Shipbuilding History

St. Marys GA

This shipyard was known as MacDonnell Boats until 1952, when it was awarded a contract to build six gunboats for the Navy. Alex MacDonnell then sold 50% of the business to Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Gefen and renamed it Georgia Shipbuilding Company. Unfortunately, the Navy contract put them out of business. What was the Navy thinking, awarding a contract for such sophisticated boats to a shipyard with no track record? The shipyard is generally described as being in Savannah, and there was a Georgia Shipbuilding in Savannah in the era of wooden sailing ships, but this yard was actually in St. Marys, on the downtown waterfront, at the east end of St. Marys Street. I can find no record of any vessels built by either McDonnell Boats or Georgia Shipbuilding other than the six gunboats: the other six boats listed below were all built in St. Marys since WWII, but I don't know by whom.