William Cramp and Sons - Notable Projects

Notable Projects

• USS Indiana (BB-1), Battleship No. 1 of the United States Navy, launched 28 February 1893.
• SS St. Louis (1894) and SS St. Paul (1895)—the first major ocean liners built in the United States after the collapse of the Collins Line in the 1850s. On 15 November 1899, St. Paul, enroute from New York to England with Guglielmo Marconi on board supervising the ship's new wireless telegraph equipment, became the first liner to report her imminent arrival by radio.
• Varyag contracted by Russian Imperial Admiralty, launched October 31, 1899. The cruiser was sunk by the crew in Russo-Japanese War, salvaged by the Japanese and then reclaimed by the Russians.
• On 8 December 1942, the keel to the Cleveland-class light cruiser designated CL-91, was laid down by the Cramp Shipbuilding Company of Philadelphia, PA. On 22 April 1943, Oklahomans were outraged, having just learned that the Japanese had executed the captured American pilots from Jimmy Doolittle's bombing raid over Tokyo. That same day, booths were set up in Oklahoma City with the a goal to sell $40 million in War Bonds to fund the construction of a cruiser. That goal was topped by $5 million when the booths closed that night. CL-91 then became the USS Oklahoma City.

• The last ship Cramp's built was the cruiser USS Galveston (CLG-3), launched on April 22, 1945.

Works of the firm that are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places include:

• SS Aleutian, Shipwreck, Amook Island, Larsen Bay, Alaska, NRHP-listed in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska
• USS Ling (SS-297), Hackensack River at 150 River St., Hackensack, New Jersey
• USS Lionfish (SS-298), National Historic Landmark, Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts
• USS Massachusetts (BB-2), Shipwreck 1. mi. SSW of Pensacola Pass, Pensacola, Florida