08/21/2026
Bruce Washburn and Bruce Doughty broke away from Bath Iron Works in 1977 to open their own Maine shipyard, with Doughty acting as president and general manager and Washburn, a naval architect, leading design. They started the business with Carl Pianka, and initially focused on fishing boats. Over several decades, they changed locations, lost a facility to fire, recovered, and became premier builders of passenger vessels, barges, ferries, and research vessels. They have become particularly known for their z drive tugboats. Bremen, ME photojournalist Red Boutilier, ever a hound for naval construction and boat launches, photographed their work repeatedly through the years.
-Bruce Washburn (R) and Bruce Doughty in the office, Woolwich, ME, 1980
-The 78’ steel trawler PURSUIT wets her hull for the first time at Woolwich on Sept. 4, 1982.
-Two fishing boats under construction stand in the Washburn & Doughty yard in early 1980. SUZANNE BETH was an 82 ft. dragger and TERESA MARIE II was a 93 ft. scalloper/dragger for a Portland, ME owner. Woolwich, ME
-Though W&D designed most of the vessels they built, BOUNTIFUL II was a John Gilbert Assoc.-designed scalloper/dragger, built for Edison Love of Falmouth, MA. She was the largest ship built to date in the four-year-old yard. Woolwich, ME, Aug 1981
-Steel dragger BOUTIFUL II underway on her maiden voyage, Aug 1981.
-Another John W. Gilbert Assoc. design, the 95 ft. steel dragger LINDA is shown being christened at W&D, Woolwich, ME, July 2, 1981. The owner, Salvatore Patanis of Revere, MA, named her for his daughter.
-A crowd gathered to view the launch of POWHATAN, a steel dragger-longliner built for sword fisherman Charlie Johnson of Harpswell, Maine, and a sister ship to HUNTRESS, owned by Richard Goodwin of Point Judith, R.I. POWAHATAN was the fourth and largest vessel built to date in 1979-80 at the new yard in its original location. She was 93 feet overall and rated for 195 tons. Woolwich, ME, 1980
