Standard Shipbuilding, Shooters Island NY                                 Most recent update: August 16, 2009.

(formerly Townsend & Downey)

The Townsend & Downey shipyard on Shooters Island was a yacht builder in the early years of the last century, most notable for building "Meteor" for the Kaiser.  Downey sold the shipyard in 1917, to a group of Cuban financiers, and started a new yard in the Arlington section of Staten Island.  The Cubans expanded the Shooters Island yard from 25 to 50 acres, effectively occupying the entire island, which is just off the Richmond Terrace section of Staten Island.  At its peak, it had about 4,500 employees.  How did they get to work?  Was there a pontoon bridge from the mainland?  After the war, the island became a ship's graveyard: it has since been cleaned up but the view from the air on Google here still shows a forest of wrecks off the west side of an island that is now totally covered with trees.