Plans from Seattle in Australia

[plimsol]

Greetings,
I need some help from our antipodean friends. I am in the process of cataloging a large collection of ships plans by L.H.Coolidge and L.E. Geary, Puget Sound naval architects.
The cataloging has expanded to other Puget Sound naval architects. It seems you cannot just do one collection without doing the others as well.
I was in a bookstore today, the owner mentioned he had sold a collection of 150 plans to an Austrailian technical college in Melborne, but no longer has the address.
These plans came from a defunct boat yard in Ballard, a district of Seattle.
In order to check and see if any of the plans might be designs that are missing from the collections that are being cataloged, I would like to locate these plans.
Can anyone provide me with information?

[Mike Field]

Questions, questions...

Plimsol --

What is the name of the bookstore?

When did the owner send the plans to Oz?

Did he actually use the term "technical college?" And if not, can you please quote him verbatim?

[skuthorp]

Mike. I'm in Melbourne most of the week, if I can help with the search, just ask. Where abouts on Westernport are you?, We are at grantville. I'd try Footscray Tech., I think they have or had a boatbuilding program. Other than that try Alan Chinn at Ibis Boat Works. Luck S.

[RGM]

I'm very interested in the work that you are doing. Myself along with a couple of the owners of the shipyard where I work would like to learn more about this collection that you are putting together and see it if and when that could be possible. Additionally, we would like to know what defunct Ballard shipyard these plans supposedly came from. I wonder if they might have come from the office attic of a very old and very not-so defunct shipyard on Lake Union instead. Is the bookstore that you mention on Stoneway? It would be very interesting to see these prints/plans (or copies) if you ever get your hands on them. I would like to see what you have to date, if at all possible. Probably see you at Hale's on the 30th. Good luck.

[Dave Fleming]

RGM, is that the Coolidge of Miki-Miki fame? And was that the old Sagstad yard they are referring too?
I got a set of plans for the Miki-Miki's from a tug nut in of all places Sonoma Valley!
Very well reproduced from the original and IIRC, San Francisco Maritime Museum has some plans of them too. Probaby from Crowley who operated a fleet of them in the Bay Area simalar to Foss up your way. I got some correspondence from the manager of Foss dating back to the early 1990's in regard to what they had on Miki's.
It's around here somewhere, I just know it is, now if I could just lay my pudgy digits on it... smile.gif

[Mike Field]

Hi, Jeff,

Yes, I was wondering about Footscray Tech. Years ago RMIT used to offer an NA course too, but that's long gone I think.

I'd just dropped a note to Alan, c/o the WBA, but that was before this thread got started.

I'm at Cannons Creek, just across the inlet to the north of Warneet -- midway between Tooradin and Pearcedale. I'll be coming through Grantville on Monday on the way to Cape Paterson (the mountain route, though, not round through Kilcundra. And isn't it great to be able to puzzle the Yanks geographically like this for a change, instead of having them puzzle us?)

[RGM]

Not familiar with L H Coolidge's involvement in the design of the Miki tugs. Do the Miki plans that you own have Coolidge's seal on them? It's possible that the defunct Ballard shipyard referred to by the book seller was Sagstad. However, I think the plans/drawings in question probably came from Lake Union Drydock Co. also known as Lake Union Drydock and Machine Works prior to WWII. Not some nameless out of business shipyard in Ballard. LUDD built countless boats that were designed by both men, probably more than any other shipyard in the PNW. A couple of years ago WB had an issue that discussed Geary and LUDD a little, can't recall which one that was at the moment. None of those plans can be found at LUDD now. I wonder if those are the ones in Australia? Sure would like to see the seals and any construction notes that are written on them.

[plimsol]

Thank youfor your responses. The plans collection is at the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society in Seattle. You are welcome to come by any Saturday morning. The data base is just about done. The Coolidge plans are the originals, linen and velum. The Geary collection is developing from following leads like this one, it is growing- slowly one print at a time.
Mike Field: the bookstore is SeaOcean Book Berth on Stone Way. The 150 plans were sent in the last year or so. It was a technical college that may be doing fishboats for developing countries. I am sorry to be so vague, but that is all the proprietor remembered. He bougth them from the widow of the owner. I think the technical college is also buying plans of H.C. Hanson, another major Puget Sound naval architect. The interconnection of the three naval architects is quite a story, that has yet to be told. I hope to have an answer from the Hanson Collection as to the name of the technical college. Sending 1932 plans of a U.S. Forest Service ranger boat to Australia in 2002 is too coincidental to be ignored. You have me fooled-geographically and I love it.

RGM & Dave Flemming: Coolidge designed the Miki-Miki in 1929 for the Young Brothers, LTD. of Honolulu T.H. She was a one off, built by Berg's Shipyard in Ballard. The Army asked Coolidge to update the plans in WWII. I believe 62 were built. The Coolidge originals are in the P.S.M.H.S. Collection. The Miki was a development of a series of tugs Coolidge did for the Young Bros. All these plans are in the collection as well. Sagstad's also built several. My blind guess is the antipodean plans are from Sagtads, but I like to be surprised.

RGM: Ted Geary and LUDD must have been very busy in the late 1920's. With Pirate and Galiano IV, I would love to find those plans, and the four 96' footers plus the Lake Union Dream Boats, there must have been a huge number of plans in the LUDD archives. One can only hope that someone took some home with them, when they were thrown out. Historically, one of the great maritime history disasters of Puget Sound along with the Grand Trunk Pier fire, which burned up the early Geary designs.

Oh, the plans for Chugach are in the collection- LUDD 1927.

Fair winds and a flood tide to you all.