Lake Union Drydock Company is a full-service

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

that specializes in vessel repair and conversions located in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. Drydocking vessels up to 6000 tons (420’ in length), Lake Union Drydock Company repairs factory trawlers,

fishing vessel A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing. The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was es ...

s, Coast Guard Cutters and

buoy tender A buoy tender is a type of vessel used to maintain and replace navigational buoys. This term can also apply to an actual person who does this work. The United States Coast Guard uses buoy tenders to accomplish one of its primary missions of main ...

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...

research vessel A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...

ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

, mega-yachts,

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

s, and

houseboat A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a home. Most houseboats are not motorized as they are usually moored or kept stationary at a fixed point, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. How ...

s. Lake Union Drydock Company was founded by Otis Cutting and John McLean in 1919 to build and service watercraft vessels. Located along the eastern shore of

Lake Union Lake Union is a freshwater lake located entirely within the city limits of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is a major part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which carries fresh water from the much larger Lake Washington on the east to ...

, Lake Union Drydock Company is among the longest operating shipyards in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Accessible via the Hiram A. Chittenden (Ballard) Locks, Lake Union provides refuge from

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

s as well as the marine life and corrosive saltwater of

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

Company history

In 1919, during the Post-World War I recession, Otis Cutting and John McLean started a partnership when they jointly purchased waterfront property on

and established the Lake Union Drydock Company. Between 1920 and 1954, Lake Union Drydock Company constructed a total of 63 vessels, the majority of which were not yachts. During

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

rum-runners Rum-running or bootlegging is the illegal business of smuggling alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law. Smuggling usually takes place to circumvent taxation or prohibition laws within a particular jurisdiction. The ter ...

used fast boats to transport alcohol along “rum-lines” where they risked passage between ports in the western waters of both the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. To address this challenge, the

US Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...

commissioned Lake Union Drydock Company to construct 15 75’ long, high-speed Patrol Boats, an effort that achieved Lake Union Drydock Company economic viability as well as recognition for the craft and quality of the vessels they built. Following the start to their business, in 1923 Cutting and McLean hired R.M. Mooney, a former Marmon Automobiles agent. Inspired by Henry Ford’s

assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in seq ...

, Mooney implemented repeatable manufacturing processes to produce a stock cruiser, the Lake Union Dreamboat, to achieve a price point more accessible to yachting enthusiasts. Fro
1928-1930
Lake Union Drydock Company worked with noted yacht designer, Ted Geary, and built a series of four, 96’ long, fantail yachts
Principia, Blue Peter, Electra, and Canim
''); each created with classic lines, luxurious joiner work, and fittings. The company also made two sailing yachts
Pirate and Circe
Both vessels remained functional till 2019.

Second World War

Operating under the name Associated Shipbuilders in a joint venture with the nearby

Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company was a major shipbuilding and construction company, located in Seattle, Washington, on the southwestern corner of Harbor Island, an artificial island in Elliott Bay. The Bridge and Dredging Company created t ...

Harbor Island Harbor Island is an artificial island in the mouth of the Duwamish River in Seattle, Washington, US, where it empties into Elliott Bay. Built by the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company, it was completed in 1909 and was then the largest art ...

, a small number of yard minesweepers were built for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

.http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/small/lakeunion.htm * 18 of 481 s ** BYMS-9 ... BYMS-14 ** YMS-287 ... YMS-298

Post WWII

In 1946 Harry Jones, an attorney, and George H. Stebbins, a marine engineer
joined forces to purchase Lake Union Drydock Company
a union that would be followed by three subsequent generations. Much like their predecessors, Jones and Stebbins took over just after a

world war A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

. The post

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

era was lean, but the abundant market for of ship repairs and dedication to craft enabled Lake Union Drydock Company to thrive. A contract performed between 1952 and 1953, during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, resulted in construction of four, 144’ long, minesweepers. This would be the last multi vessel construction contract that Lake Union Drydock Company would perform. During th
1960s and 1970s
Lake Union Drydock Company focused on vessel conversion and repair work. Alaska’s rapid growth in that era caused a significant increase in the demand for repair of freighters, tugs and barges that supplied goods to the state. In response to an increase in marine traffic, additional

vessels were stationed in the region, each requiring periodic repair. Additionally, the Alaska Marine Highways System looked to Lake Union Drydock Company to service and refit vessels for their ferry fleet. The passing of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976 brought growth to the fishing industry in Alaska; dozens of US factory

trawlers Trawler may refer to: Boats * Fishing trawler, used for commercial fishing * Naval trawler, a converted trawler, or a boat built in that style, used for naval purposes ** Trawlers of the Royal Navy * Recreational trawler, a pleasure boat built tra ...

, catcher boats and longliners arrived on the scene and Lake Union Drydock Company became the principle repair source for the North Pacific trawler fleet. Between fishing seasons, it was not uncommon for several 200’-300’ trawlers to be in the yard simultaneously. Yard craftspeople adapted to the specific needs of the fleet and developed new skills. In 1976, the yard acquired ex-

USS White Sands (ARD-20) USS ''White Sands'' (ARD-20), ex-USS ''ARD-20'', ex-USS ''ARD(BS)-20'', later AGDS-1, was a United States Navy auxiliary repair dock in service from 1944 to 1947 and from 1966 to 1974 and an Auxiliary floating drydock. Construction and commissio ...

, an

Auxiliary repair dock An auxiliary repair dock (ARD) is a type of floating drydock employed by the U.S. Navy, especially during World War II. The Navy commissioned 33 ARD vessels: ARD-1 through ARD-33. ARDs were self-sustaining in World War II. ARDs have a rudder to hel ...

ship. This required the ship with an beam to pass through the 80-foot wide

Hiram M. Chittenden Locks The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, or Ballard Locks, is a complex of locks at the west end of Salmon Bay in Seattle, Washington's Lake Washington Ship Canal, between the neighborhoods of Ballard to the north and Magnolia to the south. The Ballard L ...

in Ballard. This was accomplished by heeling the ship to 38 degrees with ballast water then with of ballast blocks and steel plates, plus additional buoyancy. Along with all the industry shifts, servicing wooden vessels remained a mainstay of Lake Union Drydock Company’s operation. Capitalizing on the opportunity to maintain wooden minesweepers, Lake Union Drydock Company assembled vessel-specific tooling and established craft training to service sophisticated componentry. In 1990, after the

Invasion of Kuwait The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was an operation conducted by Iraq on 2 August 1990, whereby it invaded the neighboring State of Kuwait, consequently resulting in a seven-month-long Iraqi military occupation of the country. The invasion and Ira ...

, the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

enlisted Lake Union Drydock Company to prepare the Seattle based Minesweeper Offshore (MSO) fleet for transit to the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

. In 1994, the Taiwanese Navy contracted with Lake Union Drydock to refurbish and then transport four Mine Sweeper Offshore (MSO) to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. This job required a workforce of 140 craftspeople to concurrently perform repairs on all four vessels. In need of 70

shipwrights Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

, who were difficult to recruit by 1990 due to changes in the labor market, Lake Union Drydock Company had to search

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

to assemble an appropriately skilled team. As part of the contract, Lake Union Drydock Company provided training to the Taiwanese maintenance staff. To fulfill the transport requirement to

, the shipyard found and prepared a heavy lift ship to deck-load and transit the four 176’ minesweepers, once delivered, Lake Union Drydock Company’s relationship with wooden Naval

Minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

s was concluded. Between 1995 and 2001 Lake Union Drydock Company worked i
collaboration with the Virginia V Foundation
to successfully restore the

Virginia V Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

; the last operational wooden steam passenger ship of its kind.

Company today

Lake Union Drydock Company
in its 103rd year of business
remains a full-service

that specializes in vessel repair and conversions. Lake Union Drydock Company vessel repairs includes; factory trawlers, longliners and catcher boats, deep sea and harbor tugs, barges,

ships including buoy tenders, medium and high endurance cutters and high-speed patrol craft,

Washington State Ferries Washington State Ferries (WSF) is a government agency that operates automobile and passenger ferry service in the U.S. state of Washington as part of the Washington State Department of Transportation. It runs ten routes serving 20 terminals loca ...

and regional high-speed passenger ferries,

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

vessels, large yachts, and assorted commercial vessels.

References

{{Puget Sound shipyards Companies based in Seattle Shipbuilding in Washington (state) American companies established in 1919 Manufacturing companies established in 1919 1919 establishments in Washington (state) *