Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: One of Florida’s most enduring businesses, RMK Merrill Stevens shipyard on the Miami River traces its beginnings to the Merrill brothers, James and Alexander, and Arthur Stevens. In 1885, they incorporated the Merrill-Stevens Engineering Co. in Jacksonville, a business that included ship repair. In the early 1920s, Merrill-Stevens purchased a boatyard on the north bank of the Miami River. A few years later, the facility was destroyed by the 1926 Great Miami hurricane, and was quickly rebuilt. During World War II, under the direction of Alec Balfe, Merrill-Stevens oversaw the conversion of hundreds of pleasure crafts into naval support vessels, receiving for its efforts the Army-Navy “E” Award for excellence. Following the war, the firm engaged in the repair and storage of vintage sailing ships, yachts of the rich and famous, vessels featured in movies, including military craft during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The 2008 Great Recession stalled the fortunes of Merrill-Stevens until it was purchased by prominent Turkish businessman and ardent sailor Rahmi M. Koc, who heavily invested in a new, state-of-the-art physical plant on the site of the old sheds on the north bank of the river.