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 story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Last week bids were opened at the navy department for the construction of an armed coast-defense vessel of 4,000 tons. It is not improbable that the contract will be let to the Union Iron Works of San Francisco. While their bid was $114,000 higher than that of Cramp & Sons, they agreed to the government's plans and guaranteed satisfactory results. If such an event happens, it will be one of considerable significance to the entire coast, for it will mean the permanent transfer to the West of a portion of the shipbuilding industry from the Atlantic seaboard.
No other people can view this activity in shipbuilding circles with more satisfaction than those of Puget Sound. If war vessels can be built at a profit in San Francisco, there is no reason why the industry cannot be established in our own community. There is no section where all the conditions incident to the establishment of shipyards are so easily fulfilled. There is no place where all the raw materials are so available and can be so easily handled. In fact, with inexhaustible quantities of coal, iron and timber at our very doors, it seems difficult to find a locality where iron and steel ships could be constructed so cheaply and to such an advantage. Establishing a navy yard on Puget Sound will turn the attention of the government to this quarter, and among the many new vessels proposed for the navy, one at least should be built of the wood and iron of the state of Washington.
“With inexhaustible quantities of coal, iron and timber at our very doors, it seems difficult to find a locality where iron and steel ships could be constructed so cheaply.”
This editorial captures a defining moment in Seattle's transition from a resource-extraction frontier to an industrial city. The dream of leveraging local timber and coal to build a homegrown naval industry echoes modern debates about Seattle's evolving role in the global aerospace and maritime tech sectors.
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