Great Lakes Engineering Works

The Great Lakes Engineering Works (GLEW) was a leading shipbuilding company with a shipyard in Ecorse, Michigan, that operated between 1902 and 1960. Within three years of its formation, it was building fifty percent of the tonnage of all ships in the Great Lakes. During World War II, GLEW was commissioned by Pittsburgh Steamship Company and the U.S. Maritime Commission to build twenty-one ore freighters. Its innovations included the first self-unloader freighter, SS Wyandotte. GLEW is best known for its construction of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.

The GLEW was formed in 1902 to purchase Riverside Ironworks. Riverside was the short-lived successor to the venerable S.F. Hodge Company (Samuel F. Hodge & Company), which was well known for quality steam engines and provided access not only to marine engine markets, but also to non marine markets as well. Because of the Hodge Company, which was founded in 1863, and other companies like them, the Detroit River community had become a hot bed for steam engine development. Antonio C. Pessano was elected as President and General Manager for his engineering background and charismatic personality. The new company realized that the Riverside yard had limited room and service docks. GLEW announced the purchase of a second shipyard in Ecorse, Michigan in 1903 which later became the River Rouge yard, named after its location on the River Rouge. The GLEW again expanded in 1905 when it acquired the Columbia Iron Works in St. Clair, Michigan, and in 1912 when operations began at their Ashtabula shipyard in Ohio. These GLEW shipyards helped Pressano realize his goal for the company. From the time it launched Hull #1 (Fontana) out of Ecorse, this immense shipbuilding enterprise would later be known for the construction of famous ships like SS Wyandotte, SS William C. Atwater and the Edmund Fitzgerald.

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