In 1938, Harry Darby Jr. purchased the failing Kaw Steel Construction Company from his father and organized the Darby Corporation, which would grow to become one of the largest steel plate manufacturers in the nation.  During World War II, Darby operated the biggest shipyard in the region, at the junction of the Kaw and the Missouri rivers, in Kansas City KS.  At one stage during the war, LCMs were being launched into the Kaw River at the rate of one a day.  The company eventually built 62 LCTs and over 1,300 LCMs, which were sent downriver to New Orleans for shipment overseas.  Darby was also a major wartime producer of locomotives and 1,000-pound bombs.  After the war, Harry Darby became a U.S. Senator from Kansas and the Darby Corporation continued to produce steel products, including railroad equipment and water towers.  It closed in 1989.  If anyone can provide any more information about either the yard or the ships it built, please e-mail it to me at timcolton@aol.com.