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Detyen's Shipyards, Inc.
In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt toured an area north of the city on the Cooper River that was to become the Charleston Navy Yard. The construction of the first drydock was started that year and docked it's first ship in 1909.
During the next 90 years, the Charleston Navy Yard would be an important part of both Charleston and the U.S. Navy. Serving the nation through two World Wars and the Korean and Vietnam Conflicts, the yard built hundreds of ships during the war and repairing and converting hundreds more. Although the yard had docked submarines as far back as 1911, the 1960's saw Charleston Navy Yard become a repair facility for nuclear submarines.
With the end of the Cold War and the downsizing of the U.S. military, it was determined that the Charleston Naval Yard and Navy Base were no longer needed to support a smaller Navy. The Navy withdrew its ships and crew and turned the base over to the CNCRA (Charleston Naval Complex Redevelopment Authority) who was tasked with finding productive commercial and public usage for the base. Detyens Shipyards (DSI) had been closely associated with the Navy yard since its founding by William Detyens in 1962. Detyens built and successfully operated a shipyard on the Wando River in nearby Mt. Pleasant, SC that serviced both naval and commercial vessels for over 30 years. The CNCRA awarded the lease of the three major docks and the associated support buildings to Detyens who expanded into the facility in 1996. Since that time Detyens has increased their manning of their new Main Yard from 200 to a peak of 800 during the year 2000 while maintaining 100 to 150 at the Wando facility.
The yard has also changed from servicing the ships of the U.S. Navy and her allies to servicing the commercial shipping fleets of the world. DSI has become an important player in the very competitive commercial ship repair business and has kept all three docks in the Main Yard busy with scheduled maintenance dockings and emergency repairs. The fact that many of our dockings are repeat customers attest to the good name we have achieved in the business. We welcome you to our yard and hope that you too will become a repeat customer and part of our ongoing history of success.
Sources:
- http://www.detyens.com/detyens_history.cfm
