Archives West Finding Aid

Oscar E. Olson and Carl B. Winge first met in 1910, at the King & Winge shipyard in West Seattle near Luna Park. Opened in 1899 and owned by Carl's uncle Albert Winge with partner Thomas J. King, the King & Winge yard constructed fishing vessels and operated a codfish and, later, halibut fishing fleet. Carl Winge worked as Secretary Treasurer and purchasing agent for King & Winge, and Oscar Olson was the machinist foreman. When the yard built the famous schooner the King & Winge in 1914, Olson designed and built the winch (the first power winch on the Pacific coast for halibut schooners), and installed the machinery, and Carl Winge purchased all the materials that went into the building of the ship.

Carl Winge came from a family of shipbuilders in Norway, where Albert Winge's father was known for his carvings of figureheads for early sailing vessels. Carl worked at King & Winge until around 1917, when he left to work for the Elliott Bay Shipbuilding Company as a purchasing agent; later, he worked at Elliott Bay Yacht & Engine Company and Olson & Sunde Marine Works. In 1925 Winge, whose father was a musician, left the shipbuilding trade for California, to try his hand in the songwriting and publishing profession in Los Angeles, San Francisco and later, New York. After about fifteen years, Winge returned to Seattle, and to shipbuilding.

Oscar Olson learned the trade of machinist working for Vulcan Iron Works in Seattle beginning in 1903, and later (1907) at Seattle Iron Works, before becoming the foreman of the workshop at King & Winge in 1910. Later, Olson partnered with Norman C. Sunde in the shipbuilding firm Olson & Sunde until Sunde's retirement, afterwards forming a new partnership with Carl Winge in 1941.

Olson & Winge Marine Works was located on the Lake Washington Ship Canal at the foot of 8th Avenue Northwest, at 4125 Burns Avenue Northwest. From around 1941 to 1944, the Olson & Winge yard devoted its production facilities completely to the war effort, primarily converting, adapting and repairing ships for military use, but also producing new vessels, such as several wooden lighters. The first shipyard in the Northwest to begin a full program of Army-Navy repair and adaption work, Olson & Winge was one of many Pacific Coast yards doing repair, adaption and new construction of government ships as part of the war effort. Adaptions included added accommodations, different use of stowage space, and placing of armament. In 1941, Olson & Winge converted 15 halibut and purse seiners for Navy use as supply ships, forerunners of the YP ("Yippee") boats. Subsequently, the yard converted eight assorted private craft to supply or "Q" boats. New wartime construction by Olson & Winge included four 50 foot patrol boats for the Coast Guard, and fifteen cargo lighters and four degaussing barges for the Navy. The yard also performed extensive outfitting of uncompleted high-powered aircraft rescue boats and repaired other rescue boats.

After the war, Olson & Winge returned to commercial boatbuilding. City directory listings for Olson & Winge Marine Works end in the late 1940s.