The Maryland Drydock Company was a

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

company that operated in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

during the 20th century. The company started life in 1920 as the Globe Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Maryland. Its president at this time was B. C. Cooke. The company bought land along the

Patapsco River The Patapsco River mainstem is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal port ...

across the Bay from

Fort McHenry Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack b ...

. It later changed its name to the simpler "Maryland Drydock Company". Sometime after 1950, its name was changed again, to the Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. Maryland Drydock specialized in ship conversions, upgrades and repairs rather than with shipbuilding per se. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the company was employed in the conversion of numerous warships built at other yards for the US war effort. Unlike many other shipbuilding companies of the period, it survived the postwar downturn in the shipbuilding industry. In 1970, the company's yard in Baltimore was purchased by the

Fruehauf Trailer Corporation Fruehauf Trailer Corporation, previously Fruehauf Trailer Company (1918–1963) and Fruehauf Corporation (1963–1989), was an American company engaged in the manufacture and sale of truck trailers, and other machinery and equipment, with headquar ...

which spent $30 million upgrading the site. Adverse economic conditions caused the yard to close in 1984 and much of the site was razed, although one

drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

was preserved and was being used by Kurt Metal for the scrapping of old ships in 1995. Not counting the many vessels "jumbosized" there, a total of at least eighteen vessels were built during the shipyard's history.

List of vessels built by the company

''This is an incomplete list.'' *''Gov. Harry W. Nice'' (

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

), keel laid September 15, 1937, launched December 11, 1937 and delivered to the Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry Company April 30, 1938. Later sold and used in

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

. *''Gov. Herbert R. O'Conor'' (ferry), launched 1946, used in Puget Sound. * M/V ''Islander'' (ferry), launched 1950. * M/V ''North River'', launched 1974, still in service for New York City DEP
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References

{{Authority control Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Baltimore Water transportation in Maryland Fruehauf Trailer Corporation Defunct manufacturing companies based in Maryland