1901-05-02-New York Times-Shipbuilders May Unite
New York Times
2 May 1901, page 1
SHIPBUILDERS MAY UNITE.
Report of a Combination of Well-Known Firms--Statements of Those Concerned.
According to a report that was current yesterday, a big combination of shipbuilding firms has been formed, including the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, the New London Shipbuilding Company, the Crescent Shipyards of Elizabethport, N. J.; the Union Iron Works of San Francisco, Cal.; the Bath Iron Works, and the Bath Windlass Company of Maine. Capital stock amounting to $70,000,000, said the report, was to be issued, and a syndicate had been formed to underwrite it.
H. E. Huntington, nephew of the late Collis P. Huntington, was credited with being the coming President of the concern, and Irving M. Scott, President of the San Francisco company, the Vice President. It was stated that for more than a year plans for the combination had been in progress, that the closing of the deal had been delayed by the fact that some companies that were not wanted had tried to force their way into the arrangement and that Mr. Scott had prolonged the negotiations by insisting that there should be no issue of bonds to open the way for outside control.
According to the story, a floating dry dock, the largest in the world, was planned, and it had been decided to construct this on the Arthur Kill, for which purpose a thousand or more acres of land had been bought from the Canda Manufacturing Company of Carteret, N. J. through its President, Charles J. Canda. This floating dock was to be sufficiently large to accommodate any vessel in existence, and built on more modern principles than any dock of the kind now in use, it was stated.
A meeting at which all these details were said to have been determined upon, was declared to have been held day before yesterday in the law offices of Alexander & Green, 120 Broadway, and the men present there were reported to have been H. E. Huntington, Lewis Nixon, Col. J. J. McCook, John W. Young, Alvin W. Krech and Henry W. Poor. Mr. Young was the credited organizer of the combination, while Mr. Poor, banker, was the head of the company that would underwrite the entire issue of stock. It was stated that a formal announcement of the formation of the concern would be made next Saturday or Monday, and that the practical work on the new yards was to be under teh control of Mr. Nixon and Naval Constructor Bowles, the latter of whom was supposed to be about to resign his position in the Navy Department.
