Customer Reviews

Ships for the Seven Seas: Philadelphia Shipbuilding in the Age of Industrial Capitalism (Studies in Industry and Society)

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This is an excellent introduction to shipbuilding in Philadelphia in the mid-19th thru early 20th centuries (although it nominally covers the trade from 1640). What I particularly like about it is that the author not only discusses the shipyards, but places their activities firmly in an historical context, so you get a good feel for the times, the cyclical nature of the industry etc.

The book mainly follows the history of the Cramp shipyard, which is commonly described as the only shipyard in the United States to successfully make the transition "from sail to steam and from wood to iron". Cramp became the biggest shipyard in the US in the late 19th century, building lots of warships for the US Navy, until its yard literally grew too "cramped" to build the biggest ships and it was superseded by newer and larger yards.

Neafie and Levy is probably the yard that gets the second most coverage, and then some of the later yards, like New York Ship, Newport News and the American International Shipbuilding Corp. I was a little disappointed that Roach and Harlan and Hollingsworth didn't get much coverage, but then this book is primarily about Philadelphian yards specifically and the two yards mentioned were not Philly companies.

Overall, very readable and informative, and obviously thoroughly researched with lots of interesting and useful info. I really enjoyed reading it and I think anyone with an interest in ships and shipbuilding would probably enjoy it too.