Harry J. Defoe was a mechanical genius who turned his passion for things mechanical and boats into a huge shipbuilding company, building warships in time of war and magnificent yachts in time of peace. The following is a close look at Defoe's early days, his yachts and his shipyard, with a brief look at some of the warships they built.

     Harry Defoe was born September 2, 1875. His interest in boats was sparked at an early age by his father, Joseph Defoe, a Great Lakes sailor, and his uncle, John Defoe, a local boat builder. As a boy, Harry was noted for his models of tugboats and schooners whittled from the then plentiful soft cork pine. Later, he built model steamboats that ran under their own power, using tin cans for boilers, rifle cartridges for cylinders, and Babbit or old-type metal melted down for various castings.

     Harry attended local schools, and graduated from West Bay City High School in 1892. He taught mathematics for several years and was appointed principal of the Old Park School on Bay City's west side. During the day when he had a few minutes, he would climb to the bell tower of the school and, with binoculars, watch ships being built in a shipyard that then existed on the west bank of the Saginaw River.

     The first boats built in his off hours from teaching were trap net skiffs. These boats were flat or semi-flat-bottom boats with two sails and a centerboard that could be raised when working the nets in shallow water.

     Harry's first power boat in the early 1900's was a 16-footer powered by one of the first crude motorcycle engines. This boat ran "most of the time and was an adventure and an experience". Harry kept on building little motorboats, always advancing.

     In 1905, after a 6-year career in education , Harry quit teaching. The Defoe Boat & Motor Works was founded, a partnership consisting of Harry, the one active member; a brother, Frederic W. Defoe, a New York City lawyer; and a brother-in-law, George H. Whitehouse, then in the wholesale fish business.

     After careful study, Harry made arrangements with Fred Stork of Saginaw to offer Stork's line of engines, from a 3 Hp, 2-cycle engine to Stork's 6-cylinder 7-1/2 x 9, 4-cycle engine.

      The most popular boat offered by Defoe was an 18-foot strip- built launch with Stork's 3 Hp/ engine. This standard model sold for $130.

     The bread and butter of the company consisted mostly of " knocked- down " frames and full-size patterns of boats of their design that were advertised and sold through boating magazines that carried the idea around the world. This boat-building technique was pioneered by Clifford Brooks of Brooks Mfg. of Saginaw. (See waterline U? #?) He failed to patent the idea, a derivation of the Butterick Dress Patterns.

     The knock-down system enabled boats of modern design to be built around the world. These boats were typically too small to cross the oceans under their own power and too large to be carried on the decks of freighters.

     Defoe's first shipyard was located on the Saginaw River at 5th Street, in what is now Wenonah Park. In 1909, the buildings were lightened across the river to the west side, adjacent to the Michigan Central RR bridge. By 1911-12, he was building cruisers up to 65'. In 1917, during the first World War, Defoe received his first government contract for 5-40' wooden spent torpedo chasers. Powered by Winton gasoline engines, these 5 boats were used on the Atlantic Firing Range at the Newport, Rhode Island naval torpedo station. In his report, a Navy inspector expressed surprise that "these boats were completely laid out on the mould floor--even to the planking and none of the work had to be lifted from the framework".

     In 1918, Defoe received his second government contract for eight steel harbor mine planters, 98 ft x 22 ft beam. These ships were steam-powered with heavy derrick booms for planting mines. With a contract for steel ships, Defoe acquired 2200' of frontage across the river and built a shipyard for steel ships. Many of the men hired to build these ships came from the Frank W. Wheeler/American Shipbuilding Shipyard, and the James Davidson Shipyard, two of the largest wooden shipyards on the Great Lakes. These yards, both in the twilight of their wooden shipbuilding lives, went out of business as Defoe was growing.

     The original partnership ended at the end of WWI with the two Defoe's purchasing Mr. Whitehouse's interest. The mine planter contract was completed in 1921, with the fleet being manned in Bay .City and leaving the harbor in formation. Several survived into post-World War II years.

     The 1920's saw the completion of close to fifty yachts. Realizing he had to compete with the better-known yacht builders, Harry invested in a joinery and finish department that was known for its excellence, produced by both old and new world craftsmen.

     In 1924, Defoe entered into a contract with the Dodge Boat Corp. to build Dodge Watercars. Unfortunately, there are no details of this relationship beyond the photographs.

     1924 also saw a contract for 15 wooden 75' "Run Runner Chasers", powered by 400 Hp. Winton gasoline engines. In 1928, the first yacht, the Olive K was built for Charles F. "Boss" Kettering, G.M. board chairman and the inventor of the automobile self starter. Upon completion, Kettering decided the boat was too small and had Olive K V built--a 169-footer. This yacht, powered by the Gulf 2-cycle diesels, became Boss Kettering's floating laboratory and is the basis of one of the Defoe legends. Kettering wanted a self-starting generator for the first Olive K. Ed Pawlicki, Defoe's electrical engineer, said that "it could not be done--that the manufacturer said so". Kettering replied, "Give me two men and I'11 make it self- starting tonight", which, of course, they did. This was the last time anyone in the Defoe yard said "it couldn't be done".

      The market for custom yachts fell apart in the depths of the Great Depression. The plan and pattern business and knock-down kits, which had languished in the twenties, were resurrected in 1932 with William Atkins, naval architect, as Bay City Boats. This operation was suspended during WWII due to a difficulty obtaining raw materials.

     The 1930's saw the company scrambling for government contracts to keep the work force together. They built steam turbine Coast Guard cutters, lighthouse tenders, ice breakers, a Detroit River mail boat, and a fire boat for the city of Chicago.

     In 1939, as war clouds gathered for a second time in Defoe's career, the Navy awarded a contract for 165' sub chasers, PC 451 and 452. These two ships became prototypes for hundreds built by many builders during WWII.

     Henry Kaiser's legendary assembly line-type production of Liberty ships during WWII is widely known. Instead of using huge cranes to bring portions of ships together for assembly, Harry Defoe originated the "upside down and roll over" method of construction.

     The technique was perfected fulfilling the sub chaser contract. The ships were built upside down on cradles, the deck was laid and frames and bulkheads erected upside down. This -eliminated over 90% of the overhead welding, speeding the process and vastly improving the quality. This production sequence eliminated virtually all of the conventional ship's scaffolding, saving more time. While the ship was upside down, all machinery that normally hangs was installed, as it merely drops into position.

     When the hull and upside down work were completed, two semi- circular steel wheels were clamped to the hull and the deck cradle removed. The c-shaped steel wheels rested on two heavy parallel steel tracks. Cables were thrown around the hull in opposite directions and lead to a steam locomotive crane. By pulling on one cable and paying on the other, the vessel was rolled on the two wheels into an upright position, the process taking no more than 2- 1/2 minutes. This procedure was perfected during the contract for the 58 sub chasers.

     One of the next contracts was for 308' destroyer escorts. The roll-over technique was scaled up for these longer ships, and Defoe was launching hulls faster than the Navy could deliver powerplants.

     After WWII ended, the company reached out for yacht work again, and Harry completed a design for a 118' x 18'6" seagoing yacht propelled by two tandem General Motors 6-71 diesels. Six of these Cruisemaster yachts were built and all remain in service. One is a pilot boat in New York Harbor, and one is a pilot boat in New Orleans.

      The work in the post-war decades was steady--repair work for the Navy, new freighters, tugs, destroyer escorts, and research ships. The wreck of the Titanic was discovered from the deck of the R.V. Knorr, a Defoe ship.

     In 1956, Defoe built the navy's first fiberglass boat, a 57' minesweeper. On March 21, 1957, at age 81, while in Washington, D.C. negotiating a contract with the Navy, Harry J. Defoe suffered fatal heart attack.

Harry's sons, Thomas and William Defoe, continued operating the shipyard, building guided-missile destroyers for both the U.S. and Australian Navy; destroyer escorts; the research vessels Melville, Knorr, Wilkes, and Wyman, as well as many landing craft in the late Sixties.

     In the late 1970's, Thomas and William liquidated the shipyard's assets. There were many reasons for this: a landmark legal case with the Navy over cost overruns due to specification changes; the shipyard didn't have a dry dock; they were working with a lot of antiquated equipment; and Great Lakes freighters had reached the size that they couldn't get to the Great Lakes through the Detroit and Mackinac Railroad Bridge, downstream from the shipyard.

     The Defoe Shipbuilding Company is an interesting study of the drive and vision of Harry Defoe, always growing and rising to larger and more complex challenges. The many ships they built that are still in service are a living testament to the quality and quantity of ships produced by Harry Defoe and the men of his shipyard.