Edgar Ames founded the Ames Shipbuilding & Drydock Company in Seattle in 1916, with a modern plant on West Waterway and 26th Avenue SW on Harbor Island. With a floating drydock, this large wartime shipbuilding yard produced 25 steel tankers and cargo steamships for the US Shipping Board in the World War I period, and fabricated the boilers, engines and much of the equipment for these vessels as well. Employing over 5000 men, the shipyard covered an area of about 20 acres and was equipped with a machine shop, blacksmith shop, boiler shop, plate and pattern shops, carpenter and coppersmith shops, and other facilities, including a large dining hall and hospital for its employees. Ames opened his new Ames Terminal Company, a cargo-handling facility, in Seattle in 1922, at the site of the shipyard. The terminal was a center of salmon shipping activity, handling the entire pack of the large Libby, McNeil and Libby Company fisheries.
City directory entries for the Ames Shipbuilding & Drydock Company end in the 1956, and for the Ames Terminal Company in the early 1960s.
Three record books for the Ames Shipbuilding & Drydock Company, and also for the related Ames Terminal Company, largely comprising minutes of Board of Directors and shareholder meetings, and also including articles of incorporation, licenses and other materials.
Edgar Ames (1868-1944), a St. Louis native, was educated at Andover and Yale. He entered the banking and financial business in 1894, when he became involved with the Seattle & Lake Washington Waterway Company, contracted to fill the tidelands on the Seattle waterfront. Ames moved to Seattle from Chicago in 1895 and is listed in the city directory as General Manager of the Seattle & Lake Washington Waterway Co. from 1895 until 1905. Beginning in 1906, Ames is listed as President of the Seattle General Contract Company, and beginning in 1917, as President of Ames Shipbuilding & Drydock Company. Beginning in 1925, Ames is also listed as President of the Ames Terminal Co., opened in Seattle in 1922.
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The Museum of History & Industry is the owner of the materials in the Sophie Frye Bass Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from MOHAI before any reproduction use. The museum does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.
Ames Shipbuilding & Drydock Company Record Books, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle
Gift of Mrs. John Baillargeon, May 1974.
John A. Baillargeon was on the Board of Directors of Ames Shipbuilding & Drydock Company from 1935-1949, serving as Secretary and Vice-President, and as President of the company after Ames' death in 1944. Baillargeon resigned due to illness in December 1949 and died in 1950 at 58 years old.
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The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
The first record book contains company Articles of Incorporation, including the original Articles signed by George W. Albin, George Donworth and Elmer E. Todd, with Edgar Ames as company president, starting the business; Oaths of Office, By-Laws, Corporation Licenses, stock subscriptions, and minutes of Board of Trustees and stockholder meetings. Also includes agreements between Ames Shipbuiding & Drydock Company and the Seattle Contract Company, of which Ames was also President.
Minutes of meetings of Board of Trustees (called the Board of Directors beginning in 1935), and of stockholders, later called shareholders.
Minutes for Board of Directors meeting on July 5, 1944 note the death of company President Edgar Ames and the election of John A. Baillargeon to serve as President.
By-laws, oaths of office and meeting minutes as above. This volume includes a letter from John A. Baillargeon (December 30, 1944) resigning as President of the company due to illness. Minutes of Board of Directors of February 6, 1950 records the election of then Vice-Presdient R.L. Albin to serve as President of Ames Shipbuilding & Drydock and Ames Terminal Companies.