"The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down." A. Whitney Brown.

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San Juan Archipelago, Washington State, United States
A society formed in 2009 for the purpose of collecting, preserving, celebrating, and disseminating the maritime history of the San Juan Islands and northern Puget Sound area. Check this log for tales from out-of-print publications as well as from members and friends. There are circa 750, often long entries, on a broad range of maritime topics; there are search aids at the bottom of the log. Please ask for permission to use any photo posted on this site. Thank you.

18 July 2012

✪ Builder Vic Frank ❖

Californian Gets Another Boat

The Seattle Times, 21 October 1968
L-R: Vic Franck, Ted Tate, George Carlson,
Bill Grandy, and Lynn Senour.
Dated 21 October 1968

Original from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©
Ted Tate, president of Marlineer Marine, Pomona, CA, likes Seattle-built boats. So much so that he wouldn't stop getting them even when the boatyard burned down. 
       He merely changed boatyards.
      Over the years Tate had around 25 or 30 boats built by the Grandy Boat Co. They ranged from 32-ft to 60-ft. Tate has sold them in many parts of the world.
      Then, in August 1967, the Grandy plant was destroyed in a spectacular fire. Earl and Bill Grandy, the brothers in the company, decided not to rebuild.
      But Tate still wanted boats, and he wanted them from Seattle.
      So today another 60-ft is nearing completion for him, this one at Vic Franck's Boat Co, another yard specializing in fine pleasure craft. A 52-ft also is under construction for Tate.
      Three members of the team that used to build boats for Tate at the Grandy yard are still working on them.
      Lynn Senour, who designed the Grandy-built boats for Tate, designed those under construction at Vic Franck's. George Carlson, who worked for the Grandys, now works for Franck and is superintendent in charge of the present boats.
      And Bill Grandy is Tate's supervisor on the job, working, as he explains it, about an hour a day.
      The new 60-footer has four staterooms, three heads, and three showers.
      It carries 1,400 gallons of fuel and 400 gallons of water.
      There is a refrigerator in the galley and another in the bar. Together they provide 40-cubic space of refrigeration.
      The boat is triple screw.
      "This will make her very fast––maybe 26 or 28 knots,"  Tate said.
      And what will a boat like this sell for?
      "We don't know yet what it's going to cost. It will be upwards of a couple of hundred thousand dollars."




03 July 2012

❖ The Old Cannery Dock (Revisted) ❖

Original photo by Levy Smith, undated.
From the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

The below text taken from the handwritten, unsigned inscription on reverse of the fish photo by Levy Smith.
Friday 26 July 1940;
"Arrived at San Juan Salmon Cannery at 7 AM where we stopped several hours to load 10,000 cases of canned salmon. Workmen were Filipino; we were able to follow the complete operation from the unloading by chain belt from the fishing boats outside to the loading of cases on the boat for Seattle where the labels are put on. The fish are flushed with a hose out of the hold of the fishing boat on to chain belt which carries them up to large bins on either side of an elevated runway in the cannery. As they come in, a man separates the different types of salmon directing them on the another belt to the proper bins. From these bins they are again flushed into the chutes leading to the worktable where they are laid in correct position to pass through the beheading and gutting machines, after which the inside is again scraped and cleaned by workmen and conveyed to the cutting and canning machines after which they pass inspection, where doubtful ones are weighed and additional pieces added where necessary. The cans are then topped by machines, air withdrawn and sealed, placed in metal racks in pressure retorts for about 1 1/2 hours. The cans are then cooled and packed for shipping."

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