Tacoma Boatbuilding

[AlaskaProf]

The "Crab Pot Thread" has drifted far afield (afield seems like the wrong word,... whatever)

Minesweepers, Herman Wouk, my Dad, etc. Something just penetrated my aging brain: My dad's last ship, USS Doyle, the fictional Caine according to Navsource was built at Tacoma Boat, 1840 Marine View Drive. As I write this, I am sitting at 3702 Marine View Drive.

Small world.

 

[Lepke]

Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp. built the Doyle in Seattle at Harbor Island on the site that is now Vigor Shipyard. The last destroyers built there took 243 days. They also built merchant type ships in Tacoma between Blair Waterway and Hylebos Waterway. The navy owned all the land NW of 11th Street until the "peace dividend". There was a Navy Reserve center and a dock with a destroyer and submarine. I served on the Uhlman DD-687 there as a reward for Vietnam. At that time the old shipyard area was scrapping WWII transports. You can still make out the old launching ways and marine railway at the end.
Tacoma Boat was where Jesse Engineering is now. Near the end of Hylebos Waterway. TB did a habitability upgrade to the Uhlman while I was aboard. We had the fanciest heads in the Navy. Fake marble sinks, showers, and porcelain toilets. I won a lot of bets with other destroyer sailors over our heads.
If you're interested, a list of the ships Tacoma Boat built:
https://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/large/tacoma.htm

 

[AlaskaProf]

Thanks. Great info about places I see every day. Was the reserve center at the outboard end of the Blair Waterway? The Army has a facility there with half a dozen tugs and an impressive (160 foot?) landing craft.