William Leslie Comyn

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William Leslie Comyn (born October 30, 1877) was a California businessman and shipbuilder who helped create one of the first large concrete ships.

He was born in Shepherd’s Bush, London, the second son of Charles Comyn, a civil servant. He studied at Merchant Taylors’ School and Dulwich College, then started his own shipping company in London. He later moved to California and settled in San Francisco. He married Ann Gerber and had three children. His father-in-law, William Gerber of Sacramento, supported his ventures. One of his early ships was a five-masted sailing ship named Ann Comyn after his wife.

During World War I, Comyn pushed the United States to build concrete ships. When officials were not convinced, he founded the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company in Oakland in 1917. In January 1918 they began building the first ship, the Faith, an 8,000-ton freighter and the largest concrete ship of its time. It was launched in March 1918, and in April President Woodrow Wilson approved the Emergency Fleet Corporation to oversee the construction of 24 ferrocement ships.

The Faith left San Francisco on its maiden voyage in May 1918, carrying salt and copper ore to Vancouver, with other trips to Honolulu, Balboa, Callao, Valparaiso, and New York. In 1919 Comyn’s shipbuilding company sold the Faith to the French-American SS Lines.

Comyn founded and led WL Comyn & Co, a shipping company, and also had interests in other firms. His company is mentioned in a 1940 shipping-law case about maritime liens for fuel oil.

His family included his brother Hugh Comyn, who played in the Wimbledon championships in 1906 and 1907 and won badminton titles in 1908 and 1909, and his sister Cicely Vaughan Wilkes, who helped found St Cyprian’s School in Eastbourne, England.