The Pride of Belltown: Seattle's Shipbuilding Milestone
Launched in 1876, the barkentine Kate Flickinger marked a new era for local industry, built entirely from Washington timber by Seattle craftsmen.
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.
Seattle can reasonably take pride in the handsome vessel launched yesterday, the first three-masted vessel that has thus far been produced at her yards. She was built, throughout, of our common yellow fir lumber, purchased from local mills, which has been pronounced by experts the best timber in the world for ship building. The construction was under the special supervision of Mr. Benjamin Bigelow, master carpenter, who undertook the enterprise last winter. An average number of twelve men were kept steadily employed. The barkentine's dimensions are: length over all, 142 feet; keel, 115 feet 3 inches; breadth of beam, 32 feet 6 inches; and depth of hold, 14 feet 2 inches. She is expected to register 350 tons standard measurement, but is calculated to carry 500 tons of coal and 150,000 feet of lumber as deck load. The owners are John H. Flickinger, Sheldon Allen, and S.J. Gilman of Seattle. The launch took place at Belltown yesterday afternoon at 4:30 P.M. in the presence of about a hundred spectators. The vessel was christened the Kate Flickinger, in honor of the daughter of one of the owners, and was immediately towed up to Crawford & Harrington's wharf for rigging and loading.
“She was built, throughout, of our common yellow fir lumber... which has been pronounced by experts the best timber in the world for ship building.”
Belltown, once a bustling industrial waterfront where schooners and barkentines were built from local old-growth fir, is now one of Seattle’s densest residential neighborhoods. The transition from a site of heavy industrial ship-building to high-rise condominiums mirrors the city's broader economic evolution over the last 150 years.
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