Bath, Maine: Five Thousand Ships
The Numbers Behind Two Centuries of American Shipbuilding

About this book:

For over two centuries, a small city on the Kennebec River has launched the backbone of American maritime power—over five thousand vessels strong. From the *Virginia*, the first English ocean-going ship built in the Americas, to the steel gray destroyers that patrol the globe today, Bath, Maine, has turned timber, iron, and innovation into history. *Bath, Maine: Five Thousand Ships* takes you behind the romantic lore of "The City of Ships" to reveal the hard data driving this legacy: the tonnage launched, the workers employed, the contracts won, and the astonishing pace of a destroyer every seventeen days at the height of World War II.

This is industrial biography at its most rigorous, tracing the evolution from family-run yards crafting wooden schooners to the high-tech dominance of Bath Iron Works. Witness the pivotal pivots—sail to steam, wood to iron, peace to total war—quantified through meticulous research on costs, labor struggles, and technological leaps. Whether navigating the Civil War surge, the Cold War nuclear frontier, or the modern battles of global competition and automation, the numbers tell a story of resilience as formidable as the hulls sliding down the ways.

More than a ledger of launches, this is the saga of a community forged by the rhythm of the river. Explore the human cost and benefit of an industry that built a town, sustained generations, and armed a nation. For the historian, the economist, and the maritime enthusiast, *Five Thousand Ships* delivers the definitive, data-rich portrait of America’s most enduring shipbuilding capital—where the next century of the fleet is already taking shape.