McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company

The McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company was a large-scale wartime ship manufacturing shipyard, located at the city of Riverside, near Duluth. McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding was at 110 Spring Street, Duluth, Minnesota, now the site of the West Duluth's Spirit Lake Marina. The shipyard was located on St. Louis River Estuary at western part of Lake Superior. McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company was founded by Alexander McDougall in 1917 to build ships for World War I. McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company and the Superior Shipbuilding Company were called the Twin Ports shipbuilding industry of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Once built the ships can travel to the Atlantic Ocean through the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

History

In 1890 iron ore was discovered on the Mesabi Range, this turned Duluth into a major shipping port. Duluth Works and other steel plants opened. The supply of steel opened western Duluth to shipbuilding. Before McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company opened in 1917, Alexander McDougall built 7 whaleback barges of his own new design in Duluth starting in 1887. With the success of the whaleback barge, Alexander McDougall opened the first shipyard on Lake Superior, in December 1891, that built whalebacks, like the Model 101, and steamships used for bulk cargo and passenger ships on the Great Lakes. His company was the American Steel Barge Company, which he sold in 1900 and became the Superior Shipbuilding Company, later this became the Knudsen Brothers Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company and in 1955 the Fraser Shipyards.
Samples of Alexander McDougall whalebacks:

McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company

Alexander McDougall opened the McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company due to the demand for ships for World War I. The new McDougall Duluth Shipyard was 6 miles west of his former yard on Lake Superior. Due to the growing steel and ship industries, many immigrates came to Duluth. The West Duluth riverfront had two large companies and company towns: U.S. Steel Works's city of Morgan Park that opened in 1913 and McDougall's city of Riverside that opened in 1917, with 3,000 living there. Riverside had for its workers an 800-seat theater, hospital, clubhouse, general store, monthly newspaper Riverside Review and boathouse. The town's school open in 1920 and closed in 1982. Alexander McDougall's son, Alexander Miller McDougall, and Julius H. Barnes did the day-to-day running of the town and shipyard. In 1922 Barnes also became the president of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce.
Some of ships built at McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company:
1918 Oiler tanker

1917–1918

1918 Coal ships for World War I:
Private contracts:

The USS Lakemoor or USS Lake Moor was torpedoed and sank on April 11, 1918, on maiden voyage as Navy coal ship, during World War I by U-boat in the Irish Sea, off Corsewall Lighthouse, Scotland. Lost were 46 crew members. Ship named after Lakemoor, Illinois.
The USS Lake Traverse , Navy coal ship 1918–1919, In 1925 operated as private ship, took on water due steel plate failure and sank near Tortuga Island, Haiti in the Caribbean on July 6, 1955. Ordered as SS War Centaur, name changed before delivery in April 1918. Named after Lake Traverse.

War contracts:

The USS Lake Portage was torpedoed and sank on August 3, 1918, during World War I by just south of Audierne, France. Lost were three crew members and six with burns.
The USS Lake Indian , no Navy service, took on water and sank on January 25, 1927, near Sand Key Light, Florida.
SS Lake Markham ordered as SS Allette, no Navy service, SS Chicago in 1927, scrapped in 1937.
SS Lake Helen ordered as, before delivery SS Macon. Renamed SS York in 1926, SS Skogak in 1929, SS Kama in 1933, and scrapped in 1970

1919 Cargo ships 3,600 DTW: Emergency Fleet ship

Cedar Spring
Ceralvo
Cerosco
Cerro Gordo
Chamberino
Chamblee
Chaperel
Chantier
Chappell
Chautauqua

1919-1920 Cargo ships 4,145 DTW:

Lake Flagon
Lake Flagstaff
Lake Flambeau
Lake Flanders
Lake Flatonia
Lake Flattery
Lake Strymon
La Crosse
Fargo
Sioux Falls
Great Falls
Lake Floravista
Lake Florian
Lake Floris
Lake Flournoy

1920 Tanker 2417 DWT

Theodore F. Reynolds
Julius Kessler
Philip Publicker

1920 Cargo 3,350 DWT:

Josefa
Antonio

Canal motorship 1921 1,040 DWT, for New York State Barge Canal

SS Day Peckinpaugh / I.L.I. 101, May 1921. now museum ship
I.L.I. 102, May 1921.
I.L.I. 103, May 1921.
I.L.I. 104, May 1921.
I.L.I. 105, July 1921
Barnes-Duluth Shipbuilding

Julius H. Barnes purchased the shipyard from McDougall in 1922 and renamed it Barnes-Duluth Shipbuilding. The shipyard continued to build private ships between the world wars. For World War II the yard built fully outfitted warships.
Some of Barnes-Duluth Shipbuilding ships:
Coastal tanker
In 1943 Barnes-Duluth built 12 T1-M-A1 tanker also called a small a Coastal tanker. The tanker was diesel-powered with: 800 hp, 10 knots max. Tonnage Deadweight: 1,600, Tonnage Full Load: 2,900, Dimensions: 221 feet long, Width 37 ft. The 12 ships were loaned to Britain under Lease/ Lend terms.

Tarentum
Titusville
Mannington
Salt Creek
Glen Pool
Jennings
Tonkawa
Cromwell
Benton Field
Rio Bravo
Walnut Bend
Loma Novia

Lake tankers, 3,401 DWT built in 1943:

Carpito
San Joaquin
Temblador
San Cristobal
Guarico
Guiria
Valera

Cargo ship type N3-S-A2 2,757 DWT, built in 1944:

David R. Le Craw
James Miller
Samuel Samuels
Joseph Hamilton
John D. Whidden
George W. Brown
George Crocker
''Frank Dale''
Walter Butler Shipbuilders

Walter Butler purchased the shipyard from Barnes in 1943 and renamed it Walter Butler Shipbuilders.
For World War II Walter Butler Shipbuilders Duluth built under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program C1-M type ships. The Duluth yard closed in 1945, as all war contacts ended and there was a surplus of ships at the end of the war. Walter Butler also had a shipyard in Superior, Wisconsin from 1942 to 1945 for building warships. Walter Butler shipbuilding was a family company started in 1877 as the Butler Brothers Shipbuilders, then Walter Butler Shipbuilders Inc. the brother pass the yard to Robert Butler.
Some of Walter Butler Shipbuilders Duluth ships:
C1-M-AV1 cargo ships, 2239 tons, 3,805 DWT:

Kenneth E. Gruennert
Joe P. Martinez
Alexander R. Nininger, Jr.
Roband Hitch
Spirit Lake Marina

The current site is the Spirit Lake Marina, also called West Duluth Marina, which has docks and berths for recreational boats on the river and lake. Today there are only two buildings left standing from the original shipyard campus of over two dozen buildings.

Symphony Boat Company

In 2014, commercial boat building started again, Symphony Boat Company is building recreational boats at the marina. The shipyard is active for the first time since 1945.