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.
It is doubtful if there has been as great a setback in any of the other mechanical trades on the Coast during the past year and a half or two years as there has been in ship carpentry. The trade is really demoralized, and there seems to be no prospect of any revival for some time to come. Frank Griffin, a leading member of the Ship Carpenters' Union, notes that the industry is shifting entirely to iron vessels, leaving hundreds of workers in Seattle with only odd jobs. These men, once the elite of the docks, are now forced to consider bridge building or heavy wood work to survive, as the era of wooden ship construction passes into history.
“The days of wooden ship building have passed away, and the only thing left for the man who made his living at the trade is to adapt himself to his new environment.”
This story captures a pivot point in Seattle's industrial identity, mirroring modern anxieties about technological displacement and the 'gigification' of skilled labor. Just as the iron hull signaled the end of the wooden shipyard era, today's workers face similar questions about how to pivot in an economy where old skills are rapidly rendered obsolete.
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