Higgins Industries

It is claimed that the company built 20,094 units (of which 12000 landing craft ) in WWII alone and the post-war hull numbers indicate about another 7,000. Higgins operated seven separate plants in the New Orleans area and employed 20,000 people at its peak, but this empire declined rapidly after WWII. Despite diversifying into the production of an attractive line in recreational motor boats, they closed in 1963 and were taken over by Equitable Equipment in 1966 and renamed Equitable Shipyards. Equitable was acquired by Trinity Industries in 1972, spun off as part of Halter Marine Group in 1996, spun off again in 2000 as Trinity Yachts and is now owned by Harvey Marine Shipyards.