General Dynamics Electric Boat
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The General Dynamics Electric Boat[1] (GDEB) is a division of General Dynamics Corporation. It has been the primary builder of submarines for the United States Navy for over 100 years.
The company's main facilities are a shipyard in Groton, Connecticut and a hull-fabrication and outfitting facility in Quonset Point, Rhode Island.
History
The company was founded in 1899 by Isaac Rice as the Electric Boat Company in order to build to completion John Philip Holland's submersible designs which were developed at Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard, located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA. The first submarine that this shipyard built was (originally) named the Holland VI, later to be known as USS Holland (SS-1). This was the first submarine to be purchased and commissioned into United States naval service on 11 April 1900. The success of Holland VI ushered in the demand for follow up models (A-class or Plunger class) that began with the prototype submersible Fulton built at the same shipyard where Holland was conceived. Many foreign governments were soon interested in John Holland's latest submarine designs and began purchasing the rights to build them under licensing contracts through the Electric Boat Company. These governments included Great Britain (Royal Navy), Japan (Imperial Japanese Navy), Russia (Imperial Russian Navy), the Netherlands (Royal Netherlands Navy), among other countries.
During World War I, the company and its subsidiaries built 85 submarines and 722 submarine chasers for the U.S. Navy. After the war, the Navy did not order another submarine from the company until Cuttlefish in 1931.[2] During World War II, the company built 74 submarines.[3]
The firm renamed itself to General Dynamics Corporation in 1952, and when Convair was acquired the next year, the holding company assumed the "General Dynamics" name, with the submarine building operation retaining the "Electric Boat" name.[4]
Electric Boat built the first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus, which was launched in January 1954, and the first ballistic missile submarine, USS George Washington, in 1959, amongst others. Submarines of the Ohio-, Los Angeles-, Seawolf- and Virginia-class submarines were also constructed by Electric Boat.
In 2002, Electric Boat conducted preservation work on the world's first nuclear powered craft, USS Nautilus, preparing her for her berth at the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut, where she now resides as a museum. Electric Boat's first submarine, the USS Holland was unfortunately scrapped for one hundred dollars in 1913.
Electric Boat is also in the business of performing overhaul and repair work on fast attack class boats. Ships that are already built return to Electric Boat's graving docks for needed repairs. Electric Boat built the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines and Seawolf-class submarines as well as others. However, most of the work done in the shipyard is focused on construction of the Virginia class.
References
- ^ General Dynamics Electric Boat home page
- ^ Lenton, H. T. American Submarines (Doubleday, 1973), p.37; Friedman, Norman. U.S. Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History (United States Naval Institute Press, 2005), pp. 285–304.
- ^ Lenton, pp.5 & 62-102 passim.
- ^ "General Dynamics Corporation". U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. Retrieved 2006-03-31.
Further reading
- The Defender: The Story of General Dynamics, by Roger Franklin. Published by Harper and Row 1986.
- Brotherhood of Arms: General Dynamics and The Business of Defending America, by Jacob Goodwin. Published 1985. Random House.
- The Legend of Electric Boat, Serving The Silent Service. Published by Write Stuff Syndicate, 1994 and 2007. Written by Jeffery L. Rodengen.
- International Directory of Company Histories Volume 86 under General Dynamics/Electric Boat Corporation, July 2007; pp. 136–139. Published by St James Press/Thomson Gale Group.
- Who Built Those Subs? Naval History Magazine, Oct. 1998 125th Anniversary issue, pp. 31–34. Written by Richard Knowles Morris PhD. Published by The United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Md. Copyrighted 1998.
- The Klaxon, The U.S. Navy's official submarine force newsletter, April 1992. Published by the Nautilus Memorial Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton/New London, CT.
- "The Ups and Downs of Electric Boat" John D. Alden, United States Naval Institute, Proceedings Magazine, July 1, 1999, p. 64.
- Running Critical: The Silent War, Rickover, and General Dynamics, by Patrick Tyler. Published by Harper & Row 1986.