Eastern Shipbuilding Group is a shipbuilder based in Panama City, Florida that operates facilities in the Florida Panhandle in Panama City, Allanton, and Port St. Joe. The company was founded in 1976 as Eastern Marine by Brian R. D’Isernia as a builder of fishing vessels, and began diversifying into constructing custom ships in the 1980s, beginning with the delivery of its first platform supply vessel (PSV) for the offshore oil and gas industry in 1981. In 1988, the company shut down, but was re-founded at the Panama City shipyard in 1997 as Eastern Shipbuilding Group, and purchased the former-Halter Marine shipyard facility in Allanton in 2000. As of 2009, Eastern employed about 900 people at its two shipyards, covering about 151 acres. Eastern primarily built tugboats and oil industry su