Edward P. Morse
| Edward P. Morse | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
March 7, 1859 Clementsport, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Died | August 26, 1930 (aged 71) Clementsport, Nova Scotia |
| Nationality | Canadian-American |
| Occupation | Business |
| Known for | Proprietor of the Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company of Brooklyn, New York. |
Edward Phinley Morse (7 March 1859—26 August 1930) was a Canadian-American industrialist and proprietor of the Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company, a major late 19th/early 20th century ship repair facility located in Brooklyn, New York. He later assisted in the creation of United Dry Docks, Inc., a corporation formed by the merger of six New York-based ship repair companies including his own, and at the time the largest corporation of its type in the world.
At one time, Morse's fortune was estimated at $40,000,000, but after his death in 1930, his taxable estate was appraised at a relatively modest $1.646 million ($22.5 million in 2015 dollars).
Morse was born in Clementsport, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1859. At the age of 20, he arrived in Brooklyn, New York, USA seeking work, which he eventually obtained in a shipsmithing yard. About five years later in 1885, he opened a small shipsmithing yard of his own at the foot of 26th Street, Brooklyn, which he named the Morse Iron Works.
In 1890 a fire destroyed the Morse Works but he re-established it quickly thereafter. Over the next dozen or so years, Morse was forced to place his company into receivership several times but on each occasion was able to recover and continue to expand the business. By 1900 his repair yard, now known as the Morse Iron Works and Dry Dock Company, was not only servicing many of the great steamships of the era, but was also maintaining the yachts of many members of New York's elite business community, including those of J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, John Jacob Astor IV and August Belmont, Jr. After a brief period in receivership due to industrial action in 1903, Morse reincorporated his yard in 1904 as the Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company.
Like many other U.S. shipyards, the Morse company made lucrative profits during World War I, estimated at more than $15,000,000. In 1919, the Morse Company built the world's largest floating dry dock, capable of servicing a ship 725 feet (221 m) long and weighing 30,000 tons.
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