Shipbuilding History

Wilmington DE

Dravo's Wilmington shipyard started life in 1837 as Betts, Harlan & Hollingsworth, a railcar manufacturer. They expanded into shipbuilding in 1843 and were one of the earliest iron shipbuilders, becoming Harlan & Hollingsworth in 1849. They were bought by Bethlehem Steel in 1904 but did not become known as Bethlehem Steel, Wilmington, until WWI. Bethlehem closed the yard in 1926 and most of the property was sold to Dravo Corporation. At the outset of WWII, Bethlehem reopened the balance of the yard and the two companies teamed up for wartime construction. See Harlan & Hollingsworth's construction record here and Bethlehem's Wilmington construction record here. It is now a public space called Riverfront Wilmington, part of which is called Dravo Plaza: all that's left of the shipyard are two whirly cranes but you can still see the ends of the launchways sticking out into the river. The hull numbers in this table are not consecutive because they are in the series used by Dravo's main yard in Pittsburgh.