Davie's father-in-law, George Taylor, had begun a shipbuilding business in 1811 after his arrival from England on the southwest shores of Île d’Orléans at Trou St. Patrice (closed briefly 1812 due to the War of 1812 to build ships in Upper Canada and permanently after 1827[1]), became partners in 1825 and built their shipyard at rue de Saint Thomas and Cote de la Canotiere around 1827[2] and moved to north side of St Lawrence in 1832) and Davie apparently purchased those assets as well.

[4] Davie's Brothers Limited remained in family ownership until 1951 and was owned by Logistec Corporation (1971) and finally, Équimer (1987) before the yard closed for good in 1989.

By the 1970s, Canada Steamship Lines was owned by Power Corporation and in a 1976 restructuring, it sold the Davie yard to Societé de Construction Navale (Soconav) which was established by former employees of Marine Industries Ltd with the financial backing of the Quebec provincial government's Societé Générale de Financement.

Shortly after the merger, the new company, MIL-Davie Shipbuilding closed the Sorel shipyard along with the Versatile Vickers shipyard in Montreal, resulting in a total loss of 1,700 jobs but kept the Lauzon yard open as it was working on building two large vessels for Marine Atlantic and three warships for the Royal Canadian Navy's Canadian Patrol Frigate Project.

After the warship project was finished in the early 1990s, MIL-Davie Shipbuilding, along with the Davie yard in Lauzon went into receivership.

During this period, the company undertook a number of projects involving vessels and rigs which serve the offshore oil and gas market.

In 2006, the shipyard was almost auctioned in June,[5] before it was sold to TECO Maritime ASA of Norway and was restructured into a new company called Davie Yards Incorporated.

Investissement Québec held CAD$28 million in share capital, so Davie can be considered partly an SOE.

After the Fincantieri deal fell through, the yard underwent financial restructuring in July 2011 in order to qualify to bid for a portion of the first stages of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) which will see ships built for the Canadian Coast Guard, Royal Canadian Navy and Department of Fisheries and Oceans,[7] for a total value of CAD$33 billion[8] or $35 billion.

[6] As part of the restructuring, on 21 July 2011 Upper Lakes Groups Inc. (owner of Seaway Marine & Industrial Inc. in St. Catharines) bought the assets of the bankrupt Davie Yards Inc.[6] The Canadian engineering conglomerate SNC-Lavalin, Upper Lakes Groups Inc. and South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) had formalized the week before a joint venture to bid for the contract.

[10] In 2014, Minister of Public Works and Government Services Diane Finley turned down Davie's bid to build Canada's next icebreaker, saying that the $500 million that the firm's fixed price offer would save the taxpayer over the Seaspan bid was rejected "based on the credibility, the viability, the reliability of the companies".

[15] In 2020, Davie was selected to become a partner in the National Shipbuilding Strategy, tasked with the construction of a new fleet of polar icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard.

Ferries Sailing vessels The shipyard in Lauzon, Quebec was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1990.