings, mostly houses, and the local secondary school. By 1921, production at the shipyard had dec ...


Footnotes


References

*Heinrich, Thomas R. (1997):
Ships for the Seven Seas: Philadelphia Shipbuilding in the Age of Industrial Capitalism
', Johns Hopkins University Press, . *Hurley, Edward N. (1927): ''The Bridge to France'', J. B. Lippincott & Co., reproduce
here
*Philadelphia War History Committee, The (1922):
Philadelphia in the World War, 1914-1919
', Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co., New York, extrac
here
{{Authority control Chester, Pennsylvania Defunct companies based in Pennsylvania Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Pennsylvania Steel companies of the United States United States home front during World War I 1917 in Pennsylvania 1918 in Pennsylvania 1919 in Pennsylvania 1920 in Pennsylvania Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1917 1917 establishments in Pennsylvania 1920s disestablishments in Pennsylvania