The American Ship Building Company, Detroit MI and Wyandotte MI

(formerly Gordon Campbell & Co. [1852-1862], Campbell & Owen [1862-1874], Detroit Dry Dock [1874-1898] and Detroit Shipbuilding [1899-1913], and by Wyandotte Shipbuilding [1872-1898])

Detroit Shipbuilding began as Gordon Campbell & Co., later Campbell & Owen. It was acquired by Frank Kirby in 1871 and incorporated as Detroit Dry Dock in 1874.  Detroit Dry Dock acquired nearby Wyandotte Shipbuilding in 1878.  Thomas Edison and Henry Ford both worked as apprentice machinists at Detroit Dry Dock.  Kirby sold the company to The American Ship Building Company in 1899, which renamed it Detroit Shipbuilding, and reorganized its operations, so that ships' hulls were built in the Wyandotte yard and outfitted in the Detroit yard.  The yard was renamed AmShip Detroit when AmShip eliminated individual yard identities in 1913.  The yard built two lakers after WWI ended and then became a repair facility.  It is not clear when it finally closed: can anyone tell me?  The Detroit yard was at Orleans and Atwater Streets: it was never reutilized and is now St. Aubin Park.  See it from the air on Google here.  The location of the Wyandotte yard is not clear: can anyone educate me on this?

Hull # Original Name Type Owner GT Delivery Disposition
Built by Campbell & Owen
5 Champion     263 1868  
6 Vulcan     249 1868  
9 Annie Young     1,007 1869  
10 Joseph L. Hurd     759 1869  
13 S. C. Baldwin     412 1871  
14 Hope     149 1870  
15 Jennie Briscoe     103 1870  
16 Monitor     128 1870  
19 Gordon Campbell     996 1871  
  E. B. Ward, Jr.     454 1872  
  Queen of the Lakes     260 1872  
21 Niagara     276 1872  
22 M. F. Merrick     133 1873  
23 Inter-Ocean Steamer C. S. Mahoney 1,068 1872 Scrapped 1905
24 Victoria Steamer Detroit & Windsor Ferry 192 1872 Scrapped 1925
  Michigan Barge

James Corrigan

   1874

Sank 1901
Built by Detroit Dry Dock (D) and Wyandotte Shipbuilding (W)
 W Sport Tug   86 1873  
28D John Owen     328 1874

 
29D Fortune Steamer   199 1875

Later Bawating. scrapped 1915
30D Excelsior     229 1876

 
 31W City of Detroit Steamship   1,095 1878 Later Liberty, scrapped 1948
 32W City of Cleveland Barge   1,221 1880 Later State of Ohio, abandoned 1929
 33W Grace McMillan Steamship   312 1879 Later Idlewild, abandoned 1919
 34W Transport Steam Ferry Boat Roen Steamship 1,594 1880 Abandoned 1942
34D Garland     248 1880

 
  Idlewild Steamship   883 1879  
  Atlantic Steamer H. G. Dalton   1880 Scrapped 1902

 37D

 Iron Age Steamer W. J. Willoughby 859 1880 Burnt 1909

 38D

 W. H. Gratwick Steamer   474 1880 Later D. R. Morley, abandoned 1932
 39W Lehigh Freight   1,704 1880 Later Ponoka, scrapped 1955
 40W Boston Freight   1,829 1880 Later Lakeport, scrapped 1941
41D Thomas W. Palmer Steamer   1,096 1880 Later Samoa, burnt 1909
  City of Alpena Steamship   1,222 1880  
43D Samuel F. Hodge     585 1881

 
 44W City of Milwaukee Steamship   1,148 1881 Later Muskegon, sank 1919