Page 26 - Port of Baltimore - Issue 5 - 2024

PORT BUSINESS
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE GENERAL SHIP REPAIR CORP.
DONOVAN EATON PHOTOGRAPHY
Ryan and Chaz Lynch
in 1982 from Camden Ship Repair.
Today, the company has two 1,000-
ton floating dry-docks designed and
built in-house, one of which was
added as recently as 2012 to replace
a 350-ton unit. The two docks can
be used separately or in unison,
allowing for ships of varying sizes to
be serviced.
“The majority of our work is tugs,
barges, cruise boats and fire boats,”
Lynch said. “We also do topside
repairs on larger vessels and have a
travel team ready to do emergency
repairs on ready-reserve vessels or
ships in the Port.”
Thriving in
Its Niche
In 1990, the third generation took
over the business, with Ryan Lynch’s
father, Charles F. Lynch Jr., stepping
in as President. Ryan Lynch’s uncles
Cary B. Lynch and Michael J. Lynch
also took on key leadership positions.
All three retired between 2020 and
2022, leaving room for the fourth
generation: Ryan Lynch and his
brother Chaz Lynch, who serves as
Vice President.
While the operation is no longer
the size it was during the war days, it
still employs a respectable 45 people
across its divisions, which include
Baltimore Metal Works, a specialist in
industrial fabrication and repair.
So how has General Ship Repair
been able to survive when so many
other shipyards, including the once-
mighty Bethlehem Steel, have gone
the way of the dinosaurs?
“I think it has a lot to do with
getting into the niche of smaller
vessels,” Ryan Lynch said. “The other
yards on Key Highway and Bethlehem
Steel were doing big vessels, and
a lot of that business started going
overseas. But the tugboat and barge
industry has kept steady.”
However, General Ship Repair
has also branched out into other
kinds of jobs that have kept the work
interesting over the years.
“One recent job we did was a repair
on the bulbous bow of a vessel,” Lynch
recalled. “A tugboat backed into their
bow and put a huge hole in it. They tied
it up at Sparrows Point and we rebuilt
the whole bulbous bow there.”
General Ship Repair has also
collaborated on work with Tradepoint
Atlantic (TPA) and the big BAE
Ship Systems yard in Norfolk. “We
even assisted in docking The USS
Constellation from Baltimore’s Inner
Harbor at TPA,” Lynch said. “We work
closely with Historic Ships Baltimore.”
That also includes the N/S Savannah,
[24] The Port of Baltimore ■ ISSUE 5 / 2024