Bath Iron Works [SEP] parent company
of General Dynamics, the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world as of 2008. During World War II, ships built at BIW were considered to be of superior toughness by sailors and Navy officials, giving rise to the phrase "Bath-built is best-built."
History.
Bath Iron Works was incorporated in 1884 by General Thomas W. Hyde, a native of Bath who served in the American Civil War. After the war, he bought a shop that made windlasses and other iron hardware for the
Works in Bath, Maine. The 1200-horsepower vertical-beam steam engine was constructed by the Portland Company, with a bore, or cylinder diameter, measuring across, together with a stroke. The ship's two iron boilers were constructed at the Bath Iron Works, also in Bath, Maine.
"Portland" was built for the Portland Steam Packet Company (later renamed Portland Steamship Company), at a cost of $250,000, to provide overnight passenger service between Boston and Portland. She was one of New England's