Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation


Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipbuilding Division was created in 1905 when the Bethlehem Steel Corporation of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, acquired the San Francisco shipyard Union Iron Works. In 1917 it was incorporated as Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Limited.
Headquarters were in Quincy, Massachusetts, after acquiring the Fore River Shipyard in 1913, and later in Sparrows Point, Maryland, southeast of Baltimore, Maryland, in formerly rural/now suburban Baltimore County,, in 1964.
In 1940, it was number 1 of the "Big Three" U.S. shipbuilders who could build any ship. Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock and New York Shipbuilding Corporation were #2 and #3. Bethlehem had 4 yards in early 1940: Fore River, Sparrows Point, San Francisco, and Staten Island. Bethlehem expanded during World War II as a result of the Emergency Shipbuilding program administered under the United States Maritime Commission.
The Quincy / Fore River yard was later sold to General Dynamics Corporation in the mid-1960s, and closed in 1986. The Alameda Works Shipyard in California was closed by Bethlehem Steel in the early 1970s, while the San Francisco facility was sold to British Aerospace in the mid-1990s and survives today as BAE Systems San Francisco Ship Repair.
Bethlehem Steel ceased shipbuilding activities in 1997 in an attempt to preserve its core steel making operations.

Shipyards

The following shipyards were owned by Bethlehem. They are listed in order of acquisition.