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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
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| 1878 | 4 |
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52 stories matching shipbuild
- The Case for 'Made in Seattle' Ships
An 1877 editorial argues that Seattle’s abundant timber and cheap labor should make it a maritime powerhouse rather than a consumer of imported vessels.
- The Industrial Expansion of Seattle’s Waterfront
Moran Brothers Company secures critical land to expand their shipbuilding and iron works capabilities.
- The Industrial Ambition of the Seattle Waterfront
An 1877 editorial champions the Puget Sound as the inevitable future global hub for shipbuilding, driven by the unmatched quality of local yellow fir.
- The 'Artistic Swindle' of the Shipbuilding Trust
A scathing editorial denounces the financial manipulation behind the Shipbuilding Trust as a 'bunco game' orchestrated by Gilded Age titans.
- The Shipbuilder Who Built Ballard
Captain John J. Holland, the man behind the Bailey Gatzert and Ballard's water system, passes away from pneumonia.
- The Shipbuilder’s Debt of Honor
A Seattle industrialist pays back a fifty-cent loan given to him by a stranger when he was a penniless runaway.
- The Lake Washington Shipbuilding Boom
A new canal connection to Puget Sound drives the expansion of a local steamboat yard into an ocean-going venture.
- The New Era of Lake Washington Shipbuilding
Capitalizing on the brand-new ship canal, local firms pivot to build massive steel cargo ships for international trade.
- Tacoma’s Shipbuilding Future Hinges on Dredging the Puyallup
Business leaders push to deepen the river channel as the Alaska Steamship Company confirms plans to expand its fleet in Tacoma.
- American Shipyards Overwhelmed by War-Era Demand
With merchant vessel construction doubling in a year, American yards refuse new contracts as the United States approaches pre-Civil War shipbuilding dominance.
- A Solo Voyage in an Open Boat
Shipbuilder Ole Johnson navigates the rugged coast from Puget City to Grays Harbor in a 17-foot open boat.
- The Argument for Statehood: Washington's Manifest Destiny
An impassioned appeal for Washington Territory's admission to the Union, highlighting its timber, agriculture, and shipbuilding potential as proof of its readiness to become a state.
- The Deadly Pressure on Puget Sound Steamboat Captains
Shipbuilder John K. Barr argues that owners and agents, not sea conditions, are the real culprits behind marine disasters.
- The Shipyard That Moved: How Hall Brothers Brought 500 Jobs to Seattle
As the nation debates tariffs and statehood, a major industrial shift is reshaping Seattle's economy. The country's largest shipbuilding firm has relocated its operations here, promising an immediate influx of workers and capital.
- The Bold Bid for Seattle’s Shipyards
An 1889 editorial argues that if San Francisco can successfully build naval warships, Washington Territory—with its vast timber and coal reserves—should be the next center of American maritime power.
- The Navy’s Checklist: Why Seattle Was Betting Its Future on Iron and Timber
In January 1902, the city compiled a massive dossier of industrial advantages—from Denny Mine ore to fresh-water wharves—to convince Washington D.C. that Seattle was the only logical site for a new Pacific naval station.
- The Shipbuilder Who Wasn't: A Swindler’s Bogus Checks and a Wife’s Shame
Captain John E. Higgins arrives in Seattle posing as a respected Bath, Maine shipbuilder, only to be exposed by Harbor Police Officer Metzler after cashing forged checks on local merchants.
- Aberdeen’s Shipbuilding Ambitions
The steam barge Clan McDonald slides into the harbor, signaling the town’s growing industrial influence.
- The Dream of a Seattle Shipyard
In 1877, local merchants were urged to stop waiting for 'something to turn up' and collectively invest in a local shipbuilding industry to jumpstart the economy.
- The Shipyard of the World
In 1876, a local editorial argued that Puget Sound’s immense timber wealth and strategic harbor position would inevitably make it the global hub for shipbuilding, urging Seattle business owners to subsidize the relocation of Eastern industry.
- The Death of the American Shipyard
In an 1873 speech, Congressman Alexander Mitchell argued that excessive taxation and protectionist tariffs were systematically destroying the American shipping industry, forcing once-prosperous shipbuilders into obsolescence.
- The Death of Wooden Shipbuilding
As iron vessels take over the industry, skilled shipwrights in Seattle find their trade vanishing and their unions struggling to adapt.
- Building a Street over the Tidelands
A new ordinance pushes the city street grid out over the Seattle waterfront to reach the dry dock.
- The Growing Ambition of the Aberdeen Shipyards
With some of the longest ship timbers in the world, the local yards aim to become a premier shipbuilding hub.
- The Mukilteo Colony Dream
Promoters pitched a 32-tract 'colony' in Mukilteo as a perfect, self-sustaining opportunity for families to own land and work the Sound, promising everything from shipbuilding to fertile marshland farming.
Also about this, in other words
- The Struggle to Launch Seattle’s Shipbuilding Future
A century and a half ago, Seattle’s local editors argued that the city’s vast timber resources should have made it a global marine power, but capital and labor were held back by East Coast monopolies.
- The Wooden Walls of Puget Sound
A survey of the booming fleet of vessels built in Washington Territory in 1877, and why the local economy was missing out on the profits of its own timber.