Great Lakes Engineering Works

Great Lakes Engineering Works was established in 1903 on the Detroit River, in Ecorse MI.  In 1905, the company took over the Columbia Iron Works, in St. Clair MI, which at that time had only built two ships.  The yard in Ashtabula OH was started in 1912.  The Ecorse yard was later renamed the River Rouge yard, as a result of reincorporation of the community.  GLEW closed in 1960. 

The shipbuilding plant of the Great Lakes Engineering Co. will be the largest on the lakes. Work is being pushed on it and a greater portion of it will be completed before August 1. The plant occupies a tract of eighty-five acres on the river front, below Smith's coal dock, the old Hall brickyard property being the nucleus around which the balance has been purchased in small parcels. The ground has frontage of 1,400 feet on the river. The Michigan Central and Detroit Southern roads will both have trackage into the yards. There will be four shipbuilding berths, 600 feet in length, so that the yard will be equipped to build at the same time four of the largest vessels ever planned for the lakes. Between these berths are to be two slips for side launching ships; one of them 600 feet long by 125 feet wide and 14 feet deep, with the other 600 feet long by 150 feet wide and 30 feet deep.

The company is a reorganization of Great Lakes Engineering Co. The capital stock is $1,500,000. Antonio C. Pessano is president and general manager; George H. Russel, vice-president, and John R. Russel, secretary and treasurer.