American Ship Building Company
| Industry | Shipbuilding |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Cleveland Ship Building Company; Ship Owner's Dry Dock Company; Globe Iron Works; others |
| Founded | 1899 (incorporated) |
| Defunct | 1995 |
| Fate | Chapter 11 bankruptcy; assets sold and operations ceased (1995) |
| Headquarters | Cleveland, Ohio (later Tampa, Florida) , United States |
Area served | Great Lakes; United States Navy contracts |
Key people | George Steinbrenner (chairman & CEO), 1967–1995) |
| Products | Great Lakes freighters; passenger vessels; United States Navy vessels |
| Divisions | Lorain Yard (Ohio); Cleveland Yard; Toledo Shipbuilding; Chicago Shipbuilding; Detroit Shipbuilding; Buffalo Dry Dock; Superior Shipbuilding |
| Subsidiaries | Tampa Shipyards, Inc. |
The American Ship Building Company was the dominant shipbuilder on the Great Lakes before the Second World War. It started as Cleveland Shipbuilding in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1888 and opened the yard in Lorain, Ohio, in 1898. It changed its name to the American Ship Building Company in 1900, when it acquired Superior Shipbuilding, in Superior, Wisconsin; Toledo Shipbuilding, in Toledo, Ohio; and West Bay Shipbuilding, in West Bay City, Michigan. With the coming of World War I, the company also acquired Buffalo Dry Dock, in Buffalo, New York; Chicago Shipbuilding, in Chicago, Illinois; and Detroit Shipbuilding, in Wyandotte, Michigan. American Shipbuilding ranked 81st among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.