Rebirth of a Giant

For nearly a century Philadelphians proudly pointed to Cramp's, the shipyards that made the slow-moving Delaware the "Clyde of America." When William Cramp founded the shipyard in 1830, he built fleet wooden clippers, helped make the U. S. one of the world's greatest seafaring nations. In the Civil War, Cramp's helped turn the tide for the Union with ironclads and monitors.

In the Spanish-American War, Cramp's built most of the famous White Squadron, including Admiral Sampson's flagship, the New York. U. S. men-of-war (many were of original Cramp design) made Cramp's world-famous. One day bearded Tsar Alexander II of Russia summoned equally bearded Charles Cramp to his palace, abruptly asked: "Mr. Cramp, at what school of naval architecture were you educated?" Said Cramp: "Your highness, I was educated in my father's shipyard, and he was educated in his father's shipyard. We founded our own school of naval architecture." The Tsar, the Mikado, the Sultan of Turkey all bought Cramp battleships. Japan's Cramp-built Kasagi sank Russia's Cramp-built Variag in 1904.

Prosperous in war, the Cramps could not thrive in peace. In 1903 they lost control of their yards to the Morgan-Drexel banks, which later passed it on to the Harrimans. During World War I, Cramp's reached its all-time peak with 11,000 workers, built 46 destroyers and five transports in two years. But in an age of disarmament there was no place for Cramp's. Bidding too desperately for Navy business, it lost $5,741,000 in 1926. The next spring the huge 62-acre yards closed their gates.

For the last 13 years those grass-grown, rusting acres have made Philadelphians melancholy. Four times attempts were made to reopen Cramp's; all four failed. Not even the Government's $400,000,000 merchant-marine program could put Cramp's back in business. In mid-1939 one Philadelphia paper screamed: "6,000 Jobs [in Cramp's] If City Acts." But the City Council, suspicious of a stock-selling scheme, refused to give up a $1,312,000 tax claim.

The fifth attempt succeeded. Reason: the U. S. Navy. After scared Congressmen began appropriating for a two-ocean fleet this summer, Secretary Frank Knox wrote Philadelphia's supercautious Mayor Robert Eneas Lamberton: "The Navy is desirous of having Cramp's reopened at the earliest possible time." With every other U. S. ocean shipyard strained to practical capacity, the idleness of Cramp's six ways, huge gantries, echoing shops and foundries could not continue.

With Navy support, the chief owners of Cramp's--Harriman interests, holders of over 90% of the mortgages--got under way. Tall, blue-eyed, soft-spoken Banker Joseph Pierce Ripley of Harriman, Ripley & Co. settled with skeptical councilmen for $100,000. The Navy settled a $1,000,000 financing lien for another $100,000. Ripley announced a plan whereby the mortgages ($5,338,000, including interest) will be exchanged for about 100,000 shares of common stock in a new Cramp's Shipbuilding Co. Another 100,000 shares will be publicly sold to raise $1,000,000 in working capital, and the Government is expected to loan $5,000,000 or more for rehabilitation. Last week the new management was named. Besides Ripley, as chairman, it includes as president bald, Annapolis-educated Industrial Engineer James Reed, who managed construction of San Francisco's $35,000,000 Golden Gate Bridge, ex-Navy aircraft procurement chief Commander Ralph D. Weyerbacher as vice president and general manager, and H. Birchard Taylor, great grandson of William Cramp, as vice president.

This week, at a quiet sheriff's sale in Philadelphia where the new company was the only bidder, the oldest shipyard in America changed hands. With many a minor financial detail yet to be unraveled, the clangor of riveting tools on the Delaware was still weeks away. But Cramp's already had a firm Navy promise for $100,000,000 in orders for cruisers.

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