American Ship Building Article – March 8, 1954

Did you ever see a ship get launched in the American Ship Building Lorain yards during its heyday?

It's quite a spectacle, and exciting as well, watching a huge ship slide sideways down to the water, followed by a giant splash. Consequently, it's been a favorite subject of Lorain postcards for a long time.

I hadn't thought too much about other ways that a ship might be launched until I saw this front page of the March 8, 1954 Lorain Journal. The photo is of a new ship under construction in drydock at the American Ship Building Company. 

As the article notes, "An easier and safer way of method of launching will be utilized by the American Ship Building Company for its Hull No. 871 now under construction in the Lorain yards. Instead of the usual side launching the new hull will be floated from the dry dock in which it is being built.

"This method has its disadvantages since it monopolizes the drydock for a lengthy period. But this new 710 foot long freighter is so big that company officials explained there was no other safe way to build it.

"The craft's keel was laid in the drydock early last November. In ten weeks almost the entire bottom, tank top, side tanks, and part of the spar deck were erected. Also in place is the stern frame.

"When the vessel is finished it will be just a few feet shorter than the dock and just a few feet narrower than the dock width."

Elsewhere on that same front page: a robbery at Four Corners Tavern, located at Elyria Avenue and North Ridge Road; vandalism at two schools in the Grove Avenue area in Lorain; a crackdown on Communism in Puerto Rico: and a thief's humorous justification for his crimes.