Merrill Stevens: a story of resilience
After losing a fortune in the American Civil War, Captain James G Merrill moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 1866, where he established a marine blacksmith and ironwork shop, the foundation of the MerrillStevens shipyard, which started to grow during the American-Spanish war in Cuba (1898). In the Great Jacksonville Fire of 1901, the Merrill-Stevens wharf was completely consumed by flames, but the owners quickly built a new facility and began to focus on shipbuilding. During World War One, Merrill-Stevens Co was bought by the Emergency Fleet Corporation, created by the Shipping Board to bolster the American Merchant Marine. In 1921, the company was sold back and two years later a facility in Miami, the Pilkington Boatyard on the north bank of the Miami River, was acquired. Miami was undergoing one of the greatest real estate booms in history, making the boatyard a prime opportunity for someone with experience and knowledge in the marine industry to turn the business around. The company achieved early success thanks to the prohibition.
Although business was booming, disaster struck Merrill-Stevens. In 1926, the plant was devastated by the ‘Great Hurricane’ that hit Florida in September. As the yard was in full readiness for a flood of business, hard times struck once again. Leading up to the great depression of 1929, sta at the company decreased quickly from 150 to 15, and work was hard to come by. Then, thanks to the dredging of the Miami River, completed in 1933, the business managed to recover once again. Larger yachts and commercial vessels now visited Miami through the inland waters, providing Merrill-Stevens with new work.
During World War Two, 3,500 military-related projects were completed at the Merrill-Stevens facilities. Among these was the conversion of recreational yachts into naval support vessels. The post-war history of the yard is little known, but it is certain that, over the years, it has gradually lost allure, prestige and, most importantly, profitability. All these caused the yard to fall victim to an unstoppable decline, with the last wooden craft built in 1974.
When Rahmi M Koç acquired the shipyard in 2013, he vowed to restore the company to its former glory and to make Miami once again a great destination for yachts and superyachts from around the world. RMK Merrill-Stevens is composed of two yards straddling the Miami River, and are now known as the North Yard and the South Yard. An investment of over $23 million was made into the complete renovation of both. Each yard provides refit, maintenance and repair to vessels of up to 230ft (70m).