American Ship Building Company and Predecessors records

By the late 1890s, the Great Lakes was saturated with shipyards. Competition was plentliful and fierce, causing ever-decreasing prices by different shipbuilding interests in order to gain market share. By 1899, the low prices resulted in consistent losses and razor-thin profit margins. In order to combat this, representatives from Cleveland Shipbuilding Company, Ship Owners' Dry Dock Company, Detroit Shipbuilding Company (created by the merger of Dry Dock Engine Works, the Detroit Dry Dock Company, and the Detroit Sheet Metal and Brass Works), and Globe Iron Works met in New York City to discuss a merger of their companies. The incorporation of the new consolidated entity, American Shipbuilding Company (AmShip), was made official on March 16, 1899. In 1900, three more companies were merged into AmShip: Superior Shipbuilding Company of Superior, Wisconsin; Toledo Shipbuilding Company of Toledo; and West Bay City Shipbuilding Company of Bay City, Michigan. AmShip also expanded through the leasing of other yards. In 1900, AmShip began leasing the facilities of Union Dry Dock Company of Buffalo, renaming it Buffalo Dry Dock Company. The Buffalo yard was purchased outright in 1914.

World War I brought great prosperity and profits to the company, as well as many other shipyards across the country. However, this was shortlived as the demand for new vessels dropped precipitously after the armistice. AmShip was able to make do with vessel repairs and a reduced number of orders for new vessels. This persisted through the Great Depression, as well, which caused lean years in most sectors of the world economy. With the onset of World War II, AmShip's construction contracts skyrocketed, producing military and civilian vessels for the war effort. Demand was so high that AmShip was asked to manage the newly-created Delta Shipbuilding Company in New Orleans, one of eight emergency yards commissioned by the United States Shipping Board to produce Liberty ships. The Delta yard was closed at the end of the war. AmShip reached number 21 on the list of most lucrative government contracts during World War II.

The American Shipbuilding Company reached its peak in the postwar economic boom. Gradually, business waned as production of steel overseas increased and undercut the U.S. market. With steel plants being the primary customers of the Great Lakes bulk carrier fleet, the number of vessels gradually dwindled in the 1960s and 1970s. Even so, AmShip built five of the so-called "thousand footers" that are currently still in service. AmShip's last hull, the William J. De Lancey (currently named the Paul R. Tregurtha), was launched in 1981. The Steinbrenner family, who had obtained a controlling interest in AmShip in the 1960s following its merger with Kinsman Marine Transit Company, sparred with the unions staffing the shipyards in an effort to reduce costs. The most notable figure from the Steinbrenner family who was involved was Henry, who would go on to own the New York Yankees. After strikes at the Chicago, Toledo, and Lorain yards in the early 1980s, AmShip closed all remaining Great Lakes facilities and moved operations to Tampa, Florida. AmShip went into bankruptcy proceedings in 1993, and was sold off in 1995.

The disposition of AmShip's subsidiaries is as follows:

The Bay City yard was closed in 1908 after the construction of the W. R. Woodford.

After performing mainly repair work in the decades after World War I, AmShip Buffalo was closed in 1962.

The Chicago yard was shutdown in the late 1970s.

Detroit Shipbuilding Company performed its last fitting-out work in 1924 and was closed in 1929. Some of the original buildings are still standing at the foot of Orleans Street in Detroit.

AmShip Superior was sold off in 1955 after performing mainly vessel repairs. It still exists today as Fraser Shipyards.

AmShip Toledo was closed in the 1980s. The yard today is operated by Ironhead Marine.