Kingston Shipbuilding Company
| Industry | Shipbuilding |
|---|---|
| Successor | Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston |
| Founded | 1910 |
| Defunct | 1968 |
| Headquarters | Mississauga Point, Kingston, Ontario, Canada |
| Products | Lake freighters, Naval vessels |
| Services | Ship Repair |
| Parent | Collingwood Shipbuilding |
Kingston Shipyards was a Canadian shipbuilder and ship repair company that operated from 1910 to 1968. The facility was located on the Kingston waterfront property known as Mississauga Point, which is the now the site of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston.
In 1836 the British Board of Ordnance transferred control of the Kingston waterfront property, Mississauga Point, from the military to local businessmen. John Counter, Henry Gildersleeve, and Thomas Kirkpatrick created the Marine Railway Company to service the shipping traffic on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.
By 1839 the company had built a small dry dock, an engine foundry, two wharves and a marine railway. In 1848 a large three storey warehouse was constructed. Steam power was added to the marine railway in 1851 and additional stone outbuildings were constructed in 1854.
The Marine Railway Company advertised its facilities in 1862. The company claimed to own a marine railway with steam sawmill, workshops and offices, sixteen stone cottages, a large foundry known as the Ontario foundry, five large three and four storey fireproof warehouses and many wharves. Over two hundred men were employed to overhaul and service seven vessels at a time. At its time, it was the largest shipbuilding effort west of Quebec.
In 1910 Collingwood Shipyards opened a subsidiary shipbuilding and repair plant in Kingston. The government dry dock was rented and purchased, and three government contracts for ships were secured. Several small jobs followed until the First World War in 1915. War contracts required 8 minesweepers for the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy and thus the workforce increased to over 1000 workers.
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Wikipedia