William Cramp & SonsShipbuilding Company of Philadelphia was founded in 1830 by William Cramp, and was the preeminent U.S. iron shipbuilder of the late 19th century. In 1890 the company built the battleships USS Indiana and USS Massachusetts, armored cruiser USS New York, and protected cruiser USS Columbia. Three of these ships took a part in the battle with the Spanish fleet in 1898 at Santiago de Cuba. The victory in this battle heralded America's emergence as a great power. The American Shipping and Commercial Corporation bought the yard in 1919 but closed it in 1927 as fewer ships were ordered by the U.S. Navy after passage of the Naval Limitations Treaty in 1923. In 1940, the Navy spent $22 million to reopen the yard as Cramp Shipbuilding to build cruisers and submarines. Cramp used the long slipways to construct two submarines at a time, with the intention of launching them simultaneously. However, the shipyard's submarine construction program was not especially successful, as poor management hindered the delivery of the boats. The first delivery was made two years after keel laying, and fitting out was then done by Portsmouth Navy Yard. The best construction time for a submarine was 644 days. Cramp closed in 1947 and the site, on the Delaware River in Philadelphia's Port Richmond neighborhood still sits empty.
Notable projects
, a small ocean liner built for the Red D Line in 1882. She was wrecked on the coastline of Vancouver Island, on January 22, 1906, killing around 116 people. Valencia's loss is considered one of the worst shipwrecks in the region known as the Graveyard of the Pacific.
, a small ocean liner of 2,499 tons built for the Red D Line in 1885
, an American ocean liner and cruise ship built in 1927 for the Matson Line in its Pacific/Hawaiian services and the largest passenger ship built in the United States up to that time at 17,226 registered tones. The Matson ship was scrapped in 1977 in Greece after being sold in the meantime.
, was launched on 2 December 1891 and became flagship of Admiral William T. Sampson's squadron during the Spanish–American War.
, Battleship No. 1 of the United States Navy, launched 28 February 1893.
, Battleship No. 4 of the US Navy, launched 28 March 1896
and —the first major ocean liners built in the United States after the collapse of the Collins Line in the 1850s. On 15 November 1899, St. Paul, en route from New York to England with Guglielmo Marconion board supervising the ship's new wireless telegraph equipment, became the first liner to report her imminent arrival by radio.
SS Evangeline, a coastal passenger liner built in 1927 for the Eastern Steamship Company. While operating as the cruise ship Yarmouth Castle in 1965, she caught fire, killing 87 people.
On 8 December 1942, the keel to the light cruiser designated CL-91, was laid down by the Cramp Shipbuilding Company. On 22 April 1943, Oklahomans were outraged, having just learned that the Japanese had executed the captured American pilots from Jimmy Doolittle's bombing raid over Tokyo. That same day, booths were set up in Oklahoma City with the a goal to sell $40 million in War Bonds to fund the construction of a cruiser. That goal was topped by $5 million when the booths closed that night. CL-91 then became the.
The last ship Cramp's built was the cruiser, launched on April 22, 1945.
