Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works The Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works , often referred to by its parent company name of John Roach & Sons , or just known as the Roach shipyard , was a major late – 19th - century American shipyard founded in 1871 by John Roach . For the first fifteen years of its existence , the shipyard was by far the largest and most productive in the United States , building more tonnage of ships than its next two major competitors combined , in addition to being the U . S . Navy ' s largest contractor . The yard specialized in the production of large passenger freighters , but built every kind of vessel from warships to cargo ship s , oil tankers , ferries , barges , tugs and yachts . Following a protracted dispute over a U . S . Navy contract for the in the early 1880s , the company ' s founder John Roach placed John Roach & Sons into receivership in 1885 . After settlement of the parent company ' s debts , the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works was reopened by Roach ' s sons and continued in operation until shortly after the death of Roach ' s eldest son John Baker Roach in 1908 , at which point the Roach family retired from the shipbuilding business . Over the course of its 37 - year history , the Roach shipyard had many notable achievements to its credit . In 1874 it built " City of Peking " and " City of Tokio " , the two largest gross - tonnage ships ever built in the United States to that date and the second largest in the world after the experimental British behemoth . In 1883 it constructed America ' s first steel - hulled steamship , the cargo ship " Alaskan " . The yard played a key role in the so - called " Birth of the New Navy " when it built the four " ABCD ships " — the U . S . Navy ' s first steel ships . It also established a reputation for itself as a builder of lavishly outfitted " night boats " for the Long Island Sound trade , and in its last years , built the first three American ships to be powered by steam turbines . In total , the Delaware River Works built 179 ships between 1871 and 1908 , including 10 warships for the U . S . Navy . Following the retirement of the Roach family in 1908 , the shipyard remained idle for some years until being reopened as the Chester Shipbuilding Co . by a naval officer , C . P . M . Jack , in 1913 . It was subsequently purchased in 1917 by W . Averell Harriman for building merchant ships during World War I , when it was renamed the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation . The yard closed permanently in 1923 . Background . John Roach began his career in the United States in 1832 as a semi - literate Irish immigrant laborer , eventually establishing his own small business with the purchase of the Etna Iron Works . Roach took advantage of the American Civil War to transform the Etna Iron Works into a major manufacturer of marine steam engines , and after the war , with the purchase in 1867 of the Morgan Iron Works , secured a near - monopoly on marine engine building in New York City . Roach had observed that the British were in the process of replacing their merchant fleet of dated wooden - hulled paddle steamers with modern iron - hulled , screw - propelled vessels , and he anticipated a similar trend in the United States . Since the iron shipbuilding capacity of the U . S . was still modest , he saw an opportunity to fill the anticipated demand with the establishment of an iron shipyard of his own . Roach carefully selected Chester , Pennsylvania as the site for his new shipyard . The locality had a number of advantages , including cheap and plentiful land along the banks of the Delaware River , proximity to Pennsylvania ' s iron and coal mining industries , an established river and rail transport network , and a readily available labor force . Accordingly , he purchased a substantial property in early 1871 on the banks of the Delaware , but around the same time , the shipyard of Reaney , Son & Archbold in the same locality entered receivership , and Roach decided to purchase that shipyard instead of starting his own from scratch . In June 1871 , he bought the former Reaney shipyard from the receivers for the sum of $ 450 , 000 , and renamed it the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works . Development . With the purchase of the Reaney property , Roach found himself in possession of a first - class shipyard . The spacious yard was ideally situated along a stretch of the Delaware where the river was over a mile wide and deep at the shore , allowing for launching of the largest vessels . The riverfront property was extensive enough to allow the construction of up to ten building slipways , as well as three piers capable of docking an additional six ships . The Reaney firm itself had already ploughed more than a million dollars into plant and equipment since opening the yard in 1859 . Roach was not content with the existing plant however . Like his early mentor James P . Allaire , Roach envisaged a vertically integrated shipbuilding empire stretching from control of the raw materials to the finished ships . Accordingly , he established his own iron mill , the Chester Rolling Mill , for the production of iron plates , beams and other parts for his ships . The Mill , located on a lot upriver from the shipyard , began production in July 1875 , and had an annual output of 700 tons of pig iron and 300 tons of ship plate . Roach also founded a number of other firms to meet the material needs of his shipyard . He established the nearby Chester Pipe and Tube Company , from which he could source the large amount of iron piping and quality boiler tubes required for his ships . With the purchase of a patent for an asbestos compound , he founded the Chalmers - Spence Company to provide pipe insulation . He also secured exclusive patent rights in Pennsylvania , New York , New Jersey and Delaware for the Hirsch propeller , a European design which lessened vibration , and he founded the Hirsch Propeller Company to manufacture it . The end result of these efforts was a network of companies that made the Roach shipyard largely independent of third - party suppliers , enabling Roach to minimize costs and undercut his competitors . Roach was also a keen proponent of labor - saving devices and continually looked for ways to cut down on costs by the use of machinery . He installed steam crane s , power punches , and a small railroad network to move materials within his plant — enough power equipment in total to require a dozen steam engines with a collective output of . By such means he ensured that his shipyard remained one of the most modern and efficient in the country . Management structure . Roach helped secure his business position in Chester by going into partnership with two prominent Chester families , the Houstons and Crozers . He made Charles B . Houston general manager of the Chester Rolling Mill and Charles ' brother David paymaster , while a third brother , Thomas , was also given a management position . The Houstons had investments in Pennsylvania ' s iron and coal mines , and they also controlled Chester ' s only newspaper , the " Chester Times " . The Houstons in turn shared business interests with Samuel A . Crozer , whose extended family — the wealthiest in Chester — owned the city ' s largest textile mill s . Collectively , the Roach , Houston and Crozer families employed 25 % of Chester ' s working population and accounted for 35 % of its payroll , their partnership virtually ensuring dominance of the city ' s politics . After taking over the Reaney yard , Roach initially attempted to retain its former managers William B . Reaney and Henry Steers by selling each of them $ 40 , 000 worth of shares in the company for $ 10 , 000 apiece , with the difference to be made up over time by payment of dividends . Roach hoped that by giving the men a stake in the business he would cement their loyalty , but in the yard ' s second year of operations , both resold their shares to Roach and resigned , fearing the yard was about to become bankrupt . After their departure , Roach elevated his eldest son , John Baker Roach , to management of the yard . Because John B . ' s management experience was mostly in farming rather than shipbuilding however , Roach senior made a point of traveling from New York to Chester every Saturday , where he would conduct a thorough tour of every department , checking the workmanship , and ordering modifications and adjustments where required . This management arrangement persisted for almost the whole of John Roach senior ' s presidency of the company . Labor relations . Like most industrialists of his era , Roach was staunchly anti - union , and insisted his employees negotiate on an individual basis for their wages . Roach however , took the concept of individual negotiation much further than most of his contemporaries . Instead of paying a set wage to workers based on their qualifications or skill , he organized a sliding scale of wages for each group , based on a set of criteria Roach himself deemed important . A worker who met all the criteria would receive the top rate , while those who did not would have their wages progressively reduced , depending on the number of criteria they failed . Criteria for payment included not only a worker ' s skill level , but his punctuality , dependability , eagerness and quality of work , in addition to which his moral character was subject to assessment . Workers who spent too much on alcohol , who paid their rent erratically , whose families were poorly clothed , or whose children did not attend church or school , could expect to have their wages reduced still further . There could thus be spectacular differences in pay within a particular group , with the most valued workers sometimes receiving as much as fives times more than the least valued . Even Roach ' s best paid workers , however , were usually paid little better , and sometimes worse , than comparable tradesmen at other yards , and Roach ' s overall wage rates were on average lower than his competitors . His business though did not suffer more industrial action , which Roach , who had spent many years as a tradesman himself , attributed to his rapport with his employees . A more concrete reason may have been the fact that Roach still operated his old New York shipyard , the Morgan Iron Works , so that when there was a strike at one plant he could readily defeat it by simply transferring his operations to the other . Roach was also not above reducing the overall wages of his workforce in lean times , by as much as 15 % , but when doing so would also reduce the rents by a corresponding degree for those workers living in housing provided by him . Roach was never able to supply housing for his entire workforce , but he did own about 100 houses in Chester , which were mostly rented by his foremen and other key personnel . John Roach Presidency , 1871 - 1887 . The first ship built by the Delaware Works was a 1 , 605 - ton cargo ship , " City of San Antonio " — fittingly built for C . H . Mallory and Co . , whose proprietor Charles Mallory would eventually become a business partner of Roach and one of his major customers . Pacific Mail contracts . In 1872 , the U . S . Congress awarded the Pacific Mail Steamship Company a $ 500 , 000 annual subsidy to operate a steam packet service between the United States and the Far East . Pacific Mail thereupon decided to upgrade its entire fleet of aging , wood - hulled sidewheel steamer s by replacing them with modern iron - hulled screw steamships . The Roach yard received a major boost when it won contracts to build nine of these new vessels for the company . The first two of these ships , the passenger - cargo vessels " Colon " ( 2 , 686 tons ) and " Colima " ( 2 , 906 tons ) , were delivered in November 1872 and April 1873 respectively , but in the spring of 1873 , Pacific Mail informed Roach that it was unable to meet its obligations . Pacific Mail ' s President and another company director had depleted the company ' s cash reserves with a stock manipulation scheme , and then absconded with a large sum of money after the scheme fell through . To make matters worse , stock speculator Jay Gould , in an attempt to gain control of the company by driving down its share price , subsequently persuaded the U . S . Congress to rescind Pacific Mail ' s $ 500 , 000 subsidy . Roach was put in a difficult position since he had several Pacific Mail steamships still on the slipways , but he managed to delay his own creditors and renegotiate the Pacific Mail contract , reducing the latter ' s monthly obligations from $ 75 , 000 to $ 35 , 000 . In 1874 , the Roach shipyard launched the Pacific Mail passenger - cargo steamers " City of Peking " and " City of Tokio " . At 5 , 033 gross tons each , these were by far the largest iron merchant steamships built to that date in the United States and almost twice the gross tonnage of the previous largest , the Cramp - built " Pennsylvania " class . In fact they were the largest gross - tonnage steamships in the world behind the experimental British ship " Great Eastern " ( which was a commercial failure ) and they remained the largest American - built steamships for a number of years . Between 1873 and 1875 , Roach also completed the contracts for the remaining five Pacific Mail ships , " City of Panama " , " City of Guatemala " , " City of San Francisco " , " City of New York " and " City of Sydney " . He eventually built more ships for Pacific Mail , however , this early negative experience led him to reject future shipbuilding contracts sought on terms . Other early customers . Roach had founded the Delaware shipyard in anticipation of a boom in iron shipbuilding in the United States . He was soon to discover that he had seriously underestimated the conservatism of American shipping lines , most of whom were content to continue ordering the familiar wooden - hulled paddle steamers in spite of the proven advantages of iron hulls and screw propulsion . In order to attract more business , Roach tried reducing the entry cost of purchase by offering to buy shares in the ships he sold , taking a corresponding ratio of their future earnings as part payment for their construction . In this way he found himself gradually accumulating substantial interests in a number of different shipping lines . Three shipping lines whose owners understood the advantages of iron ships and who became repeat customers of the Roach shipyard in its early years were the Ocean Steamship Company , the Ward Line and the Mallory Line . For Ocean Steamship , which ran a line between San Francisco and Portland , Oregon , Roach built four passenger freighters of about 2 , 000 tons between 1877 and 1878 : " City of Macon " , " City of Savannah " , " City of Columbus " and " Gate City " . Roach completed another three ships for the company between August and November 1882 — the 2 , 670 - ton passenger freighters " Tallahassee " , " Chattahoochee " and " Nacoochie " . The Ward Line , which operated a line between the United States and Cuba , also supplied a steady trickle of contracts . The Roach yard completed the 2 , 265 - ton sister ships " Niagara " and " Saratoga " for the Ward Line in 1877 . The following year , the yard completed the 2 , 426 - ton " Sarataga II " for the same company , and in 1879 completed the 2 , 300 - ton " Santiago " . Another passenger - freighter , the 2 , 300 - ton " Cienfuegos " , was completed for the Ward Line in 1883 . Roach owned shares in some of these vessels , and he eventually became a director on the company ' s board . Roach ' s best commercial customer in these early years was Charles Mallory , owner of the Mallory Line , which operated steamships between New York and various ports in the Gulf of Mexico . The Roach shipyard built a dozen ships for Mallory between 1872 and Roach ' s retirement in 1887 . They included ten passenger freighters , ranging from the 1 , 486 - ton " City of Waco " , built in 1873 , to the 3 , 367 - ton " Nueces " , completed in 1887 , the others being " State of Texas " ( completed 1874 ) , " Rio Grande " ( 1876 ) , " Colorado " ( 1879 ) , " Guadalupe " and " San Marcos " ( 1881 ) , " Lampasus " and " Alamo " ( 1883 ) , and " Comal " ( 1885 ) . Roach owned shares in almost all these ships . In 1877 , the Roach yard built a sectional dry dock for the Pensacola Navy Yard . Roach won the contract with a $ 219 , 000 bid , $ 60 , 000 lower than the next lowest bid , and completed the dock the same year . In 1880 , Roach finished construction of the coastal passenger steamer " Columbia " for the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company . " Columbia " was the first ship to utilize a dynamo and the first structure other than Thomas Edison ' s Menlo Park , New Jersey laboratory to use the incandescent light bulb . Due to the complexity of Edison ' s new lighting systems , the final installations of the Edison equipment onboard " Columbia " were completed by Edison ' s personnel in New York City . In 1881 , Roach partnered with a business rival , William Cramp & Sons , to form the Iron Steamboat Company , which built a number of iron ferries of around 900 tons gross each to replace the wooden ferries still operating in New York Harbor . The Cramp yard built four of these ferries and the Roach yard built three — " Signus " , " Cepheus " , and " Sirius " . A notable vessel built by the yard in this period was the " night boat " " Pilgrim " for the Fall River Line , which was fitted with the largest simple walking beam engine ever installed in a steamboat . Brazil Line . Roach also built ships for a shipping line of his own . In 1879 , with Mallory as a minor partner , he established the United States and Brazil Mail Steamship Company to operate a line between the U . S . and Brazil , through which he expected to foster America ' s export trade by the use of fast and reliable modern steamships . Roach hoped that the Brazil Line would be the first step in the creation of a vast global transportation network with John Roach & Sons at the center . Accordingly , he constructed two new 3 , 000 - ton ships for the line , " City of Rio de Janeiro " and " City of Para " . Roach invited President Rutherford B . Hayes and the entire U . S . Congress to the launch of " City of Para " in 1878 , but to his consternation , his attempts to secure subsidies from the U . S . and Brazilian governments were both to meet with failure . Meanwhile , Mallory ' s misgivings that the ships were too big for the available trade proved correct , and Roach was faced with cutthroat competition from a British shipping line . After several years of increasing losses , he was forced in 1881 to sell the ships and wind up the Line . Roach was not quite ready to concede defeat however . The following year , he organized a new Brazil Line with another investor , and built three new passenger freighters for it - " Advance " and " Finance " , both of 2 , 600 tons , and the 2 , 985 - ton " Allianca " . The new Brazil Line would struggle on for a number of years without ever making a profit , before finally failing in 1893 . Roach lost almost a million dollars on the first Brazil Line alone , and the failed venture was to leave his shipyard chronically short of operating capital . The shortage of cash would eventually become a critical problem for the yard . U . S . Navy contracts to 1876 . For the first dozen years of its operations , the Roach shipyard was by far the U . S Navy ' s biggest contractor . Between 1873 and 1885 , the yard received almost $ 4 million in contracts from just one Navy department , four times as much as the next largest contractor . Unfortunately , Naval contracts in this era often turned out to be liabilities for shipyards , and this would also prove to be the case for John Roach & Sons . The Delaware River Works completed its first job for the Navy — an engine for — in 1873 . In 1874 , a war scare over the " Virginius " incident with Spain prompted the Navy to hastily initiate a rebuilding program . As part of this program , the Roach yard secured contracts for the repair of four Civil War monitors : , , and . The same year , the yard launched two " Alert " - class gunboat s for the Navy , and , and supplied the engine for the third , . Apart from the fourteen ageing Civil War monitors still in service , the three " Alert " - class gunboats were the Navy ' s only iron - hulled vessels at this time . The " Virginius " affair also prodded the Navy into construction of a new and more modern class of monitors , the " Amphitrite " class . Since existing naval appropriations were not sufficient for the construction of this class , the Navy used funds set aside for repair and maintenance instead , by scrapping five old monitors and building five almost entirely new ones with the same names on the pretext of " repairing " the old ones . Roach received contracts for two of these ships — and , but when the Hayes administration came to power in 1877 , it quickly canceled all the " Amphitrite " contracts except that for " Miantonomoh " which was already almost completed . Roach was left with an unpaid $ 200 , 000 bill on " Puritan " , and was forced to keep the unfinished vessel in his shipyard at his own expense until 1882 when the government finally appropriated funds for its completion . Expansion of facilities . A U . S . shipbuilding boom beginning in 1880 encouraged many American shipyards to upgrade their facilities , and John Roach & Sons was no exception . In 1880 , Roach expanded the facilities of the Chester Rolling Mill by adding a new blast furnace . The new furnace eventually allowed the production of 300 tons of steel weekly , in addition to the 700 tons of pig iron and 300 tons of iron plate the mill was already producing . Roach also added machinery to the mill for the rolling of steel plates . Roach had recognized the growing demand for steel products in the U . S . economy , and in 1880 he established the Combination Steel and Iron Company downriver from his Chester shipyard , which began production in January 1881 . He soon discovered however that U . S . steelmakers could not keep up with national demand , so he also established his own steel manufacturing company , the Standard Steel Casting Company , which began production early in 1884 . All these new facilities would soon be utilized for supplying steel to his shipyard . The facilities of the shipyard itself were also expanded in this period . In 1881 , Roach added a number of hydraulic and pneumatic riveting machines to the yard — amongst the first such machines in the country . In the same year , he installed a private telegraph network to accelerate communications between his various plants , and he also installed an Edison electric lighting system at the yard which allowed longer working hours in winter and a second shift when required . ABCD ships . The Garfield administration , which came to power in 1881 , proved more sympathetic to the idea of revamping the dilapidated Navy than the previous administration . After many months of indecision , the government decided to go ahead with the completion of the earlier " Amphitrite " class , and additionally approved the construction of a new group of four all - steel warships , consisting of one 4 , 300 - ton protected cruiser , two 3 , 000 cruisers and one dispatch vessel . These four ships would eventually become known as the " ABCD ships " after their names — " Atlanta " , " Boston " , " Chicago " and " Dolphin " . The government issued public tenders for construction of the ships in June 1883 , and on 3 July it was announced that John Roach & Sons had won all four contracts . Roach immediately went to work on construction of the ships , but continual design changes submitted by the Navy , in addition to shortages of the high quality steel demanded by Navy inspectors , soon had construction falling well behind schedule . Roach found himself faced with mounting financial losses . A fire in the shipyard and the loss of two steamers in which Roach had part ownership depleted cash reserves still further . By the time the first ship to be completed , " Dolphin " , was ready for her final sea trials in early 1885 , a new Democratic administration under Grover Cleveland had come to power . In spite of " Dolphin " passing her sea trials , the new administration , which suspected Roach of receiving favors from the previous Republican administration , found a pretext to declare the " Dolphin " contract void . Roach , by now a terminally ill old man , placed his company into receivership a short time later . He later explained that the voiding of the " Dolphin " contract made it impossible for him to secure a loan to continue his business since he still had another three Navy vessels on his slipways whose contracts might also be declared void . Fearing a public backlash from the bankruptcy of the nation ' s biggest shipyard , Secretary of the Navy William Whitney moved quickly to limit the political damage . All four ABCD ship contracts were declared " valid but forfeit " since the shipbuilder had failed to complete the work in the allotted time . Navy officials subsequently took charge of the Roach shipyard and its workforce , and the remaining three vessels , , and , were completed over the next 22 months , during which time all other work at the shipyard was prohibited . The Roach family would later initiate a $ 330 , 151 lawsuit against the government for losses incurred by John Roach & Sons during this period . The case was finally settled in 1898 when the government made a special appropriation to pay the claim . In spite of the heavy criticism initially levelled at them from many different quarters , the completion of the four ABCD ships — the Navy ' s first steel vessels — was later hailed as the " Birth of the New Navy " , and all four vessels were to provide many years of reliable service . John Baker Roach Presidency , 1887 - 1907 . By August 1885 , the receivers of John Roach & Sons , George E . Weed and George W . Quintard , had determined the company ' s total assets at approximately $ 4 . 6 million after writedowns , while its liabilities totaled about $ 2 . 6 million , leaving the company a net worth of approximately $ 2 million . The receivers then began selling assets to pay off the creditors , a process that took approximately eighteen months . During this period , John Roach Sr . died aged 71 , on January 10 , 1887 . After all the creditors had been paid , the Roach family found itself still in possession of the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works in Chester and the Morgan Iron Works in New York , and they decided to continue in the shipbuilding business . John Baker Roach became President of the Chester shipyard , and the Morgan Iron Works was incorporated , with George E . Weed and John Baker Roach and his younger brothers Garrett and Stephen becoming President , Vice - President , Secretary and Treasurer respectively . From this point however , the Roach shipyard , which had lost both the dynamic leadership of John Roach Sr . , and the network of companies previously supporting its operations , was to forfeit its position of pre - eminence in the American shipbuilding industry and never regain it . The shipyard of William Cramp & Sons , and later on , other shipyards , would soon supplant the Roach yard in terms of facilities and annual output . In 1890 Roach and Weed twice attempted to float the business , including their Morgan Ironworks , on the London Stock Exchange . Roach ' s Shipbuilding & Engineering Co . Ltd . was registered . Of its proposed capital of £550 , 000 ( about $ 2 , 750 , 000 at historic exchange rates ) , of which £400 , 000 ( $ 2mn ) was to purchased the business - it was alleged that the remainder would go to the promoters . The flotation failed , partly over this allegation , but also due to doubts over the value of the business ; the Secretary of the Navy was also reported to have boycotted the company due to its foreign capital . Ongoing customers . In the first years of John Baker Roach ' s presidency of the Delaware Works , the yard continued to enjoy the patronage of a number of former customers , including both the Ward Line and the Mallory Line . The shipyard completed the passenger freighters " Leona " ( 3 , 300 tons ) and " Concho " ( 3 , 700 tons ) for the Mallory Line in 1888 and 1891 respectively . After the death of Charles Mallory in 1890 however , the yard received no more Mallory Line orders until 1903 , when it built the 6 , 069 - ton passenger freighter " San Jacinto " . This latter vessel was the largest ship ever built at the yard under Roach management . In 1898 , the Ward Line also ordered three new ships , the 3 , 500 ton passenger freighters " Yumuri " , " Orizaba " and " Yucatán " , but these were the last ships ordered by the company , possibly because its fleet was requisitioned by the U . S . Navy during the Spanish - American War . The following year , the yard completed another two passenger freighters for the struggling U . S . and Brazil Mail Company , the 4 , 000 - ton passenger freighters " Seguranca " and " Vigilancia " . These new vessels did not improve the Brazil Line ' s fortunes and it went bankrupt in 1893 . The Ocean Steamship Company also continued to be a major customer . Ocean Steamship ordered the 2 , 000 - ton passenger freighter " City of Birmingham " in 1888 . In the early 1900s the company ordered a number of new passenger freighters of about 5 , 000 tons , including " City of Memphis " , delivered in 1902 , " City of Macon " ( 1903 ) , and the sister ships " City of Columbus " and " City of Atlanta " ( 1904 ) . The last ship built by the Delaware River Works was fittingly a vessel for Ocean Steamship , the 5 , 600 - ton passenger freighter " City of Savannah " , delivered in August 1907 . In 1891 , the yard built the hulls ( under subcontract from N . F . Palmer & Co . ) for two more U . S . Navy warships , the 1 , 710 - ton gunboats and . These were the last warships built by the Delaware Works for the Navy . New clients . The Delaware River Works also enjoyed the patronage of some new clients in these years . The Old Dominion Steamship Company became a major client in the 1890s , ordering five passenger freighters of about 3 , 000 tons including " Jamestown " and " Yorktown " , built in 1894 , " Princess Anne " ( 1897 ) , and the sister ships " Hamilton " and " Jefferson " , completed in 1899 . Other new clients for passenger ships included the New England Steamboat Company , which ordered four sub - 3 , 000 - ton vessels from 1896 , " Mohawk " , " Mohegan " , " Pequonnock " and " New Haven " , and the American - Hawaiian Steamship Company , which ordered three large passenger - freighters of about 5 , 600 tons , , and , all three of which were completed between 1900 and 1901 . Other repeat customers in this period included the Brooklyn & New York Ferry Company , which ordered six new ferries of about 800 tons between 1895 and 1898 , the Standard Oil Company , which ordered four tank barges and / or oil tankers , and the Panama Railroad Company , which ordered half a dozen barges of about 300 tons between 1898 and 1902 . Additionally , the yard completed a number of yachts for private clients . Night boats . Among the most notable vessels built by the Delaware River Works during John Baker Roach ' s presidency were the three " night boats " built for the Old Colony Steamship Company , owner of the Fall River Line which operated a steamboat service between New York and Massachusetts . The Line ' s steamboats — classic sidewheel steamers equipped with sleeping berths for overnight journeys ( hence the term " night boat " ) — maintained a tradition of opulence that earned them the title of " floating palaces " . The Roach family had a long - established connection with the Fall River Line , as John Roach Sr . — while head of the Etna Iron Works in New York in the 1860s — had supplied the engines for two of the Line ' s most celebrated steamboats , " Bristol " and " Providence " . These engines , with their massive cylinders , were at the time the largest engines built in the United States . Roach Sr . had also built the sidewheel steamer " Pilgrim " for the Line in 1883 . The three night boats subsequently built for the Old Colony Steamboat Company during John B . Roach ' s stewardship were not directly contracted to the Roach shipyard itself but to the engine - building firm of W . & A . Fletcher Co . , which designed and built their engines and subcontracted with the Delaware Works for construction of the hulls . All three boats were designed by the Fall River Line ' s in - house naval architect , George Pierce . The first of these three boats , the 4 , 600 - ton " Puritan " , built in 1887 , was fitted with the largest walking beam engine ever built . She was also the first steamboat built for service on Long Island Sound to have a steel hull . The second was a smaller vessel , the 3 , 800 - ton " Plymouth " , built in 1889 . As it was decided that the walking beam engine had reached its practical limit in " Puritan " , " Plymouth " was installed with a more modern triple expansion engine instead . The last of the three vessels was the 5 , 300 - ton " Priscilla " , built in 1894 , which had a double compound engine and Scotch boilers . All three of these vessels were considered in their day to be the epitome of elegance and sophistication and gave many years of service on Long Island Sound . Turbine - powered steamships . Amongst the last notable steamships built by the Delaware River Works were the three turbine - powered steamships , and " Harvard " . As with the Fall River Line night boats , these vessels were contracted for by W . & A . Fletcher Co . , which built the ships ' engines and subcontracted with the Roach yard for construction of the hulls . These ships are notable for being the first three U . S . - built ships to be powered by steam turbines . Design of the engines was licensed by W . & A . Fletcher from the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company , inventor of the turbine engine . " Governor Cobb " , a 2 , 700 ton passenger steamer built in 1906 for the Boston - New Brunswick trade , has the double distinction of being not only America ' s first turbine - powered vessel , but also of eventually becoming the world ' s first helicopter carrier . The ship had a top speed of . The 3 , 750 - ton sister ships " Yale " and " Harvard " — built in 1907 for the Metropolitan Steamship Company , which operated them between New York and Boston — had a top speed of and when first entering service were the fastest American - flagged vessels afloat . Later history . After the death of John Baker Roach in 1908 , the Roach family heirs decided not to continue the business . The shipyard lay idle for some years until being leased in about 1913 by an engineer and former naval officer , C . P . M . Jack , who used the yard for converting old freighters into oil tankers . Jack ' s pioneering method of building ships from prefabricated components would later be widely adopted in the industry . In 1917 , railroad heir W . Averell Harriman , anticipating America ' s entry in World War I , purchased the shipyard to build merchant ships for the war effort , renaming it the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation . Between 1917 and 1923 , Harriman built about 40 merchant ships of various kinds at the yard . Merchant Shipbuilding was closed permanently in 1923 due to the postwar shipbuilding slump . Production summary , 1871 - 1907 . Commercial and private vessels . The overwhelming majority of ships built by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works were merchant ships , i . e . for commercial use . A handful of the smaller vessels , particularly the yachts , were for private use . Warships are covered in a separate section . Warships . All warships were built for the U . S . Navy with the exception of the small gunboat " Graciosa " , which was built for the Spanish Navy . Ships are listed in order of launch date , or in the case of refitted vessels ( second table ) by the date on which the refit began . In addition to the vessels listed below , the Roach yard also built the Presidential yacht , but since she was not a warship she is listed with the other yachts in the " commercial and private " section above . Total production , 1871 - 1907 . The following table represents the total ship production of the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works from the company ' s establishment in 1871 to its final closure in 1908 . In addition to the ships listed here , the company manufactured a number of engines for warships built elsewhere ( listed in a previous table ) , and it also built a sectional dry dock for the Pensacola Navy Yard . References . Books Websites