Верфь William Cramp & Sons: История американского судостроения

American shipping company

William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company (also known as William Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Company) was an American shipbuilding company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded in 1830 by William Cramp. During its heyday in late 19th century, it was the preeminent American iron shipbuilder.

William Cramp, of German descent, was born in the Kensington district of Philadelphia in 1807. In 1855, his sons Charles Henry (born 1828) and William C., became partners with their father. In 1872, his other sons Samuel H., Jacob C., and Theodore were taken into the firm. The company was incorporated under the name "The William Cramp and Sons' Iron Shipbuilding and Engineering Company." The pilot boat Thomas Howard was built by the Cramp shipyard in 1870 for the Delaware Bay & River pilots. She was one of the Philadelphia port's fastest pilot boats. 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 defeat of 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 the adoption 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, was turned into a residential estate in early 2020s.