Neafie, Levy & Co., commonly known as Neafie & Levy, was a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania shipbuilding and engineering firm that existed from the middle of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. Described as America's "first specialist marine engineers",Dawson, Andrew (2004): Lives of the Philadelphia Engineers: Capital, Class, and Revolution, 1830–1890, Ashgate Publishing, p. 36. . Neafie & Levy was probably the first company in the United States to combine the building of iron ships with the manufacture of steam engines to power them.Tyler, p. 7. The company was also the largest supplier of screw propellers to other North American shipbuilding firms in its early years, and at its peak in the early 1870s was Philadelphia's busiest and most heavily capitalized shipbuilder.
Following the death of one of its proprietors, John P. Levy, in 1867, the company grew more conservative and eventually became a "niche" shipbuilder of smaller high quality vessels such as steam yachts and tugs. A few years after the retirement and death of its founder and longstanding manager Jacob Neafie in 1898, the company folded through a combination of indifferent management, bad publicity and unprofitable US Navy contracts.
Among the more notable vessels built by the company were the US Navy's first submarine, in 1862, and the Navy's first destroyer, , in 1902.USS Bainbridge (DD-1), Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Several of its vessels, such as the tugboats and and the ferry , were still in operation more than a hundred years after first entering service. In all, the company built more than 300 ships and 1,100 marine steam engines during the course of its 63-year history,Heinrich, p. 151. in addition to its non-marine manufactures, which included refrigeration and sugar refining equipment.
Early years
The dominant figure in the company for most of its existence was Jacob G. Neafie. Born in New Jersey on Christmas Day 1815, Neafie served his apprenticeship as a machinist in New York before joining the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania shipbuilding firm of Thomas Holloway in 1832, where he gained experience in shipbuilding and reportedly took an interest in the new technology of screw propulsion.
After leaving Holloway to establish his own small business in 1838, Neafie joined with two other Philadelphian mechanics, Thomas Reaney and William Smith, to found the firm of Reaney, Neafie & Smith in 1844. The partners quickly established a plant on of waterfront property along the Delaware River, and named the new plant the Penn Steam Engine and Boiler Works (thus giving the company its most often used alternative name, Penn Works). In 1844, Neafie partnered with Swedish inventor John Ericsson and Thomas Clyde to apply Ericsson's screw-propeller technology to steam vessels. After several experimental versions, Clyde launched the twin-screw propeller steamer John S. McKim making it the first screw steamer built in the United States for commercial use.
Though originally established to build "fire engines, boilers and stationary steam engines",Heinrich p. 19. the firm quickly added shipbuilding, constructing its first vessel, the 65-ton steamboat Conestoga, in its first year of operation, and the 99-ton Barclay the following year.Tyler, p. 7. That same year, Smith died, and a new partner, Captain John P. Levy, joined the firm, which was then renamed Reaney, Neafie & Levy. Levy, a wealthy man with connections in government and industry, was an important addition to the company. His most significant early contribution was to persuade a local Philadelphian inventor and steamboat operator, Richard Loper, to license his patent for a unique type of curved propeller, and Reaney, Neafie & Levy were soon to acquire a reputation as specialist propeller makers. In 1859, Thomas Reaney left the firm to establish his own shipbuilding company, Reaney & Son (later Reaney, Son & Archbold), and Reaney, Neafie & Levy became Neafie, Levy & Co..Heinrich, pp. 19–20.
Innovation and leadership, 1850–1870
Through the 1840s, Neafie & Levy was primarily a manufacturer and supplier of marine steam engines and screw propellers to builders of wooden ships, such as Birely, Hillman & Streaker and William Cramp & Sons. In the early 1850s however, Neafie & Levy began to experiment with iron shipbuilding as a corollary to its propeller-making business.
The screw propeller had a number of advantages over the paddlewheel, but it also had disadvantages. Amongst these were the vibration levels caused by higher RPM propeller engines, which loosened bolts on wooden ships, and the tendency for propeller shafts to break due to the phenomenon of "hogging" – the slight flexing of a ship's hull as waves pass beneath it. Since iron vessels were stronger and less prone to hogging, and were also less affected by vibration, it made sense to combine propeller technology with iron hulls.
Neafie & Levy built its first iron ship in 1855. By 1860, it had become one of America's leading iron shipbuilding firms, with assets of $300,000, annual output of $368,000, and a workforce of 300.Heinrich p. 20. It had also become America's largest supplier of screw propellers, which grew to be so popular with the shipping firms on North America's Great Lakes that the company's curved propeller was dubbed the "Philadelphia wheel".Neafie & Levy, Navy and Marine Living History Association, reprinted from United States Mercantile Guide: Leading Pursuits & Leading Men by Edwin T. Freedley, ed. (Edward Young, Philadelphia, 1856), pp. 294–295.
The Civil War The American Civil War (1861–1865) was an economic boom period for American shipbuilders. Over the course of the war, the U.S. Navy requisitioned more than a million tons of shipping from commercial companies, and those companies were then obliged to return to the shipbuilding industry to replace the ships sold to the Navy. In addition, the Navy itself placed contracts with shipbuilders for the construction of warships and other tonnage, such as supply ships and troop transports, sparking a speculative boom in which private firms placed more shipping contracts in hopes of selling them to the government at inflated wartime prices.
Neafie & Levy's experience with the Navy though, was to be less than agreeable. The company had supplied the engines for just prior to the war but the Navy Department was dissatisfied with the engine's performance and refused to make full payment, prompting Jacob Neafie to vow never to take another Navy contract. Apart from the construction of the experimental submarine in 1861, Neafie stuck to his vow and repudiated Navy contracts for the remainder of the war. His company still benefited from the boom in commercial shipping however, and made a substantial contribution to the war effort, supplying more than 120 engines for warships and other government vessels built at other yards.Neafie & Levy, Navy and Marine Living History Association, reprinted from The Neafie & Levy Ship and Engine Building Company (Penn Works), published by Ulysses Grant Duffield, New York (Franklin Printing Co., Philadelphia, 1896), pp. 4–9. At its wartime peak, the company employed 800 workers.Heinrich, p. 28.
Submarine Alligator
In the autumn of 1861, the Navy asked Neafie and Levy to construct a small submersible designed by the French engineer Brutus DeVilleroi, who was prepared to act as a supervisor during construction. The vessel was designed with a special airlock through which a diver could attach mines to a ship's hull, and was intended for use against the Confederate ironclad , for which the U.S. Navy had no defense.
The contract with Neafie & Levy was signed in November 1861, and the submersible was expected to be completed within forty days, but difficulties with the design along with the departure of DeVilleroi delayed the ship's delivery by about six months, by which time the submersible's original purpose had been obviated. The Navy then attempted to use the submersible, now named Alligator, for another mission off Charleston, South Carolina, but while being towed there it sank during a storm on the night of 2 April 1863. Alligator however, retains the distinction of being the first submarine to see service with the US Navy.Story of the Alligator, Navy and Marine Living History Association.Miles, Jim (2000): Forged in Fire: A History and Tour Guide of the War in the East, From Manassas to Antietam, 1861–1862, Cumberland House Publishing, , p. 132.
Postwar slump and recovery
In 1865, the Civil War came to an end with the Union victory, and the wartime conditions that had created a shipbuilding boom now gave way to a corresponding slump. The Navy conducted an auction of hundreds of unwanted ships, flooding the market and leaving shipyards with no work. Decline in the need for domestic shipping caused by the extension of railroads to the South, along with the growing economic independence of the West, also contributed to the shipbuilding recession.
The immediate response of Neafie & Levy, as at many other shipyards, was to slash its workforce to the bone. It then joined with William Cramp & Sons in 1866 to create a small subsidiary ferryboat company, for the operation of which Cramp built a ferry called Shackamaxon, while Neafie & Levy supplied the engines. The company's only other work in this period was for the production of a few towboats and some ship repair work.
In 1867, Neafie & Levy suffered a major setback with the death of John P. Levy, whose management position was then filled by his heir Edmund L. Levy. With John Levy's death, the company appears to have lost much of its original dynamism, as Jacob Neafie's caution and conservatism increasingly became the dominant factor in its management. This decline would not become evident for some years however.
By 1870 the slump had come to an end, and the years 1870–1871 were amongst Neafie & Levy's most productive. In this two-year period, Neafie & Levy was Philadelphia's busiest shipyard, building 27 vessels and supplying the engines for many others, including those for the 1,200-ton Cramp steamer Clyde, built for the Clyde Line.Heinrich, pp. 50–54.
Conservatism, 1870–1880s
The year 1871 however, also brought developments which signaled Neafie & Levy's eventual departure from the front rank of American shipbuilders. In this year, Cramp & Sons built its first marine engine, and henceforth was to purchase no more engines from Neafie & Levy, depriving the latter of a principal customer. Moreover, Cramp constructed a large dry dock which enabled it to enter the lucrative hull repair business. Jacob Neafie did not follow suit, preferring to rely upon his existing business model of building smaller iron vessels and supplying engines to builders of wooden ships. By 1880, although Neafie & Levy was still Philadelphia's most heavily capitalized firm with a million dollars in assets, its return on investment (ROI) was only 7.1% compared to that of Cramp with an ROI in excess of 15%. Moreover, Cramp's capitalization was not far behind at $750,000, but it employed 2,300 workers compared to Neafie & Levy's 500, and its output was more than 2½ times greater. A substantial part of the difference was due to the Cramp dry dock.Heinrich, pp. 53–54, 74–75.
1870s slump and 1880s recovery 1873 marked another prolonged downturn in the industry, triggered by the 1873 financial panic. All American shipyards struggled, and the nadir for Neafie & Levy came in 1877, when not a single ship was launched. To keep their businesses solvent, shipyards at this time diversified into other areas—in Neafie & Levy's case, into the manufacture of refrigeration equipment. Shipyards also petitioned the government for Navy contracts, and Neafie & Levy was able to secure a modest $35,000 for Navy ship repairs in these years, which included the completion of the gunboat .Heinrich, pp. 70–71.