Former Site of William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) | place with historical importance, shipyard, production, United States Navy

 place with historical importance, shipyard, production, historical layer / disappeared object, United States Navy

Once the main shipyard for the ironclad US-Navy, William Cramp & Sons began operations in 1830 building commercial sailing ships and iron steamers for the commercial trades. This type of vessel construction kept the shipyard busy and by the close of the century it was Philadelphia's largest businesses and employers.

The US Navy selected Cramp & Sons as the building site for its first Battleship, USS Indiana (BB-1) which was launched in 1893, followed thereafter by the USS Maine (BB-10) in 1901. The Navy kept orders flowing into the yard throughout the late 1890's and early 1900s with orders for Motor Torpedo Boats and early Destroyers, with Cramp & Sons eventually producing 74 ships of the type. Following WWI, arms treaties and limitations on fleet size took a large chunk out of the yards business, and it was sold in 1919 to the American Shipping & Commerce Corporation which operated the yard for another 8 years before it was officially closed in 1927.

WWII brought new life to the shipyard as the US Navy & War Shipping Administration were in desparate need of ship production facilities. The yard was purchased in 1940 and configured to construct US Submarines and Light Cruisers at a cost of over $20 million dollars. The yard performed this work for 7 years before the end of WWII and the lack of need for new ships closed its doors again, this time for good.

The Navy stripped the site of its shipbuilding material, much of it being sent downriver to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and the land was offered up for industrial use. Today much of the site remains unused, as construction practices and materials used in ship construction are now known to be hazardous, most notably the extensive use of lead and asbestos in WWII era US Navy ships.

www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/cramp.htm
www.destroyerhistory.org/destroyers/cramp.html

For a full listing of ships built here, please see:
www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/in...