It’s hard to imagine Bath Iron Works being anywhere but in Bath, Maine, but it could have relocated to Connecticut. On February 13, 1894, a small fire started in the moulding loft. It spread quickly because the water company would turn the water off at night. An employee sounded the alarm, signaling the water company to turn the water back on, but the hydrants were frozen due to low water pressure. An unhappy Gen. Thomas Hyde, who had complained about the water problem weeks earlier, was displeased with the Bath council’s reaction to the fire and in a letter to the Bath Times wrote that BIW was “driven away by a city government.” He began to seriously consider moving BIW to New London or Norwich. The Bath council reacted quickly and arranged for the water company to have water running at night. On February 23, shipbuilders began rebuilding their yard.
