11
80,000 area residents;
about 300 jobs remain
today.
Boston Metals
Company and Patapsco
Scrap Company
scrapped ships, reverse
engineering in a sense
— a teardown which
mirrored shipbuilding
processes. After interior
Left: A ship’s propeller salvaged
from shipbreaking at Sparrows
Point Shipyard, which was sold
at auction in 2004 to Barletta
Willis Investments, LLC.
Center: Gas & Electric Tug No. 3
gets a boost at the railway at
Smith Shipyard on Curtis Bay.
Right: Two harbor tugs rest in
drydock at The General Ship
Repair, the last shipyard on Key
Highway.
fixtures were removed,
the vessel was cut down,
deck house by deck
house, down to the keel
plates.
Lesser-known
Baltimore highlights
include Bethlehem’s
construction of the
world’s first supertanker
in 1948;
“jumboizing”—welding
in a new mid-section to
increase capacity — a
technique pioneered by
Maryland Shipbuilding
and Drydock
Company; Sparrows
Point’s 1905
construction of the
floating drydock Dewey,
which was towed 13,000
miles to the Philippines,
then described as
the greatest feat in
transoceanic
navigation.
