Bethlehem Steel Company, Sparrows Point MD

(formerly Maryland Steel)


Maryland Steel was started in 1887 and began building ships in 1891.  It was bought by Bethlehem Steel in 1916 and was a major merchant shipbuilder in WWI and between the wars, fully operational at the beginning of the WWII emergency.  It continued to build tankers and dry bulk carriers for private-sector customers throughout the war.  It carried on as a merchant shipbuilder after the war but abandoned new construction in 1986.  It continued in the ship repair business, moving a large floating dock from its Key Highway yard to Sparrows Point for this purpose.  Uncompetitive in the repair business because of its high cost structure, Bethlehem sold the shipyard to Veritas Capital in 1997, which renamed it Baltimore Marine Industries.  BMI was not successful, however, filed under Chapter 11 in June 2003 and was liquidated in November 2003.  The yard was then bought by a nitwit from Boston, who used the big graving dock to scrap ships for MARAD, but inevitably defaulted.  It is now idle.  See it from the air on Google here.

Hull # USSB, USMC or MARAD Hull # Original Name Original Owner Ship Type (C=Major Conversion) Gov't. Type or Design Code Pennant # GT Dispmt. Tons or DWT Price ($mm) Delivered Disposition
Built by Maryland Steel
1                      
2                      
3   Penwood J. R. Foard Trans. Co. Tug     156     23-Jan-92 To USN 1898 as Powhatan (YT 12), renamed Cayuga 1917, scrapped 1928
4   Douglass H. Thomas           P. Dougherty & Co. Tug     212     20-Mar-92  
5   Lancaster Weems Trans. Co. Coastal Passenger     919     1-Aug-92 Scrapped 1928
6   Alabama                      Baltimore Steam Packet Co. Coastal Passenger     1,939     10-Apr-93 Later City of Victoria 1928, YHB 24 1943, scrapped 1948
7   Germania Baker-Whiteley Coal Co. Tug     73     10-Dec-92 Later George E. Wood, Russell 9, Martin Kehoe, Peter Spano, Edith Mathiesen, Philip T. Feeney
8   Frances Sanford & Brooks Co. Tug     80     17-Feb-93  
9   Dorothy Maryland Steel Co. Tug     80     28-Jul-93  
10   Gloucester                   Merchants & Mining Tptn. Co. Coastal Passenger     2,542     1-Nov-93 Scrapped 1936
11   Baltimore Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Tug     177     30-May-93  
12   Patrol New York City Police Boat     235     13-Jan-95  
13   Dungeness Mrs. L. C. Carnegie Steam Yacht     143     12-Jun-94  
14   Tivoli Balt., Ches. & Atl. R.R. Coastal Passenger     704     26-Sep-94 Later barge S. W. Burgess 1915, Richmond Cedar Works No. 1, abandoned in Gilverton VA 1955
15   Trinidad Sugar Co. No. 1 Central Trinidad Sugar Co. Barge     84     18-Jan-95  
16   Trinidad Sugar Co. No. 2 Central Trinidad Sugar Co. Barge     84     18-Jan-95  
17   Trinidad Sugar Co. No. 3 Central Trinidad Sugar Co. Barge     97     18-Jan-95  
18   Trinidad Sugar Co. No. 4 Central Trinidad Sugar Co. Barge     97     18-Jan-95  
19   Manati Central Trinidad Sugar Co. Tug     41     18-Jan-95  
20   Potomac Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Lighter     155     18-Jan-95  
21   Truxtun U.S. Navy Destroyer  DD 14   433