Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1882-06-03
THE .salPBUILDING q PENISG.


the number OF practical ship carpenters
and ship joiners who are owners of farms
or places near US in Whatcom and San
Juan counties. We find within half
days sail by skiff through the islands, of
our own knowledge, nine experienced
hipbuilders, whose combined labor, we
are informed, would in less than year
complete the hull of a thousand ton steam
er, or sailing vessel, including the spars.
In this connection, is it not worth while
for us to note that there is " boom" Just
now in wooden sLipbuilding on the Paci-
fic coast9 When there is profit in owning
ships, shipping merchants can afford to
pay higher prices for building them; and
a greater tonnage is commonly built at
very liberal figures than otherwise. In
1850, when charters were in such great
demand from all the Atlantic ports for
California, the price per ton paid for
building wooden ships was as high as $50,
and the yards were crowded. That was
the time when Donald McKay's little yard
ct East Boston began to flourish, and
when it grew rapidly into the greatest
shipyard in the world; when Webb at
New York, and other shipbuilders, along
with the shipping merchants at the
port, laid the foundation Of their great
wealth. Mckay frequently has four 1000
ton ships on the stocks at once. The
Sovereign of the Seas," of 2400 tons
burthen, was built in eight weeks time,
at $50 ton for hull and spars. The Uni-
ted States then had not only tho largest
but the best shipyard in the world. The
mercantile marine of this country rivaled
that of England, and excelled that OF
every other nation in the world.
Then the civil war broke out, fhe pri-
vateers were let loose, and what was not
destroyed of American shipping was most.
ly transferred to the English flag. Dull
times following, attention to interior de-
velopments, mines and railroads, and the
advent of the iron ship, from the Clyde,
together kept Uncle Sam pretty much
ashore, down to 1881. Althouth the Del
aware produced many iron ships our Ca
pacity for reproducing mercantile navy
of wooden material by body of trained
mechanics as of old, has been held in
allegiance by the supposed final superior
ity of iron. We now learn something
more by experience; that twice as many
iron ships are lost than wooden ones; ana
that the underwriters will not insure the
iron ships on equally favorable terms
with wooden. They cost more and the
risk OF ownership Is greater.
1t is proposltion--cspab!e of demon
stration from the data in hand-that our
tonnage tor the seas must in the approach
ing years show an increase like that We
have seen in our railway mileage by land
in the several years past; and the materi :
al will be wood, as extensively as iron.
All the ports from Puget Sound to San
Francisco are crowded with york and
haye been turning out work with con.
stantly increasing rapidity. Such is ,he
demand that shipbuilders have recently
been compelled, through over-abundance
of work to decline contracts; instances, the
Dickie Bros, at San Francisco, and the
Hall Bros, at Port Blakely.
The vessels built at San Francisco dur
ing 1881, says the Alta, number 35, hav-
ing an aggregate tonnage of $685., viz:
Steamer Mexico, 1907 tons; barkentine w.
H. Dimond, 391 tons barkentine W. G.
Irwin, S4s tons; schooner Anna, 239 tons;
steamer Bonita, 430 tons; brig Tahita, 200
tons; schooner VIM. .Arkman, 144 tons;
schooner Wing and Wing, 14s tons;
schooner Howard, 1875 tons; steamer State
OF Sonora, 600 tons; and steamer Crescent
! City, $50 tons.
Among the vessels built at Eureka and
on Puget Sound are barkentine Klickltat,
393 tons: Kitsap, about the same size; Re-
trievsr, do; Uncle John, 1886 tons; Mary
Wimbledon, 532 tons; Wrestler, All tons;
schooner Annie Larson, 377 tons; Bertha
Dolbeer. 243; Dakota, 335; Geo. G. Per
kinz, 3s6; Halcyn, 204; J. G. North, 337;
] James A. Garfield, 33s; Jo Russ, 1872; Lot