Neafie & Levy

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.

In all, the company built more than 300 ships and 1,100 marine steam engines during the course of its 63-year history,[4] in addition to its non-marine manufactures, which included refrigeration and sugar refining equipment.

Apart from the construction of the experimental submarine USS Alligator 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.

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 CSS Virginia, for which the U.S. Navy had no defense.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[18] The slump in the shipbuilding industry finally came to an end in 1880, when new ship orders, generated by demand for foreign produce such as sugar, wool and coffee, began to arrive.

Neafie & Levy contracted for freighters and tugs, in particular for the wooden steamships Maracaibo and Fortuano for the Red D Line's Venezuelan coffee imports.

Reconstruction of the American South following the Civil War was also creating new demand, and in the same year Neafie & Levy also contracted for the Clyde steamer Delaware for the southern cotton trade.

Demand for vessels in the early 1880s was strong enough to motivate shipyards to upgrade their facilities, although once again Neafie & Levy chose to make only modest improvements.

Its major customers included the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad, which required tugs and ferryboats for the expansion of its harbor service fleet.

In addition, Neafie & Levy built some small warships and sugar-processing equipment for South American customers, a niche the company had filled since the 1870s.

Designed by Morgan's friend J. Frederic Tams who was told to spare no expense, the lavishly outfitted vessel was the world's largest pleasure ship upon launch in 1890.

[21] In 1898, Jacob Neafie, who had successfully steered his company through the most turbulent half-century in American shipbuilding history, retired from the business at the age of 82 and died a few days later.

As a result, USS Bainbridge was subjected to more Navy trials than any other warship, and by the time the vessels were finally delivered in 1902, Smith had lost a total of $180,000 on the three destroyer contracts.

Similarly, delays in steel delivery for USS St. Louis resulted in deferments of payment by the Navy, forcing Smith to obtain loans to pay for the ship's completion.

Seddinger and Smith were removed from their positions, and a more competent receiver appointed, but the latter was unable to persuade the creditors to make the necessary investments to revive the company's fortunes, and in May 1908 the Neafie & Levy plant was sold for the sum of only $50,000.

[23] Following the delivery of Adriatic, wreckers tore down the shipyard's buildings and dismantled the ship's berths, and the premises was sold to the Immigration Service, which erected a quarantine station in its place.