the small section dedicated to Continental Iron Works...

...For example, the Continental Iron Works of Brooklyn,
NY, launched its last vessel in 1889, after 30 years in the industry. The firm had
always been diversified -- in fact even while it was making iron-clad monitors
during the Civil War, it was manufacturing the steel tubes that would make up
the Croton Aqueduct -- and continued in business producing items such as
industrial boilers and construction steel until 1949. Although the apparent
industry exit date is 1889, the annual register of the American Bureau of
Shipping continued to record the firm as a manufacturer of iron vessels for
another decade. Is it simply that the ABS register is incorrect and the firm really
had exited in 1889? Was the firm actively seeking construction contracts after
this date, but without success? Or was it more passive, willing to undertake
contracts if they came along without actively seeking them out? The evidence is
contradictory. On the one hand, the Continental Shipyard changed its name in
1888 to the Continental Iron Works, and Eddey (1999) plausibly argues that the
name change was to signal its movement away from "manufacturing maritime
projects to manufacturing less seaworthy iron objects." On the other hand, the
Continental Iron Works re-entered shipbuilding, albeit on a modest scale, during
both World Wars. In fact, it is common for firms to produce no vessels for a
number of years, and then to reappear in the database. Is this period of nonproduction
an exit? Most firms repeatedly had to contend with the small
numbers problem generated by the lumpiness of production: failure to win but a
single contract could mean the difference between operating a yard at full
capacity and having no shipbuilding work at all. Survival demanded
diversification, which the more successful firms undertook with a vengeance
(see Figure 2). It then follows that absence from the industry did not necessarily
mean exit from the industry...

Full Text of The Iron and Steel Shipbuilding Data Set: Sources
(pdf file in new window)
Coverage, and Coding Decisions
Peter Thompson
Carnegie Mellon University

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