Great Lakes Engineering Works

The GLEW was formed in 1902 to purchase Riverside Ironworks. Riverside was the short-lived successor to the venerable Samuel F. Hodge & Company, which was well known for quality steam engines and provided access to both marine and non-marine engine markets. Because of the Hodge Company, which was founded in 1863, and other companies like them, the Detroit River community had become a hot bed for steam engine development. Antonio C. Pessano was elected as president and general manager for his engineering background and charismatic personality. The company realized that its Riverside yard had limited room and service docks. GLEW announced the purchase of a second shipyard in Ecorse, Michigan, in 1903 which later became the River Rouge yard, named after its location near the confluence of River Rouge into the Detroit River. The GLEW again expanded in 1905 when it acquired the Columbia Iron Works in St. Clair, and in 1912 when operations began at their Ashtabula shipyard in Ohio. The company began with a capital of $1.5 million and a $500,000 bond issue. Within three years of GLEW's formation, Detroit built 50% of the tonnage of all ships in the Great Lakes. The Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company of Milwaukee contracted the GLEW to build the first ‘super freighter’ thus putting them on the map. Other orders of the same magnitude ensued which benefited the local economy. Hugh McElroy, general superintendent of the GLEW, stated that these contracts presented 1,300 new jobs and thereby tripled the company’s workforce. William Penn Snyder, president of Shenango Furnace Company of Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, felt that the incorporation of GLEW ships would clearly change his smaller iron and steel industry into a leading competitor. Just as Snyder had hoped, the record-breaking freighter, SS Shenango, helped dramatically expand the company. This relationship between the two companies led to the contract of more ships whereby even Elizabeth Russel, daughter of John Russel, vice president and treasurer of GLEW had the honor of christening the SS William P. Snyder. ==Construction achievements==

The GLEW set records and earned long-time standing recognition as a leading innovator in shipbuilding technology. In 1908, the SS Wyandotte was launched from the Ecorse site. This steel hulled, self-unloader was the prototype for the modern day self-unloader. Again technology advanced, and the ships of 1911 based their design on the Wyandotte but were incorporated with grander features. The GLEW designed and built seven ships of “full canal dimensions and rather deep draft,” thereby forging the way for bigger and better products and production and pushed technology further. In 1925 GLEW built the SS William C. Atwater at the River Rouge site at the request of Wilson Transit. The Atwater was “the first ship with full-size hatches [that] have single-piece steel hatch covers” In 1975 the Fitzgerald arguably became the most famous shipwreck in the history of Great Lakes shipping, made legendary by Gordon Lightfoot's popular 1976 ballad, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". ==World Wars==

The war years not only saw the construction but also the destruction of vessels. During World War I, the SS Vacuum (Hull # 99, Ecorse yard) commissioned by Ocean Freight Cargo Ship in 1912 as the SS Bayamon was sunk by German torpedo April 28, 1917, near Scotland. The SS Gratangen (Hull #156, Ashtabula) commissioned by Corona Coa in 1916 as the SS Corona was sunk by German submarine in 1917. The P. L. M. No. 4 (Hull #162, Ecorse) commissioned by the French government for the Paris, Lyon and Mediterranean Railway in 1916 was torpedoed and sunk in English Channel on December 27, 1917. As the year came to an end, more military orders from Washington came in when the Great Lakes shipyards were already operating at full capacity. The shipbuilders met the increased demand by expanding and creating ways to heighten production levels that resulted in the larger, deeper vessels. Some of the vessels became casualties of war. The SS Catherine (hull # 219 from GLEW Ecorse) was commissioned by U.S. Maritime Commission as the SS Covedale in May 1919. She was torpedoed by Germans on June 17, 1941. The supply and demands were met, but when peace came, the over-abundance of shipbuilding orders decreased and so too did the local economies of the once booming, small Great Lakes ports. The role of delivering bulk commodities could not change for GLEW’s vessels, and therefore they were valued whether at war or at peace. It was the decrease in shipbuilding orders that troubled the local economy and marked the end of an era. ==Decline==

GLEW’s 58-year history saw the end to their own epoch. Foreign firms started producing ships for lower prices. Therefore, the American steamship companies began dealing abroad. On April 30, 1961, GLEW stockholders agreed to dissolve the shipbuilding giant and sell it to the Great Lakes Steel Corporation. == Ships built ==

• Examples: • :Category:Ships built in Ecorse, Michigan • SS William G. Mather (1905), Scrapped in 1996. • SS Col. James M. Schoonmaker (1911), Currently a museum ship in Toledo, Ohio. • MV Benson Ford (1924), Scrapped in 1986, forward cabins and pilothouse now converted into a private residence on South Bass Island, Ohio. • SS William G. Mather (1925), Currently a museum ship in Cleveland, Ohio. • SS Alpena (1942), The oldest steamship currently operating on the Great Lakes. • MV Mississagi (1943), Currently undergoing scrapping. • SS William Clay Ford (1952,) Scrapped in 1987, pilothouse on display at Belle Isle, Michigan. • '''' (1958), Sunk during a storm in 1975. • SS Arthur B. Homer (1959), Sister ship to the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, scrapped in 1987. • MV Herbert C. Jackson (1959), Built at the same time as the SS Edmund Fitzgerald and SS Arthur B. Homer, currently operating on the Great Lakes. • SS Frank C. Ball (1905) • SS B.F. Jones (1905) • SS John Mitchell (1906) • SS J.H. Sheadle (1906) • SS William B. Davock (1907) • SS Thomas F. Cole (1907) • SS Willis L. King (1911) • SS South American (1913) • SS North American (1913) • SS Delphine (1921) • SS Cedarville (1927) • James L. Kuber (1952) • Vacationland a State of Michigan Ferry (1952) • For World War II, in 1943 built L6-S-B1 Lakers: • Pilot Knob/Frank Armstrong • Clarence B. Randall • J. H. Hillman, Jr. • Pilot Knob/Steelton • Adirondack/Richard J. Reiss • Lake Angelina/Cadillac • Hill Annex/George A. Sloan • McIntyre/Frank Purnell • Robert C. Stanley • Mesabi/Lehigh ==References==