The company was developed by Sun Oil Company, and launched its first ship in 1917, just as the United States was entering World War I. Under the direction of its president, John Glenn Pew, the company experienced tremendous success over the following decades. In the 1920s, it had become a large shipyard that built tankers for the Standard Oil Company. In 1936, the Pew family offered John J. McClure and his Republican political machine control over hiring at Sun Shipbuilding as patronage to lure him out of retirement after the scandal involving the Rum Ring Trial.