William Leslie Comyn

William Leslie Comyn (born 30 October 1877) was a Californian businessman, shipbuilder and builder of one of the first large concrete ships.

Comyn was the second son of Charles Comyn an English civil servant and was born at Shepherd's Bush, London. His great-uncle Stephen George Comyn had been naval chaplain to the English Admiral Lord Nelson. He was educated at Merchant Taylor's School, and Dulwich College and subsequently founded his own shipping company - Comyn Singleton and Dunn of Gracechurch Street London EC1. Through this business he went to California where he settled and became a businessman in San Francisco. His father in law William Emil Gerber of Sacramento, California was a merchant and financier, and may have supported his enterprises. One of the ships he built was a five master sailing ship named Ann Comyn after his wife.

During World War I Leslie Comyn, tried to persuade the United States Shipping Board (USSB) that they should build concrete ships. They were not convinced so in 1917, he founded the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company at Oakland, California. In January 1918 he started, on speculation, to build the first ship, called appropriately "FAITH" designed by Alan MacDonald and Victor Poss. The ship was an 8000-ton freighter, and, at the time, the largest concrete vessel with a sea-going capability in the world. The ship was launched successfully in March 1918. Following this, on April 12, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson approved the Emergency Fleet Corporation program which oversaw the construction of 24 ferrocement ships for the war.

In May 1918, Faith left San Francisco on her maiden voyage, with 4300 tons of salt and copper ore, bound for Vancouver, followed by other voyages to Honolulu, Balboa, Callao, Valparaiso and New York. In 1919 Comyn's shipbuilding company sold the ship to the French-American SS Lines.

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