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Olson & Winge Marine Works photographs and scrapbook, 1914-1970

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Olson & Winge Marine Works
Title
Olson & Winge Marine Works photographs and scrapbook
Dates
1914-1970 (inclusive)
1940-1944 (bulk)
Quantity
.45 cubic feet, (1 box and 1 oversize folder)
Collection Number
1972.5503 (collection)
Summary
Photographs and clippings from a Seattle shipbuilding company, primarily concerning the construction, repair and adaptation of ships for use by the government in World War II.
Repository
Museum of History & Industry, Sophie Frye Bass Library

P.O. Box 80816
Seattle, WA
98108
Telephone: 2063241126 x102
library@mohai.org
Access Restrictions

The collection is open to the public by appointment.

Languages
English.
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Historical Note

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.

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Content Description

The collection includes photographs of the Olson & Winge Marine Works yard, including yard buildings, ways, and marine railway; and photographs of ships built, repaired or converted by the shipyard. The latter include some fishing boats but largely consist of images of boats adapted, repaired or built for use by the government during World War II. One series of photographs depicts the fishing schooner King & Winge made by the King & Winge shipyard and converted for war use by the Coast Guard. The collection also include clippings and scrapbook pages about the Olson & Winge yard and various boats produced or converted by the yard.

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Use of the Collection

Alternative Forms Available

View selections from the collection in MOHAI's online collections.

Restrictions on Use

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.

Preferred Citation

Olson & Winge Marine Works photographs and scrapbook, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in series:

  • Photographs
    • Yard and improvements
    • Fishing boats
    • War production
    • King & Winge
    • Equipment manufactured by Olson & Winge Marine Works
    • Other shipyards
  • Scrapbook

Location of Collection

2b.1.4 (box)

Location of Collection

1a.3.10 (oversize folder)

Acquisition Information

Gift of Carl D. Winge (Carl B. Winge's son), September 22, 1972

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

  • Photographs

    • Yard and improvements

    • Fishing boats

      • Description: 23: Fishing boat Tiny Boy in water
        Dates: undated
        Container: Folder 4
        Location: Photographs / Fishing boats
      • Description: 24-25: Fishing boat Seal on ways
        Dates: undated
        Container: Folder 5
        Location: Photographs / Fishing boats
      • Description: 26: Fishing boat Heron in water
        Dates: undated
        Container: Folder 6
        Location: Photographs / Fishing boats
      • Description: 27: Fishing boat Zarembo II

        Possibly built by Olson & Sunde Marine Works

        Dates: circa 1939
        Container: Folder 7
        Location: Photographs / Fishing boats

    • War production

      • Navy YP boats converted from fishing vessels, 1941
        10 photographs
        Numbers 30-37: Ray Krantz  ( photographer)

        Navy YP (or "Yippee") boats of World War II were wooden fishing vessels--usually purse seiners or cannery tenders--converted for use as patrol craft, as well as armed vessels. With ironbark sheathing on their hulls, the YPs ranged up and down the Pacific Coast, from the Panama Canal to the Aleutians and into the Bering Sea.

      • Description: 38-40: U.S. Army small boat J-258 under way with 3 men aboard
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: circa 1940
        Container: Folder 9
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 41: Motor tug YMT-22 under way
        Marine Salon Photo Shop , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: circa 1941
        Container: Folder 10
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 42-43: Tug Reliance under way and in drydock
        Number 42: Marine Salon Photo Shop , Seattle (photographer)
        Number 43: Graphic Photo Company , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: circa 1941
        Container: Folder 11
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 44-50: Degaussing scow constructed for U.S. Navy
        7 photographs

        Photographs depict the degaussing scow under construction in shed, on the marine railway, and in the water.

        Dates: 1941
        Container: Folder 12
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 51-57: "Q" boats converted for U.S. Army
        7 photographs
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)

        Photographs of the Q-43, Q-45, Q-46, Q-47 and Q-49.

        These boats were former utility and pleasure craft purchased and converted by the Army. The Q-46 was formerly the state fisheries vessel Gov. Elisha P. Ferry and the Q-45 was the Miss Elizabeth.

        Dates: 1941
        Container: Folder 13
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Boats converted for U.S. Army, circa 1941
      • Description: 63: U.S. Army cargo barge BCL-1329 in water

        This barge may be the Army BCL vessel that was converted by Olson & Winge into a floating marine repair shop.

        Dates: circa 1941
        Container: Folder 14
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 64-67: Ships in drydock, probably U.S. Army boats undergoing conversion
        Dates: circa 1941
        Container: Folder 14
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 68-70: CG-7214 under way
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: circa 1941
        Container: Folder 15
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 71-75: Construction of Navy torpedo boats PT-24 and PT-27
        Dates: circa 1942
        Container: Folder 16
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 76-79: Boats J-810, YP-401 and a barge in drydock
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: 1943
        Container: Folder 17
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 80: Ferry Beeline undergoing conversion to a net tender
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: circa 1943
        Container: Folder 17
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 81-84: U.S. Navy covered wooden lighters under construction
        Number 84: Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: 1943
        Container: Folder 18
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 85-86: Covered wooden lighter YF-471 in water, end and broadside views
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: 1943 June 24
        Container: Folder 18
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 87-89: U.S. Navy lighter YF-453 in drydock
        Dates: circa 1943
        Container: Folder 19
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 90: Unidentified ship in drydock
        Dates: circa 1943
        Container: Folder 19
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Launching of Navy lighter YC-842, 1943 October 20-21
        Ray Krantz , Seattle  ( photographer)

        The YC-842 was a 250-ton capacity, 110' x 30' open lighter.

      • Description: 99-100: Completed Navy lighter YF-834, end-on and broadside views
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)

        The YF-834 was a wooden, non-self-propelled, covered lighter, 110' x 30'

        Dates: 1944 June 29
        Container: Folder 22
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 101-102: Yard workers and band at launching of Navy covered wooden lighters
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: 1944 June
        Container: Folder 22
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 103-108: Five U.S. Army patrol rescue boats and Navy minesweeper YMS-127 at dock near the Olson & Winge Marine Works yard
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)

        Includes patrol rescue boats P-510, P-511, P-512 and P-518

        Dates: circa 1944
        Container: Folder 23
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 109a: Five U.S. Army patrol rescue boats and Navy minesweeper YMS-127 at dock near the Olson & Winge Marine Works yard
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)

        Includes patrol rescue boats P-510, P-511, P-512 and P-518

        2 copies

        Dates: circa 1944
        Container: Folder 24
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 109b-d: Five U.S. Army patrol rescue boats and Navy minesweeper YMS-127 at the Olson & Winge Marine Works dock
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)

        Includes patrol rescue boats P-510, P-511, P-512 and P-518. These images are different versions from the same negative or negatives. The panorama prints may have been created from two negatives. Number 109b consists of two prints taped together to create a panorama.

        Dates: circa 1944
        Container: Folder:oversize OS 1
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 110-113: Individual U.S. Army patrol boats under way
        Signal Corps, U.S. Army (photographer)

        Two images depict the P-512 and one depicts the P-518

        Dates: circa 1944
        Container: Folder 25
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 114-116: Military and civilian personnel on deck of U.S. Army patrol boat (Eleventh Rescue Squadron)
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: circa 1944
        Container: Folder 26
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 117-120: U.S. Army patrol boats (Eleventh Rescue Squadron) in water at yard
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: 1944 June
        Container: Folder 27
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 121-122: U.S. Army Air Corps 110-foot crash boat P-752 in under way
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: circa 1944
        Container: Folder 28
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 123: U.S. Army Air Corps captain at helm of 110-foot crash boat
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: circa 1944
        Container: Folder 28
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 124-128: U.S. Army Air Corps rescue vessels, and YMS-134 and YMS-132 in water near yard
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: 1944 August
        Container: Folder 29
        Location: Photographs / War production
      • Description: 129-130: YMS-122 and YMS-134 at dock near yard
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: circa 1944
        Container: Folder 30
        Location: Photographs / War production

    • King & Winge, 1914, 1

      Designed by firm partner Albert Winge, the King & Winge was built by the King & Winge shipyard, intended as the biggest and best halibut schooner on the coast. However, shortly before its launch date in the spring of 1914, the firm of Hibbard and Swenson chartered the King & Winge for an Arctic expedition. Sheathed in ironbark as protection against the ice, the King & Winge brought in the firm's catch of furs from the north, after its own schooner was caught in the ice. After returning to Nome with the furs, the King & Winge prepared to leave on a walrus-hunting expedition, but was diverted in an attempt to rescue the men of the Karluk, the ship of Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson which was trapped in the ice at Hershel Island. Though the Karluk sank and four men died, the King & Winge succeeded in picking up the remaining survivors on Wrangel Island. Hibbard & Swenson did not charter the craft again, but its ironbark sheathing recommended it for work in Alaska rather than halibut fishing, and she was charted by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey for two seasons.

      The King & Winge finally began work as a halibut boat in 1916. In 1918 the ship participated in the attempted rescue of the Princess Sophia, which eventually sank with all 343 passengers on board. Within a few years, the King & Winge was sold to the National Independent Fisheries Company, and then in 1921, chartered from them by the Cape Flattery pilots, who intended to use it for safe conduct of vessels in and out of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. From 1922-1924, its history is obscure, but the ship was probably owned by run runners in the Prohibition era.

      The King & Winge, under the new name Columbia, returned to pilot service in 1924, this time on the Columbia River. Captained continuously by Captain Frank E. Craig from 1924-1958, it guided vessels across the "graveyard of the Columbia," the most difficult river bar on the coast. In 1944, the Columbia returned to the Olson & Winge Marine Works shipyard, where many of the same men who built it were still employed. The ship was adapted and repaired for war service as the CGR-2469, in the service of the Coast Guard.

      In 1958, Clyde Parlova of Astoria, Oregon bought the schooner from the Columbia Bar Pilots' Association, intending to restore it as a sailing ship. In 1962, the ship was purchased by Jack Elsbree, a retired airline pilot who intended to restore it as his home.

      The King & Winge sank in waters near St. Paul Island in the Pribolofs, Alaska, on February 22, 1994.

      • Description: 131: Schooner King & Winge in arctic ice

        This image shows the King & Winge, probably en route to the rescue of Steffanson's Karluk, signaling distress by flying its flag upside down.

        Dates: 1914
        Container: Folder 31
        Location: Photographs / King & Winge, 1914, 1
      • Description: 132: Oscar E. Olson, Captain Frank E. Craig and Carl B. Winge inspecting a winch on the Columbia (formerly the King & Winge)
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)

        Craig was captain of the pilot boat Columbia, formerly the King & Winge, and crossed the Columbia River Bar in the ship over 50,000 times over 34 years as its captain.

        Oscar Olson designed and built the winch shown in the photograph.

        Dates: circa 1944
        Container: Folder 32
        Location: Photographs / King & Winge, 1914, 1
      • Description: 133-134: Oscar Olson, Carl Winge, Captain Craig and others on deck of the Columbia ( King & Winge)
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)

        Also depicted: Olson & Winge machinists Frank Smith, Homer Pricket and Axel Olson, and first mate Leback.

        Dates: 1944
        Container: Folder 33
        Location: Photographs / King & Winge, 1914, 1
      • Description: 135: Machinists Frank Smith, Homer Pricket and Axel Olson on deck of the Columbia ( King & Winge)
        Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)

        Smith, Pricket and Olson were working at the King & Winge shipyard when the King & Winge was built in 1914

        Dates: 1944
        Container: Folder 32
        Location: Photographs / King & Winge, 1914, 1
      • Description: 136-143: The Columbia ( King & Winge) converted as Coast Guard pilot boat CGR-2469 in Olson & Winge yard, in drydock and afloat
        Numbers 137-143: Ray Krantz , Seattle (photographer)
        Dates: 1944
        Container: Folder 33
        Location: Photographs / King & Winge, 1914, 1

    • Equipment manufactured by Olson & Winge Marine Works

      Equipment probably produced for U.S. Army use

    • Other shipyards

      • Description: 156-160: Maritime Boat and Engine Works plant at 1710 W. Spokane Street, Seattle

        Five 2" x 3" photographs mounted on black scrapbook page.

        Dates: 1919-1920
        Container: Folder 38
        Location: Photographs / Other shipyards
      • Description: 161: Elliott Bay Shipbuilding Company album
        1 album with 17 linen-backed photographs

        Carl B. Winge worked for the Elliott Bay Shipbuilding Company as purchasing agent for a brief period beginning around 1917.

        This promotional album describes the capabilities of the shipyard and illustrates the type of work done. The first three pages of the album consist of a typewritten description of the Elliott Bay Shipbuilding Company, a 15-acre plant on the Duwamish waterway in Seattle. The narrative describes the plant shops, the administrative personnel and the company's contract terms. The album includes 17 photographs: 6 photographs of the plant and ships under construction, taken by Webster & Stevens; and 11 photographs of ship plans. Typewritten descriptions of different types of ships built by the yard are interspersed throughout the album.

        Dates: circa 1918-1919
        Container: Folder 39
        Location: Photographs / Other shipyards

  • Scrapbook, circa 1941-1970

    • Description: 162-167: Olson & Winge Marine Works scrapbook and clippings

      Pages have been removed from scrapbook and foldered, probably during previous processing. Loose clippings and a folder of correspondence are included with the scrapbook materials, though it is not known whether or not these were originally included in the scrapbook

      The album and clippings include stories about the King & Winge, particularly about its return to the shipyard as a pilot boat in 1944; biographical information about Oscar E. Olson, Carl B. Winge and Albert Winge; newspaper advertisements for the shipyard; clippings about boat shows featuring Olson & Winge vessels; articles featuring boats which were produced or adapted by the shipyard during and after the war; and a 1944 editorial by Ed Winge about the importance of shipyards' participation in the war effort. The scrapbook also includes a plan of Olson & Winge Marine Works shipyard from October 1944.

      The 3 items in the correspondence folder comprise holiday greetings from Navy personnel and the National Bank of Commerce Ballard Branch.

      Dates: circa 1941-1970
      Container: Folder 40-45
      Location: Scrapbook, circa 1941-1970

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Shipbuilding--Washington (State)--Seattle
  • Ships--Reconstruction--Washington (State)--Seattle
  • Shipyards--Washington (State)--Seattle

Personal Names

  • Winge, Albert
  • Winge, Carl B.

Corporate Names

  • King & Winge Shipyard
  • Elliott Bay Shipbuilding Company

Geographical Names

  • Seattle (Wash.)

Form or Genre Terms

  • Photographic prints
  • Scrapbooks

Other Creators

  • Personal Names

    • Krantz, Ray (photographer)

    Corporate Names

    • Webster & Stevens (photographer)

Finding aid prepared by Jody Hendrickson
2008

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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