Morse Dry Dock & Repair Company

The Morse Dry Dock & Repair Company was a ship construction and repair company based in Brooklyn, New York that operated during the first half of the 20th century. The company appears to have been founded some time in the 19th century as the Morse Iron Works and Dry Dock Company.

In 1903, the "New York Times" described the company's shipyard in the following terms:

The yards, embracing an enormous ship basin, stretch from Fifty-fifth Street to a point between Fifty-seventh and Fifty-eighth Streets, South Brooklyn, and the electric dry dock, which is the only one of its kind in the country, and which required two years for construction, is the principal single asset, being valued at several hundred thousand dollars. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=950CE5DD1039E333A25754C0A9669D946297D6CF "New York Times"] , October 7, 1903,]

The company was owned by Edward P. Morse.

Morse Dry Dock appears to have specialized more in ship repairs than in shipbuilding, and seems to have derived a fair proportion of its trade from effecting routine repairs to steamships plying the transatlantic routes between New York City and Europe.

The company is recorded as having repaired several ships for the US Navy during World War II, but it seems to have done a surprisingly small amount of work for the military during the war. Possibly it was mostly engaged in effecting repairs to merchant vessels instead.

There is no mention of the company in readily available sources after World War II, which suggests that like many other shipyards, it may have folded or been absorbed by a larger company in the postwar industry shakeout.

Footnotes

References

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=950CE5DD1039E333A25754C0A9669D946297D6CF Morse Iron Works in receivership] , "New York Times", 7 October 1903.
* [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9402E2DB153CE533A2575BC1A9679C946095D6CF&oref=slogin Morse Dry Docks defends ship repair prices] - "New York Times", January 18, 1921.