Willink, Henry Frederick, 1825-1906.

Henry Frederick Willink, Jr., shipbuilder and alderman, was born 3 April 1827, in Savannah, Georgia; it is uncertain when or where he died. As a member of the Savannah shipbuilding firm of Willink & Miller, he contracted with the Confederate Navy (1861) for the construction of the gunboat, MACON, and ironclad steamers, SAVANNAH and MILLEDGEVILLE, the last of which was partially complete when the city of Savannah was captured in December 1864. According to a May 1879 issue of the SAVANNAH TIMES, Willink was at that time a Savannah alderman.

Henry Frederick Willink, Jr. (1825-1906) was born in Savannah. After a brief schooling at Chatham Academy he went to work in his father's shipyard. After seven years there he went to work in a shipyard in New York where he remained for 9 years. He returned to Savannah in 1851 and commenced his own shipyard business. He built several vessels for the Confederate States Navy - gunboats, torpedo boats, ironclads. After the Civil War he rebuilt his shipyard, and under a contract with the U.S. Government, removed obstructions from Savannah River which had been sunk as barriers. He organized the Southern Wrecking Co., built a marine railway on Hutchinson Island, and engaged in several enterprises on Savannah River. In the 1870's he became manager of the Savannah Dry Dock Co. He was elected an Alderman of Savannah in 1877.