Weaver Shipbuilding

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passin' it right along to you. Back in 1897, a man named Joe Weaver planted his flag in Orange, Texas, and opened Joseph Weaver and Son Shipyard. Now, Orange sits right on the Sabine River, and it turns out that was fine country for building things that float.

The very next year, 1898, a fellow named George Levingston acquired an interest in Weaver and Son. The company got right to work, building barges for the Galveston Navigation District. Levingston would go on to found his own operation, the Levingston Shipbuilding Company, but before that chapter opened, he sold his interest in Weaver and Son back to Joe's son, a man known as L.E.

Weaver, or just Ed. So the Weavers had the yard to themselves, and they kept busy. Barges.

Steam tugboats. Repair work. Whatever the river traffic needed, Weaver and Son could handle it.

World War I came along and nudged production up a little, for Weaver and Son and for the whole Orange shipbuilding industry. But when the war ended, things slowed right back down. Then 1930 brought the death of Joseph Weaver himself, the man who had started it all thirty-three years prior.

That loss marked a turning point. L.E. Weaver, Ed, took on his own son, L.A.

Weaver, as a partner, and the family kept the yard alive. Ed Weaver died in 1941, and with other family members joining the partnership, the company's name was changed to Weaver Shipyards. Now here is where the story picks up speed, and fast.

The year 1941 also brought the United States into World War II, and contracts came pouring in. In 1941 and 1942, Weaver Shipyards was awarded contracts to construct wooden minesweepers and sub chasers. Wooden vessels, and that was no accident.

The wooden hulls did not attract the magnetic mines used by the Germans, and these boats were designed to patrol the waters adjacent to their home bases. The first minesweeper off the Weaver line, YMS 66, was launched on January 31, 1942. That yard in Orange, Texas, was sending vessels into a world war.

After the frenzied activity of World War II wound down, Weaver Shipyards found its rhythm again in smaller work. Wood and steel shrimp boats. Ship repair.

The kind of steady, skilled labor that keeps a waterfront town breathing. The Weaver family eventually sold the company in 1975, but they weren't done with it. In the late 1980s, the family regained control, and as of the marker's writing in 2008, the Weaver Shipyards site was still owned by the Weaver family, still involved in maritime work through lease agreements.

More than a century after Joe Weaver first set up shop on that river, the family name was still on the water.

What the marker says

Joe Weaver established Joseph Weaver and Son Shipyard in Orange in 1897. George Levingston, later founder of Levingston Shipbuilding Company, acquired an interest in Weaver and Son in 1898, and the company built barges for the Galveston Navigation District. Levingston later sold his interest in the company to Joe Weaver's son, L.E. "Ed" Weaver. Joseph Weaver and Son built barges, steam tugboats, and performed repair work. Although World War I brought a slight increase in production to Weaver and Son and the entire Orange shipbuilding industry, production slowed again after the war. The death of Joseph Weaver in 1930 signaled the beginning of a new partnership between L.E. Weaver and his son, L.A. Weaver. Upon L.E. Weaver's death in 1941, the company's name was changed to Weaver Shipyards when other family members joined the partnership.World War II again increased production at the Weaver yard, when contracts to construct wooden mine sweepers and sub chasers were awarded in 1941 and 1942. The wooden vessels did not attract the magnetic mines used by the Germans, and were designed to patrol the waters adjacent to their home bases. The first minsweeper, YMS 66, was launched on January 31, 1942.After the frenzied activity of Wolrd War II, Weaver Shipyards continued to build small vessels including wood and steel shrimp boats and also carried on with its ship repair work. The Weaver family sold the company in 1975, but regained control in the late 1980s. The Weaver Shipyards site continues to be owned by the Weaver family and remains invloved in maritime work through lease agreements. (2008)