Sun Ships

Tankers and shipyard

Authored by Martin Leduc
May 25, 2015

The Sun Company is an American oil company established in 1886, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by founders Mr. Pew and Mr. Emerson. It 1920, it was renamed the Sun Oil Company, in 1976 it was renamed Sunoco Inc. and in 2012, became a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, based in Dallas, Texas. The Canadian assets of Sunoco were known as Suncor Energy, and had a presence in the Alberta oil sands since 1967, until it sold in 1996.

The company started using tanker ships in 1901, and experienced the full developmental stages of what a modern oil tanker is mostly nowadays. The company ran ships in the domestic trade and in the international trade under the US flag. They suffered numerous casualties during the Second World War.

To read about the Sun Shipping company fleet in 1962, a fleet list, and their fate, click here.

Sun Oil Company established their own shipyard in 1917, in Chester, Pennsylvania, known as Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company (Sun Ship), until it was sold in 1982. In the early 1940's, it was the single largest ship yard in the United States. They built numerous ships that utilized British Doxford opposed piston oil engines.

To view a sales brochure of the Sun Shipyard in 1946, click here.
To see a list of Sun Ships built with Doxford main engine, click here.


Cayuga Sun	Seneca Sun
Raritan Sun	Maumee Sun
Dynafuel	Maumee Sun and Mystic Sun
Northern Sun and Eastern Sun	Northern Sun
These pictures of various Sun ships, are provide by friend of the site, and Sun navigational officer, Charles Leeuwenburg, of North Carolina. Thank you.