Industrial Shipping Co.
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Industrial Shipping Co., Ltd.
Mahone Bay
Nova Scotia
According to an article in the July 1, 1961 edition of The Financial Post, Industrial Shipping Co., Ltd. manufactured and sold molded plywood boats across Canada and the US since just after WWII. Early in 1961 the company was acquired by American Boatbuilding Corp., a company formed through the mergers of the Beetle Boat Company and Marscot Plastics (Jan 5, 1958 New York Times). At the time of the article, Industrial Shipping produced a 17' outboard fiberglass cruiser and a 16' Falcon-class fiberglass day sailer.
Richard C. Cole, later known for Thunderbird Boats, designed a molded plywood hull for Industrial Shipping while waiting for entry to the United States. This speedboat hull was mass-manufactured and sold to a variety of US and Canadian boat manufacturers for final finishing. George Wesley Theakston of Industrial Shipping eventually left the company and formed an operation in Denison, Texas to supply hulls for Yellow Jacket Boats, one of Industrial Shipping's customers. His firm, the Theakston Boat Company, was in partnership with Billy Zink and Ray Mullock, also formerly of Industrial Shipping. More information on these ventures is available from History with Heart: http://historywithheart.com/yellowjackethull.html
According to the undated advertisement below, Industrial Shipping supplied hulls to Yellow Jacket Boats, Borum Boats, Clyde Boat Works, and Douglass & McLeod.
See the Plycraft Boat Website for more information: http://www.paceship.org/plycraft/default.asp
If you have additional information, please contact us so that we may preserve and share the history of these old boats.
1958 Information
1958 Industrial Shipping Molded Hulls Ad
Misc Information
Industrial Shipping ad, year unknown
