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Bath Iron Works (BIW) is a major United States shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, founded in 1884 as Bath Iron Works, Limited. Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics, one of the world's largest defense companies. BIW has built private, commercial, and military vessels, most of which have been ordered by the United States Navy.
Bath Iron Works was incorporated in 1884 by General Thomas W. Hyde, a native of Bath who served in the American Civil War. After the war, he bought a shop that made windlasses and other iron hardware for the wooden ships built in Bath's many shipyards. He expanded the business by improving its practices, entering new markets, and acquiring other local businesses. By 1882, Hyde Windlass was eyeing the new and growing business of iron shipbuilding, and it incorporated as Bath Iron Works in 1884.
On February 28, 1890, BIW won its first contract for complete vessels: two iron gunboats for the Navy. One of these 190-foot (58m) ships was the Machias, the first ship launched by the company. In 1892, the yard won its first commercial contract for the 2,500-ton steel passenger steamer City of Lowell. In the 1890s, the company built several yachts for wealthy sailors.
In 1899, Hyde was suffering from Bright's Disease and resigned from management of the shipyard, leaving his sons Edward and John in charge. The shipyard began construction of Georgia that same year, the only battleship ever built in Bath. It dominated the yard for five years until its launching in 1904, and was at times the only ship under construction. The yard faced numerous challenges because of the weight of armor and weapons. In sea trials, Georgia averaged 19.26 knots (35.67km/h; 22.16mph) for four hours, making her the fastest ship in her class and the fastest battleship in the United States Navy at the time.[1]
The company continued to rely on Navy contracts, which provided 86-percent of the value of new contracts between 1905 and 1917. The yard also produced fishing trawlers, freighters, and yachts throughout the first half of the century. These included Vanda, Hi-Esmaro, Aras I and Aras II, Caroline, and Corsair IV, which later served as a cruise ship before sinking off Acapulco, Mexico in 1949.[1]
The shipyard was at peak production during World War II (1943–1944), launching a destroyer every 17 days. Bath Iron Works ranked 50th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.[2] In 1981, Falcon Transport ordered two tankers, the last commercial vessels built by BIW.
USSSamuel B. Roberts was commissioned at Bath in 1986. It survived a mine explosion which tore a hole in its engine room and flooded two compartments. Over the next two years, BIW repaired the ship in unique fashion. The guided missile frigate was towed to the company's dry dock in Portland, Maine, and put up on blocks, where the damaged engine room was cut out of the ship. Meanwhile, workers in Bath built a 315-ton replacement, and the module was floated south to Portland, placed on the dry dock, slid into place under the frigate, jacked up, and welded into place.[3]
In 1995, Bath Iron Works was bought by General Dynamics. In 2001, the company wrapped up a four-year effort to build the Land Level Transfer Facility, an enormous concrete platform for final assembly of its ships, instead of building them on a sloping way so that they could slide into the Kennebec at launch. Hulls are now moved by rail from the platform horizontally onto a moveable dry dock, which greatly reduced the work involved in building and launching the ships.[4] The 750-foot (230m), 28,000-ton dry dock was built by China's Jiangdu Yuchai Shipbuilding Company for $27 million and shipped all the way from China to Bath.[5]
Lesko resigned unexpectedly on April 7, 2022, the same day the union local announced that it had come to an agreement with the shipyard.[8] On May 5, 2022, Charles F. Krugh was appointed president.[10]
Offsite facilities
Bath Iron Works operates several offsite facilities in the surrounding mid-coast Maine region, their purposes range from administration to structural fabrication.
West Bath
• West Bath Warehouse • The facility closest to the main yard, located on 76 New Meadows Road, West Bath. Its primary responsibilities are storage and distribution of materials to other BIW facilities, primarily the main yard.
Brunswick
The neighboring city of Brunswick, Maine, Contains the most Bath Iron Works offsite facilities of any single municipality.
• Structural Fabrication • Built in 1940 under the name "Harding's Plant", the Structural Fabrication facility is among the largest outside of the main yard.
• Outfit Fabrication • Previously known as "East Brunswick Manufacturing Facility (EBMF)", the Outfit Fabrication facility is responsible for the production of non-structural parts and assemblies more efficient to build on the shop floor, and later ship into the main yard.
• Tech Center • The Tech Center is where many Planners, Designers, and Engineers work.
The second Cold War destroyer built by Bath Iron Works was named for the grandfather of Republican senator and 2008 presidential candidate John S. McCain III.
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USS Taylor (DD/DDE-468) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy, named for Rear Admiral William Rogers Taylor (1811–1889). She was laid down on 28 August 1941 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works Corp.; launched on 7 June 1942, sponsored by Mrs. H. A. Baldridge; and commissioned on 28 August 1942 at the Charlestown Navy Yard near Boston, Mass.
The Benson class was a class of destroyers of the U.S. Navy built 1939–1943. The thirty 1,620-ton Benson-class destroyers were built in two groups. The first six were authorized in fiscal year 1938 (FY38) and laid down at Bethlehem Steel, Quincy, Massachusetts, and three naval shipyards. The remaining 24 "repeat Bensons" were authorized in 1940–42 and built at four Bethlehem Steel yards. They were laid down after the first group was commissioned. These plus the "repeat Livermores" were also known at the time as the Bristol class. During World War II the Bensons were usually combined with the Livermores as the Benson-Livermore class; this persisted in references until at least the 1960s. In some references both classes are combined and called the Benson class. The Benson- and Gleaves-class destroyers were the backbone of the pre-war Neutrality Patrols and participated in every major campaign of the war.
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Toppan, Andrew (2002). Bath Iron Works (Images of America: Maine). South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN0-7385-1059-9. (Historic and contemporary photos of BIW.)
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