The General Ship Repair Corporation,

The General Ship Repair Corporation, (GSR), a fixture on the Baltimore water front for nearly a century, continues to build a strong business, as we now welcome our fourth generation ownership. Our range of expertise encompasses afloat ship repairs, tug and barge dry dockings and industrial services (Baltimore Metal Works Division), and we are proud of having been in business since 1924.  General Ship Repair Corporation is as ubiquitous of a presence on the Baltimore waterfront as Under Armour, Domino Sugar and “Natty Boh.” General Ship Repair has stood strong for nearly a century since its founding by Charles “Buck” Lynch in 1924, evolving today into the de facto ‘go to’ for workboat and ship repair in the Baltimore area. Today it is running strong, and per its history it invests in its people and facilities with an eye on the future, a future which is planned to include a fourth generation of Lynch leadership.  In its time the company has serviced schooners and steamships, paddle wheelers and super tankers, as well as everything in between. Today though, providing repair and maintenance service to the regional workboat market with its pair of 1,000 ton floating docks is the heart and soul of its business.

Today the company is owned and operated by a trio of Lynch brothers: Charles F. “Derick” Lynch, Cary B. Lynch and Michael Lynch, who took over from their father Charles “Jack” Lynch in the early 1990s. In the management wings are two of Derick’s sons, Charles (Chaz) Lynch and Ryan Lynch. Chaz Lynch served in the U.S. Coast Guard for four years before deciding his fate lies in the waterfront shop his great grandfather pioneered. Mid-stream in his USCG stint he switched to the mechanical side of the operation. “He called me two year in and said that he really wanted to come back and work at the shipyard,” said Derick Lynch. “And I told him ‘you’re a deckie … I don’t need a deckie, I need a machinist.” Today Chaz serves the company as a foreman and machinist.  Ryan Lynch graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy, and today works in the yard as a project manager, working part-time for the moment in between his sailing at sea obligations. ‘Self-Sufficient’ is perhaps the best term to describe the yard, its management and its team of 45, a focused group available 24/7/365 to its workboat and ship clients that depend on it to keep its equipment functional and in the water earning money.