Shipbuilding History

Port Jefferson NY

In the 19th century, Port Jefferson was the leading shipbuilding center in Suffolk County, with 40% of the county's total production. There were many small shipyards in the town and, as was common in those days of wooden hulls powered by sail, the ownership and management of these yards was in a constant state of flux. (In this context, note that Port Jefferson was known before 1936 as Drowned Meadow, a name that was rooted in its downtown area being below normal tide level.) We have noted elsewhere that the 19th-century yards in this database that are significant are those that survived the Civil War, when the U.S. shipbuilding industry was compelled to restructure itself for a market that was (a) much smaller in size and (b) much more complex in its technological requirements. In this context, the Bayles Shipyard was really the only significant shipyard in Port Jefferson and this table documents its entire output.

The Bayles shipyard was roughly where Harborfront Park is today: it had been established in 1835, by Charles and James Bayles. In 1854, they decided it would be more efficient if they each had their own operation and they divided the yard into two separate facilities until about 1874, when Charles moved out and James took over the whole thing. With the coming of World War I, the ownership was restructured as Bayles Shipyard, Inc., and the facilities were converted for steel shipbuilding, assisted by $2,225,000 from the USSB. The new entity was not a success, however, and another new company, called New York Harbor Dry Dock Co., took over and completed the wartime contracts, continuing after that as a repair facility.

The first part of the table below is complete in that it lists all the 135 ships that James Bayles built, with or without his brother, while the second part lists the ships that Charles Bayles built in the northern end of the yard. Apart from the Bayles shipyard, there were four other yards building ships in Port Jefferson when the Civil War ended: the output of these yards is summarized here.