The story
Founded by Edward P. Morse in 1885.1
Early period, 1885–1903
In 1880, Edward P. Morse, a 20-year-old native of Nova Scotia, Canada, arrived in New York seeking work as a shipsmith. Five years later in 1885, he opened his own ship repair business, operated from a 25 × 40 ft (7.6 × 12.2 m) building at the foot of 26th Street, Brooklyn, which he named the Morse Iron Works. In 1890, the Works was destroyed by fire but Morse quickly resumed operations. Business grew rapidly and in 1900, Morse incorporated the firm as the Morse Iron Works and Dry Dock Company, with a capital stock of $550,000.
Customers by this time consisted not only of American and foreign shipping lines seeking repairs and maintenance for their vessels, but also New York's elite yachting community, which included some of America's wealthiest business tycoons. John Jacob Astor IV had his steam yacht Nourmahal repaired there, while August Belmont Jr.'s yacht Scout was laid up at the Works in the winter season. Columbia, J. Pierpont Morgan's America's Cup defender, was prepared for her successful 1901 defense of the Cup at the Morse Works (as was the challenger, Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock II). Another wealthy patron of the company was Cornelius Vanderbilt III.
Expansion of facilities
A month after the January 1900 incorporation, the Morse Works purchased the former property of the Atlantic Yacht Club between 55th and 57th Streets, Brooklyn, for the sum of $300,000, at the same time announcing the company's intention of shifting its locus of operations there, where it planned to build a sectional floating dry dock "capable of taking the largest ship afloat". In April, a large number of yachts moored at the site were given notice to move in order for construction of the dry dock to begin, and about twenty were subsequently relocated to Morse's existing plant at 26th Street. Construction of the dry dock began in May, and took two years to complete. New piers and plant buildings were also constructed.
In 1901 and 1902 the Morse Works reported annual profits of $80,000 and $106,000 respectively. In January 1902, the company reported total assets of $1,352,758 and liabilities of $614,998, the latter of which consisted mostly of mortgage bonds secured against the company's properties. In January 1903, the company asked for an extension of its loans due to tardy payments from the U.S. government, for whom it had recently completed a considerable amount of work.
Completion of dry dock and bankruptcy, 1903
In 1903 the Morse Works completed its floating dry dock. The company's principle asset, and worth several hundred thousand dollars, it was at time of completion the world's only electrically-equipped floating dock, as well as being the first fitted with centrifugal pumps, the first powered by A/C induction motors and the first with an auxiliary pumping system. The 15,000-ton capacity facility would later prove itself capable of lifting three times the annual tonnage of any other floating dock in the country.
This addition to the company's facilities might have been expected to substantially increase profits. However, in the same year, many of New York's shipbuilding and repair yards were hit by a series of labor strikes led by the International Association of Machinists, and the Morse Works was one of the worst affected. In early October 1903, the Morse Iron Works and Dry Dock Company announced that it was filing for bankruptcy, and the company's activities temporarily came to a halt.
Reincorporation to World War I, 1904–1914
In spite of this setback, Edward P. Morse had no intention of quitting the business. With the assistance of a financier, Daniel J. Leary, Morse was able to repurchase his own plant and equipment at the trustee's sale, which he subsequently reincorporated for the sum of $600,000 in August 1904 as the Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company.
A few months later, in December 1905, an old wooden sidewheel steamer of the Joy Line called Rosalie, which had recently been laid up in Winter quarters at the Morse Works, caught fire, threatening several other ships at the yard, including the Army transport USAT McClellan and the City of Key West. Quick action by crew and workmen saved the latter two ships, but Rosalie suffered an estimated $50,000 damage. About twenty vessels were laid up in Winter quarters at the Morse Works at the time.
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In 1908, Morse filed for bankruptcy again, claiming in court that his only possessions were $100 in clothing. He appears to have resolved his difficulties with creditors on this occasion however, as the company remained in business. In 1909, the Morse Works fitted a more powerful, 500 horsepower motor to Price McKinley's speedboat Standard, with which McKinley hoped to win the International Grand Prix in Monaco. The world record for a speedboat at the time was 37 mph.
Plant and equipment, 1918-19
After the destruction of the Morse yard's blacksmith shop in the December 1917 fire, a new steel-and-glass shop was constructed at the foot of the company's South Pier. The new shop included 56 furnaces and a number of steam hammers. A new heavy forge shop was also built. This shop had nine oil-fired heating furnaces, including a 27-foot (8.2 m) car bottom type annealing furnace, all with doors operated by compressed air. The shop also contained a 50-ton steam hydraulic press capable of delivering a 1,000-ton pressure, a 4,000 lb double frame steam hammer with a 2-ton capacity, a 20-ton overhead crane and 10-ton auxiliary hoist along with two 25-ton rotators, and even its own railway siding and derrick. Other facilities of the Morse yard around this time included a three-story machine shop, carpentry shop, pattern and joining shop, storage depots etc.
To move materials around the yard, the company had its own dedicated "dry land transportation fleet" consisting of 28 trucks with capacities of between one and five tons, including three all-electric vehicles. The company's water transportation fleet, with its 15 vessels, was said to be the most complete of any ship repair yard in the country.
World's largest floating dry dock
In late 1918, the Morse Dry Dock company began work on a new sectional floating dry dock. Constructed from at least three million board feet of timber, and said to be a far more complex and difficult task than the building of a ship, the $1,000,000 dock was six years in the planning and took more than twelve months to build. It was constructed section by section at an ancillary yard of the company at the foot of 63rd St., Brooklyn. By March 1919, the first three sections were ready and were put to use for the first time in lifting the steamer Black Arrow out of the water, at the rate of one foot per minute.
When completed in late 1919, the six-section dock was the largest floating dry dock in the world, capable of lifting a ship 725 feet (221 m) long and weighing 30,000 tons. Alternatively, the dock could lift two smaller ships simultaneously. Three sections alone could lift a ship of 15,000 tons and 475 feet (145 m), four sections a vessel of 20,000 tons and 550 feet (170 m), and five, a ship of 25,000 tons and 625 feet (191 m). In February 1920, all six sections of the dock were used to lift a single ship for the first time, the 30,000-ton SS Minnesota, an operation that took 25 minutes.
Later history
World's first electric-drive passenger ship Cuba
The rebuilt Powhatan, renamed Cuba, underwent trials and began operation in late 1920 as the world's first passenger ship with an electric drive. In addition to the propulsion being electric Cuba was to be electrically lit, with all auxiliary machinery being electric. On trials with the propulsion motor delivering full 3,000 horsepower, the ship attained a speed of 17.28 knots. Electric power was provided by a steam plant of four Scotch boilers, each with three oil-fired furnaces, driving a General Electric eight-stage turbo-generator set which in turn provided power at 1,100 volts, 1,234 amperes rated at 2,350 kilowatts delivering 50-cycle alternating current to the General Electric synchronous-type electric motor with a rated 3,000 horsepower running at 1,150 volts and 1,180 amperes driving the shaft and 15-foot (4.6 m) four-bladed propeller. Two 150-kilowatt General Electric turbo-generator sets provided lighting and power for auxiliary machinery with a half-kilowatt Holtzer-Cabot Electric Company generator providing power for wireless communication. Cuba was a relatively small ship of 3,580 tons displacement at 17 feet (5.2 m) draft, 320 feet 6 inches (97.7 m) length overall and was not intended by its owners, Miami Steamship Company, to carry any cargo other than automobiles on deck, express freight and some refrigerated fruit, with emphasis put on passenger accommodations and spaces—so that Cuba could "well be called a luxurious yacht rather than a passenger steamship" for its operation between Jacksonville, Florida, and Havana, Cuba.
America's Cup and other events
In July 1920, the Morse company again played host to America's cup yachts when the defender Resolute and the challenger Shamrock IV were prepared for their races at the Morse yard. The company also provided entertainment for the yachts' crews. Shamrock IV went on to win the first two races of the series, making her the most successful challenger to that date, but was beaten in the latter three to lose the series 3–2.
In January 1921, an explosion on board the Standard Oil tanker Ardmore, under repair at the Morse yard, killed four men and injured several others. A year later, another fire, started in one of the company's garages, destroyed 25 vehicles and two pipe houses, with the total damage estimated at $150,000. In June 1924, a fire at the Morse plant ravaged the steamer Egremont Castle, doing $586,000 worth of damage. Due to problems with the insurance papers in this latter accident, the company was forced to foot the entire bill.
From Wikipedia’s article on Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3