Bath Iron Works was incorporated in 1884 on the
Kennebec River by General
Thomas W. Hyde, a native of Bath who served in the
American Civil War. After the war, he bought a shop that made windlasses and other iron hardware for the wooden ships built in Bath's many shipyards. He expanded the business by improving its practices, entering new markets, and acquiring other local businesses. By 1882, Hyde Windlass was eyeing the new and growing business of iron shipbuilding, and it incorporated as Bath Iron Works in 1884. On February 28, 1890, BIW won its first contract for complete vessels: two iron gunboats for the Navy. One of these ships was the , the first ship launched by the company. In 1892, the yard won its first commercial contract for the 2,500-ton steel passenger steamer . In the 1890s, the company built several yachts for wealthy sailors. In 1899, Hyde was suffering from
Bright's Disease and resigned from management of the shipyard, leaving his sons Edward and John in charge. The shipyard began construction of that same year, the only battleship ever built in Bath. It dominated the yard for five years until its launching in 1904, and was at times the only ship under construction. The yard faced numerous challenges because of the weight of armor and weapons. In sea trials,
Georgia averaged for four hours, making her the fastest ship in her class and the fastest battleship in the United States Navy at the time. The company continued to rely on Navy contracts, which provided 86% of the value of new contracts between 1905 and 1917. By then, a different company named Bath Ironworks (BIW) ran it. The yard also produced fishing trawlers, freighters, and yachts throughout the first half of the century. It went into receivership in 1925 and 6 before being bought by a conglomerate in 1926 and returning to naval ship building . The ships built before its return to naval ship building were mostly yachts such as,
Hi-Esmaro,
Aras I and
Aras II,
Caroline, and
Corsair IV, which later served as a cruise ship before sinking off
Acapulco, Mexico in 1949. In 1981, Falcon Transport ordered two tankers, the last commercial vessels built by BIW. was commissioned at Bath in 1986. It survived a mine explosion which tore a hole in its engine room and flooded two compartments. Over the next two years, BIW repaired the ship in unique fashion. The
guided missile frigate was towed to the company's dry dock in
Portland, Maine, and put up on blocks, where the damaged engine room was cut out of the ship. Meanwhile, workers in Bath built a 315-ton replacement, and the module was floated south to Portland, placed on the dry dock, slid into place under the frigate, jacked up, and welded into place. In 1995, Bath Iron Works was bought by General Dynamics. In 2001, the company wrapped up a four-year effort to build the Land Level Transfer Facility, an enormous concrete platform for final assembly of its ships, instead of building them on a sloping way so that they could slide into the Kennebec at launch. Hulls are now moved by rail from the platform horizontally onto a moveable dry dock, which greatly reduced the work involved in building and launching the ships. In 2015, Bath Iron Works signed contracts with US Navy to build new
Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, as well as to conduct maintenance sustainment support of
Independence-class littoral combat ships built by competitor
Austal USA. The shipyard delivered , , , and . The DDG block buy for Bath also includes , , and . On March 27, Bath received a $610.4 million contract modification to build
John Basilone. This ship was funded in the 2015 defense appropriations act. In 2016, Dirk Lesko became president of Bath Iron Works. Lesko resigned unexpectedly on April 7, 2022, the same day the union local announced that it had come to an agreement with the shipyard. On May 5, 2022, Charles F. Krugh was appointed president. == Offsite facilities ==