by pcolachap » October 19, 2016, 10:48 pm
I grew up in Ashtabula & lived there as an adult for 6 more years. As a kid I always enjoyed watching vessels go up to the shipyard for repairs. I want to say that during the WW II years, there were two Maritime boats built there, I think the Clarence B. Randall and the Frank Prunell. After the shipyard closed in 1961, it was used initially as a scrapping facility by Luria Brothers. This operation was moved north to what they called the "Five and a half" slip, across from where the carferry Ashtabula used to dock. Acme scrap for many years continued scrapping operations there. While in operation the yard's drydock was prone to flooding when ice jams on the river up the yard would form and then break, releasing a wall of water. In the end, besides the GLEW dissolution, it was too small and too far up a narrow river. Mike
I grew up in Ashtabula & lived there as an adult for 6 more years. As a kid I always enjoyed watching vessels go up to the shipyard for repairs. I want to say that during the WW II years, there were two Maritime boats built there, I think the Clarence B. Randall and the Frank Prunell. After the shipyard closed in 1961, it was used initially as a scrapping facility by Luria Brothers. This operation was moved north to what they called the "Five and a half" slip, across from where the carferry Ashtabula used to dock. Acme scrap for many years continued scrapping operations there. While in operation the yard's drydock was prone to flooding when ice jams on the river up the yard would form and then break, releasing a wall of water. In the end, besides the GLEW dissolution, it was too small and too far up a narrow river. Mike