Bath Iron Works Bath Iron Works ( BIW ) is a major American shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath , Maine , United States . Since its founding in 1884 ( as Bath Iron Works , Limited ) , BIW has built private , commercial and military vessels , most of which have been ordered by the United States Navy . The shipyard has built and sometimes designed battleship s , frigate s , cruiser s and destroyer s , including the , which are currently among the world ' s most advanced surface warships . Since 1995 , Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics , the fifth - largest defense contractor in the world ( as of 2008 ) . During World War II , ships built at BIW were considered by sailors and Navy officials to be of superior toughness , giving rise to the phrase " " Bath - built is best - built . " " History . Bath Iron Works was incorporated in 1884 by General Thomas W . Hyde , a native of Bath who served in the American Civil War . After the war , Hyde bought a local shop that helped make windlass es 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 ; two years later , it incorporated as Bath Iron Works . On February 28 , 1890 , BIW won its first contract for complete vessels , two iron gunboat s for the U . S . Navy . The , one of these gunboats , was the first ship launched by the company . ( Historian Snow ( see " Further Reading " ) says the gunboat was commanded during World War I by Chester Nimitz , an assertion that is not supported by Nimitz ' s biographers . ) In 1892 , the yard won its first commercial contract for a steel vessel , the 2 , 500 - ton steel passenger steamer " City of Lowell " . In the 1890s , the company built several yachts for wealthy sailors . In 1899 , General Hyde , suffering from the Bright ' s Disease that would kill him later that year , resigned from management of the shipyard , leaving his sons Edward and John in charge . That year the shipyard began construction of the , the only battleship to be built in Bath . The ship 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 , the " Georgia " averaged 19 . 26 knots ( 35 . 67 km / h ) for four hours , making her the fastest ship in her class and the fastest battleship in the Navy . The company continued to rely on Navy contracts , which provided 86 % of the value of new contracts between 1905 and 1917 . The yard also produced fishing trawlers , freighters , and yachts throughout the first half of the century . At peak production during World War II ( 1943 – 1944 ) , the shipyard launched a destroyer every 17 days . Bath Iron Works ranked 50th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts . In 1981 , Falcon Transport ordered two tankers , the last commercial vessels built by BIW . In 1988 , the , commissioned two years earlier at Bath , survived a mine explosion that tore a hole in its engine room and flooded two compartments . Over the next two years , BIW repaired the " Roberts " in unique fashion . The guided missile frigate was towed to the company ' s dry dock in Portland , Maine , and put up on blocks , where its damaged engine room was cut out of the ship . Meanwhile , workers in Bath built a 315 - ton replacement . When it was ready , the module was floated south to Portland , placed on the dry dock , slid into place under the " Roberts , " jacked up , and welded into place . By surviving a hit that Naval Sea Systems Command engineers thought should have sunk her , the " Roberts " validated the penny - pinching design of the , the U . S . Navy ' s largest post - WWII class until the " Burke s " ; and validated the Navy ' s against - the - odds decision to have picked BIW to design it . In 2001 , BIW wrapped up a four - year effort to build an enormous concrete platform , the Land Level Transfer Facility , for final assembly of its ships . Instead of being built on a sloping way so that they could slide into the Kennebec at launch , hulls were henceforth moved by rail from the platform horizontally onto a moveable dry dock . This greatly reduced the work involved in building and launching the ships . The 750 - foot , 28 , 000 - ton dry dock was built by China ' s Jiangdu Yuchai Shipbuilding Company for $ 27 million .