When President Donald Trump railed against the electromagnetic catapult on the Navy’s brand new USS Gerald Ford and demanded a return to “goddamned steam,” we’re not sure this is what he had in mind.
It’s a universal truth handed down since antiquity: a country with a coastline has a navy. Big or small, navies worldwide have the same basic mission—to project military might into neighboring waters and beyond.
There’s a little company in Chelsea, Massachusetts, that has weathered 120 years of industrial innovation to become a timeless fixture of state history and a reminder of the golden years of American manufacturing.
