Company Profile
Company Overview
Founded in 1920, George G. Sharp, Inc. is the oldest Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Service Company in the United States. SHARP is recognized worldwide for it’s innovative ship designs and creative engineering solutions. Over 376 total ship designs have lead to the construction of more than 1500 ships for the U.S. Navy, Military Sealift Command (MSC), Maritime Administration and private interests. SHARP recently completed design and provides construction oversight of a new class of Staten Island Ferry. SHARP has accomplished many demanding projects involving the conversion and modernization of existing vessels for the MSC, Naval Sea Systems Command, Maritime Administration and commercial owners. SHARP has provided engineering and technical services to the U.S. Navy for the past 30 years in the areas of engineering design for new construction, Modernization and Conversion; Program Management and Systems Safety Engineering for the DDG 51, DD-21, LHD, and CVN programs; Life Cycle support for nearly every USN class of ships; Field Services to include technical alteration and installation team services – most notably habitability and food services, assistance and training for propulsion, auxiliary, electric/electronic equipment and systems; Integrated Logistics Support; and Quality Assurance. SHARP provides program management, office/field engineering services, and installation, maintenance and repair services for the Foreign Military Sales Program, PMS 380. SHARP provides for Operation and Maintenance of the Navy Inactive Ship Facility, Bremerton, WA. SHARP is a large business (small business in NAIC Code 336611 Ship Repair), ISO 9001/2000 certified, privately held organization, which employs approximately 600 engineers and technical personnel.
Company History
In 1920, George Gillies Sharp, having been Chief Surveyor of the American Bureau of Shipping, entered the professional practice of naval architecture and marine engineering. Successful early designs of excursion steamers were followed by merchant ships such as the original "Four Aces" for American Export Lines; and by the early 1930s he had earned a reputation for a creative approach to ship design and as a pioneer in the field of fire control of ships. In 1934, the Department of Commerce engaged his firm to design a series of "standard types" of merchant ships (C1, C2, etc.) which would become the prototypes of the long-range program of the Maritime Commission, created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 to rebuild the Merchant Marine.
During World War II, Sharp played a prominent role in the massive emergency ship construction program during which over 600 ships were built to Sharp's plans, including 414 "Victory" merchant ships and numerous Naval auxiliaries including 50 CVE escort aircraft carriers, the "Baby Flat Tops" of Pacific fame. After its incorporation in 1951, the firm continued to turn out imaginative ship designs, several of them being the first of their kind. All in all, over 1,500 vessels have been constructed and over 300 ship conversions have been completed from Sharp's designs.
Over 86 years after its founding, SHARP remains dedicated to the professional design of economic, cost-effective ships, ship systems and other marine structures for both commercial and military purposes. The only significant changes in the picture have been in the technology, types of vessels and techniques of analysis. In all these areas, SHARP has kept or set the pace.