Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock built and repaired ships on the Chester waterfront in Delaware County for most of the twentieth century. During the Second World War, it ranked among the largest shipyards in the world. Its workforce numbered in the tens of thousands, building oil tankers for the war effort. Asbestos insulation ran through those hulls and through the working lives of the people who built and repaired them. For many Delaware County families, Sun Ship is where an asbestos exposure history begins.
History of Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company
The Sun Oil interests founded Sun Shipbuilding in 1916, partly to build and service the tankers that carried the company’s oil. The yard grew during both world wars. By the Second World War, it had become a mass production operation, launching tanker after tanker from ways along the Delaware River. After the war, the yard kept building and repairing commercial vessels for decades. The Sun interests sold the yard in the early 1980s, and shipbuilding under later owners wound down by the end of that decade.
Chester was a shipbuilding town in those years. The yard drew workers from Chester, Marcus Hook, Eddystone, Ridley, Upland, and across Delaware County. Its payroll shaped the city for generations.
Wartime Workforce at the Chester Shipyard
The wartime yard hired far beyond the traditional shipbuilding trades. Thousands of new workers came in, including women and Black workers recruited for war production. Many stayed in the industry after 1945. Others carried their trades to other yards and plants along the river. That is why Sun Ship exposure histories can span entire careers, not only the war years.
Why Shipyard Work Meant Asbestos Exposure
A mid-century ship was insulated from bow to stern. Asbestos lagging covered the boilers, steam lines, and machinery. Asbestos-containing materials also appeared in gaskets, packing, bulkhead insulation, and deck products. Building a ship meant cutting and fitting that material by hand, often in enclosed compartments below deck where dust hung in the air. Repair work added another hazard: old, dry insulation had to be torn out before new material went in, and stripping it filled the space with dust.
No single trade was exposed alone. When insulators worked in a compartment, the shipfitters, welders, pipefitters, and electricians nearby breathed the same air.
Shipyard Trades at Highest Risk for Asbestos Exposure
Insulators and laggers handled asbestos directly and constantly. Shipfitters, boilermakers, and pipefitters built and repaired the systems that the insulation covered. Welders and burners cut through insulated steel. Riggers, painters, machinists, electricians, and laborers worked in the same compartments. Many Sun Ship workers also spent time at the Marcus Hook refineries or the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard upriver, so one work history may involve more than one documented exposure site.
Secondhand Asbestos Exposure in Shipyard Families
Shipyard workers carried asbestos fibers home on their clothes, spreading them to homes across Chester and Delaware County. Family members, especially those who did the laundry, faced their own recognized form of exposure. That situation is described in asbestos exposure from washing clothes.
Mesothelioma Latency: Diagnosis Decades After Exposure
Asbestos exposure is the primary cause of mesothelioma, and the disease usually appears decades after the exposure that caused it (NCI asbestos fact sheet). A rigger who left the yard in the 1980s, or the daughter of a wartime worker who grew up around the laundry, may be diagnosed today and still fall within that medical timeline. This is general background, not medical advice. Your care belongs with your physicians.
Sun Ship Employment Records and Asbestos Evidence
The yard is gone, but the records remain. Employment records, union records, Social Security earnings statements, and years of testimony from former Sun Ship workers help show who worked there and what materials were used in the ships. Sun Ship has often come up in asbestos litigation, so much of the evidence a new claim may need may already exist. The yard is one of many Pennsylvania asbestos exposure sites.
Filing a Sun Ship Mesothelioma Claim in Pennsylvania
If your father, grandfather, or mother worked at Sun Ship and someone in your family now has a mesothelioma diagnosis, the path from the yard to a claim is well established. Document the work history, connect it to the existing record, and act promptly. Pennsylvania sets strict filing deadlines that typically begin running around the time of diagnosis, and waiting can put your family’s rights at risk.
Request a free case review, and Michael Schafle will go through your family’s Sun Ship history and explain what comes next.