This page collects external articles, archives, and reference sites about Defoe Shipbuilding Company of Bay City, Michigan — from its origins as Defoe Boat & Motor Works in 1905 through its wartime naval production and postwar guided-missile destroyer program to the yard's closure in 1976.
Resources below cover Defoe's Cruisemaster yacht series, the yard's celebrated roll-over construction method, WWII ship production on the Saginaw River, complete vessel lists, and histories of individual ships built at the yard.
As part of our history series from the revered in-house yacht historian Malcolm Wood, SuperYacht Times takes a closer look at yacht builders and their yachts that are no longer in existence for one reason or another. Here, he takes a closer look at the Cruisemaster series from Defoe Shipbuilding Company of Bay City, Michigan, USA ....
Read the entire article at: https://www.superyachthistory.com/the-history-of-the-defoe-cruisemaster-series/
A detailed wartime account of Defoe Shipbuilding Company's naval output on the Saginaw River, describing the yard's production of minesweepers, patrol craft, landing craft, and destroyer escorts. The article explains Defoe's roll-over construction method — building hulls upside down and rotating them upright for downhand welding — and recounts the freshwater delivery voyages Captain William H. Booth and his crew made guiding new warships from Bay City through the Great Lakes to Chicago and on to New Orleans for commissioning.
Read the entire article at: https://nmgl.org/fighting-ships-from-bay-city/
Started in 1905 as a small wooden boat building business co-founded by brothers H. J. Defoe and F. W. Defoe and G. H. Whitehouse, the Defoe Shipbuilding Company came to produce several warships and support craft for the US and Australian Navies during The Second World War, the Korean, and the Vietnam Wars. The construction and contracts for these large vessels transformed the small yacht building business into a sprawling naval powerhouse that dominated the Saginaw river. This allowed the shipyards to manufacture new patrol craft and destroyers every few weeks. Notable craft include the USS Escanaba, USS Rich, HMAS Brisbane, and the HMAS Perth. In 1976 Defoe Shipbuilding Company closed its yard and sold to H.H Hirshfield & Sons scrap yard.....
Read the entire article at: https://ss.sites.mtu.edu/mhugl/2017/10/21/history-of-the-defoe-shipbuilding-company/
USS HENRY B. WILSON is the first ship of the Navy to bear this name. She is the first ship to be launched of the U.S. Navy's first class of destroyers built from the keel up to fire guided missiles. USS HENRY B. WILSON was built by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company at Bay City, Michigan. At the time of her commissioning, the ship was the largest warship ever constructed on the Great Lakes. She was christened by the sponsor, Mrs. Patrick J. Hurley, daughter of Admiral Wilson. USS HENRY B. WILSON was launched on 22 April 1959 in a spectacular side launching. Because of the unique circumstances under which she was built, the traditional champagne bottle was filled with water from the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean....
Read the entire article at: https://www.usshenrybwilsonddg7.com/tbo/History.htm
Defoe Boat & Motor Works was started in 1905 by the unlikely team of Harry J. Defoe, who was a public school principal, his brother Frederick W. Defoe, who was a New York lawyer, and his brother-in-law, George H. Whitehouse, who was in the wholesale fish business. The name was changed to Defoe Shipbuilding Company at the beginning of WWII. The shipyard closed in 1976 and the site is now a scrapyard.
Includes an extensive list of the vessels with year and delivery date.
Bowling Green State University's Center for Archival Collections maintains finding aids for Defoe Shipbuilding Company records held in the Great Lakes Maritime History collection, including The Defoe Rollover — the employee periodical published at the Bay City shipyard from December 1942 through November 1944. The finding aid describes company status reports, war-effort contributions, and employee activities documented in the newsletter archive.
View the finding aid at: https://lib.bgsu.edu/findingaids/agents/corporate_entities/525
An illustrated article on Defoe Shipbuilding Company's roll-over construction method — building hulls upside down so welders could work in the downhand position, then rotating the hull upright on 50-foot eccentric wheels in under five minutes. Describes how the technique helped Defoe produce 154 WWII naval vessels, including 58 patrol craft and 26 destroyer escorts, and notes notable Defoe-built ships such as the cutter Escanaba, PC-1129, and the presidential yacht Lenore.
Read the entire article at: https://wmhs.org/ships-that-were-built-upside-down/
An overview of the Defoe Shipbuilding Company from its founding in 1905 on the Saginaw River through its WWII naval contracts, postwar Charles F. Adams-class destroyer program, and closure in 1976. Covers the yard's early fishing-boat origins, roll-over construction technique, notable vessels including minesweepers and guided-missile destroyers, and the site's later redevelopment.
Read the article at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defoe_Shipbuilding_Company