The Defoe Shipbuilding Co. was started by Harry J. Defoe on the Saginaw River in Michigan in 1905. Originally named Defoe Boat and Motor Works, the company started out building gasoline-powered boats for both business and private interests. Then Defoe started getting contracts with the U.S. Navy to make torpedo chasers and mine planters for the World War I effort.
Many Ships Constructed
After WWI, the Defoe Shipbuilding Co. built many types of commercial and military vessels. The firm also built a yacht that was eventually owned successively by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon. However, during the World War II years, the company focused solely on producing ships for the military, including patrol and landing vessels, destroyer escorts, minesweepers, and transport ships.
In the post-war years, the work of the Defoe Shipbuilding Co. included missile destroyers, bulk carriers, and research vessels, one of which was the ship that found the Titanic on the floor of the Atlantic. Eventually Navy contracts stopped coming to Defoe, and the shipyard was closed in 1976. The site is now used as a scrapyard in Bay City, Michigan.
Asbestos at the Defoe Shipbuilding Co.
As is true of all the shipyards operating in the first three-quarters of the 20th century, the Defoe Shipbuilding Co. did not have adequate safety precautions in place for the employees who worked with asbestos ship components. Asbestos was used widely in sea-going vessels of all types, and the installation and repair of asbestos-containing materials was quite hazardous.
When asbestos is manipulated as part of an installation or repair, the microscopic fibers of asbestos are released into the air, where they hang suspended for hours or even days. When inhaled, these fibers can lodge in the lungs and eventually cause devastating and fatal diseases like mesothelioma and lung cancer.
Learn More about Asbestos at Shipyards
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