Union Iron Works
The Donahue Brothers Peter and James, Scots-Irish immigrants, founded Union Iron Works in the south of Market area of San Francisco in 1849.
After years as the premiere producer of mining, railroad, agricultural and locomotive machinery in California, Union Iron Works, led by I.M. Scott, entered the ship building business and relocated to an area known as Scotch Hill (now Potrero Hill) in the 1800s due to the Scottish boat builders and iron workers who lived above the Union Iron Works.
The first U.S.S. San Francisco was a cruiser built at the Union Iron Works. She was commissioned in 1890 and later converted to a mine layer called the Yosemite.
In 1885, the Union Iron Works launched the first steel hulled ship on the west coast, the Arago, built with steel from the Pacific Rolling Mills. In 1886, UIW was awarded a one million dollar contract to build a Naval cruiser, the Charleston, which they completed in eighteen months. From the completion of the Arago in 1884 to 1902, UIW built seventy-five marine vessels, including two of the most famous vessels of the Spanish American war, the Olympia and the Oregon.
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