The Moran Company

The Seattle Construction and Drydock Company was a shipbuilding company based in Seattle, Washington. Between 1911 and 1918, it produced a substantial number of ships for both commercial and military uses.

History

Formally established in 1911, the shipyard could trace its history back to 1882, when Robert Moran opened a marine repair shop at Yesler's Wharf () and became involved with Bailey Gatzert and the Seattle Dry Dock & Ship Building Company. Moran was elected mayor of Seattle in 1888 and while his original shop and the dry dock became a victim of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the business continued to expand and became the Moran Brothers Shipyard, located a few steps further south (). In 1906 the Moran family left the business, but the name persisted and the yard now operated as Moran Company and became the Seattle Construction and Drydock Company at the end of 1911.

Some time in 1916, William H. Todd made one of the first acquisitions for the corporation that would become a national enterprise later on by buying Seattle Construction and Drydock. Todd's business at that time consisted of facilities in New York harbor along the waterfront of Red Hook, Brooklyn and in Weehawken Cove, Hoboken. Soon after, Skinner & Eddy became a major shipbuilder in Seattle, their facilities built from the ground up starting in February of 1916 directly adjacent to the Seattle Construction yard. In 1918 Todd moved to the north end of Harbor Island to open a repair dock and Skinner & Eddy took control of both yards on the waterfront. The transfer took place on 11 May 1918, the price was $4,000,000. Skinner & Eddy were to pay the Emergency Fleet Corporation for the yard at a rate of $125,000 per completed ship. The Seattle Construction and Dry Dock Company was henceforth called Skinner & Eddy Plant No. 2. Todd's facilities on Harbor Island would then be expanded in the winter of 1940 / 1941 and become the "Seattle" in Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation.

Of the 6 steel shipyards active during that time in Puget Sound, Seattle Construction was the only one that had existed prior to the outbreak of World War I. J. F. Duthie & Company had built small boats before, but underwent a major expansion of its facilities in 1916.

Clarence Bagley, in his ''History of Seattle from the earliest settlement to the present time, Volume 2'', wrote:

:. . .

The company produced over 90 ships, including a substantial number of battleships and submarines for the United States Navy, submarines for the Royal Canadian Navy, as well as commercial oceangoing vessels. By 1917, the plant covered about and employed about 1,500 men. In that year, it had six building slips up to long; two drydocks of 12,000 tons capacity each, one drydock of 3,000 tons capacity, and was equipped to take care of repairs of all kinds.Welford Beaton, ''Frank Waterhouse & Company's Pacific ports (1917). p. 273. The company formally ceased operations in 1918, due in large part to the poaching of its skilled laborers by newly established competitors.Walter V. Woehlke, ''Union Labor in Peace and War'' (1918), p. 107. It ultimately was acquired by William H. Todd, who operated the company as a subsidiary of the Todd Pacific Shipyards Corporation, which had been founded in 1916 as the William H. Todd Corporation."William H. Todd"
''The Rudder'' (1919), Vol. XXXV, p. 61. It became the "Seattle" in Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation and operated under that name during World War II as one of the biggest suppliers of escort carriers and destroyers for the United States Navy. Other companies operated by Todd included the Robins Dry Dock & Repair Company of Erie Basin, Brooklyn, New York, the Tietjen & Long Dry Dock Company of Hoboken, New Jersey.

References

{{Puget Sound shipyards

1911 establishments in Washington (state)
Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States
Companies based in Seattle
Shipbuilding in Washington (state)