Skinner & Eddy


The Skinner & Eddy Corporation, commonly known as Skinner & Eddy, was a Seattle, Washington-based shipbuilding corporation that existed from 1916 to 1923. The yard is notable for completing more ships for the United States war effort during World War I than any other American shipyard, and also for breaking world production speed records for individual ship construction.
In total, the company built 75 ships—72 cargo ships and three oil tankers—from 1916 to 1920, including 32 completed for the Emergency Fleet Corporation during the war. The yard was closed in 1921 as a result of the severe postwar shipbuilding slump. Skinner & Eddy later became a shipping line operator, and appears to have been wound up in the early 1970s.

Background

The Skinner & Eddy Corporation was founded in January 1916 by two entrepreneurs, David E. "Ned" Skinner and John W. Eddy, owners of the Port Blakely Mill Company since 1903. Shortly after its establishment, Skinner & Eddy Corp. began leasing the shipyard of the Seattle Construction & Drydock Company, located between Connecticut and Dearborn Sts., Seattle. Seattle Construction & Dry Dock was itself a successor to the Moran Brothers shipyard, which around the start of the 20th century had been one of America's largest shipyards, responsible for building Seattle's first battleship,, in 1906.
On April 6, 1917, 15 months after Skinner and Eddy Corp. began leasing the yard, the United States entered World War I. Skinner & Eddy responded to the news by purchasing an additional of Seattle waterfront property from the Seattle Dock Company and the Centennial Flouring Mill for $1,500,000 and $600,000 respectively, which they used to begin building a second shipyard, which became known as Plant No. 2. After securing lucrative contracts from the Emergency Fleet Corporation for the construction of merchant ships for the war effort, Skinner & Eddy was also able in June 1918 to make an outright purchase of the yard of Seattle Construction and Dry Dock, which was named Plant No. 1.

Facilities

When completed, Skinner & Eddy's facilities included ten building slipways—five at each Plant—and four outfitting docks. A five-section, drydock capable of servicing vessels of up to 15,000 tons was also acquired, along with a 50-ton floating crane.
Most of the ships built by the company during the war were constructed at Plant No. 1, as Plant No. 2 was still under construction for much of this period. With its two plants, which together covered about of waterfront property, Skinner & Eddy was Seattle's largest shipbuilding company, at its wartime peak employing about 13,500 people.

World War I

The first seven ships built by Skinner & Eddy were for private contractors. The company completed its first ship, Niels Nielson, on November 9, 1916, and had completed a further two by the time the United States entered the war in April 1917. These three ships along with four partially completed vessels were then requisitioned for war service by the newly created United States Shipping Board. Thereafter, Skinner & Eddy was to build ships exclusively for the USSB, through the latter's agency, the Emergency Fleet Corporation.
Skinner & Eddy soon began to distinguish itself by its production speed. Prior to its operations, a cargo ship built and delivered in the United States in under 250 days was considered fast, but as early as June 1917, the company under the capable direction of its general manager, David Rodgers, completed a freighter, Stolt Nielson, in under 150 days. In November 1917, the company established a world keel-to-launch production speed record of under 70 days, maintaining and improving on the record over the following five months. In early 1918, another U.S. company briefly established a new world keel-to-launch record of 61 days, but Skinner & Eddy recaptured the record in April with the 55-day launch of West Lianga, a ship that was also completed in the record time of 80 days.
Thereafter, all the company's ships built during the war were each completed in well under 100 days, with a best performance by war's end of 79 days from keel laying to delivery. Good management alone was probably not entirely responsible for the company's outstanding performance however; Skinner & Eddy also paid its employees highly competitive wages, which enabled the company to attract the best and most skilled workers.
The company's improved performance over time is also reflected in its total production figures. In 1917, the company produced a total tonnage of 72,800 tons; the following year it raised production more than threefold, to 232,400 tons. In all, Skinner & Eddy delivered 32 ships to the EFT, including 29 freighters and three tankers, over the course of the war—more than that of any other shipyard in the country.

Postwar history

Since it was a widely held belief in the United States that a shipbuilding boom would follow the end of hostilities, the USSB declined to cancel many of its wartime shipbuilding contracts at the end of the war. In Skinner & Eddy's case, this meant that the company was to complete a further 43 ships for the USSB in the postwar period. In 1920 however, the USSB cancelled a contract for an additional 25 ships, prompting the company to launch a $17 million claim against the government for lost anticipated profits, later reduced to a $9 million claim.
Skinner & Eddy delivered its last ship in February 1920, but failed to secure any further shipbuilding contracts after this date because of the severe postwar shipbuilding slump. In 1923, the Skinner & Eddy shipyard was permanently closed, and the company's proprietors, Ned Skinner and John Eddy, dissolved their longstanding business partnership. John Eddy returned to the lumber business, and Skinner became sole proprietor of the Skinner & Eddy Corporation, which retained its original name.
Skinner & Eddy now entered the shipping line business with the purchase of the Pacific Steamship Company, which operated from the company's former Plant No. 2. The company also invested heavily in Alaskan salmon canneries. In 1944, Skinner & Eddy bought the Alaska Steamship Company, and in the postwar period also operated a cruise line. Ned Skinner's grandson, David E. "Ned" Skinner II, discontinued the business in 1971, moving the family assets into real estate. His Skinner Corporation would eventually become one of America's largest private companies.

The ships

Skinner & Eddy produced a total of 75 ships from 1916 to 1920. Most of the ships were freighters, but three 10,000-ton tankers were amongst the seven ships built for private contractors prior to the U.S. entry into World War I.
The company built three different types of standard freighters for the USSB, all of them of Skinner & Eddy's own design. The USSB designated these types as Design 1013, Design 1079 and Design 1105 respectively.
The Design 1013 ships were 8,800 tons deadweight, with a length of 423 feet 9 inches, beam of and hold depth of Some examples of this type of ship were turbine powered and others were fitted with triple expansion engines. Some were also completed as oil fired and others as coal fired vessels. Skinner & Eddy built a total of 24 ships of this type. Most of the ships completed by the company during the war were of this type.
The Design 1079 was of 9,600 tons deadweight, turbine-powered and oil fired, with dimensions of 409.6 x 54.2 x. Skinner & Eddy was the only company which built this type. A total of 23 were completed. The Design 1105 was also 9,600 tons deadweight, oil-fired and with triple expansion engines. Dimensions were 401.5 x 54.8 x. Again, Skinner & Eddy was the only company which produced this type. A total of 14 were built.
Additionally, eleven 8,800 deadweight-ton freighters, similar if not identical to the Design 1013s were built prior to the manufacture of the USSB types listed above. All types had a typical service speed of between 11 and.

In service

Of the first 39 ships built by Skinner & Eddy during and shortly after World War I, 23 were immediately commissioned on completion into the U.S. Navy, and served briefly as supply ships before decommissioning in 1919. A further three were assigned Navy ID's but never commissioned.
In 1921, three Skinner & Eddy ships were converted into destroyer tenders and commissioned into the U.S. Navy as, and respectively. All three of these vessels would remain in Navy service through the end of World War II.
Only one Skinner & Eddy ship was lost in World War I. In the interwar period, most of the company's vessels were engaged in commercial service. Three,, Elkton and Nile were lost to maritime accidents in the 1920s, and seven more were scrapped in the 1930s, probably because of the oversupply of shipping.
World War II took a heavy toll of Allied merchant vessels, and of the 64 Skinner & Eddy ships that saw service in the war, 31, or almost 50%, were lost to enemy action, most of them to U-boats. Another two were deliberately sunk as breakwaters during the Normandy Campaign. The 31 that survived the war were mostly scrapped in the late 1940s and 1950s, and only four were still in existence by 1960. The last Skinner & Eddy vessel to see service was probably Edray, transferred to the Soviet Union under lend-lease during World War II and scrapped in 1967.

Fate of the shipyards

Following the closure of the Skinner & Eddy shipyards in 1923, the company's Plant No. 2 was sold in 1924 to the Pacific Steamshp Company, which built a new office and terminus on the site. The site also became the terminus of the Admiral Line, which did considerable trade with Siberia and the Orient.
With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, the site became a Hooverville for Seattle's unemployed. During World War II, the Hooverville was razed to make way for a huge supply depot run by the Army Quartermaster Corps, and after the war it became a base for the U.S. Coast Guard. As of 2003, the site was the location for several large container shipping terminals. Skinner & Eddy's Plant No. 1, meanwhile, has become part of Seattle's SoDo district.

Production history

The following table represents a complete list of all ships built by the Skinner & Eddy Corporation. Ships marked with an asterisk are those assigned ID numbers by the Navy but never commissioned.
Fields marked with a hyphen indicate that the given field is not applicable to this particular ship. Gross tonnage values use the nominal GRT for the ship type where a more precise GRT is not available for the individual ship. Consult the table legend for additional information about the table.
ImageYard
No.
USSB
No.
NameTypeDesign
No.
GRTDeliv.Fate
1——Freighter——571109/11/16Bombed, 1945
2——Freighter——565522/12/16Torpedoed 1943
3——Tanker——640008/05/17Scrapped 48
4——Josiah MacyTanker——640009/06/17Scrapped 1950
5——Stolt NielsonFreighter——560026/06/17Torpedoed 1918
6——Freighter——580020/08/17Scrapped 1943
7——Freighter——566010/03/17Torpedoed 1942
8——Lt. de MissiessyFreighter——560019/09/17Scrapped 1933
9——Freighter——560020/10/17Destroyed by fire and explosion at sea, 1921
10——Freighter——552024/12/17Torpedoed 1942
11——TrontoliteTanker——711502/02/18Scrapped 1946
12——Freighter——558926/02/18Torpedoed 1941
1483Western HeroFreighter1013561105/01/18Scrapped 1946
1584Freighter1013560012/02/18Scrapped 1954
16——Freighter——560009/03/18Scrapped 1951
17——Freighter——560025/04/18Scrapped 1954
1885CanogaFreighter1013560023/03/18Scrapped 1933
1986OssinekeFreighter1013560013/04/18Scrapped 1931
201175West DurfeeFreighter1013552216/05/18Scrapped 1946
211176Freighter1013560004/05/18Torpedoed 1942
2287Freighter1013560004/06/18Scrapped 1933
2388Freighter1013560019/06/18Scrapped 1933
241177Freighter1013560029/06/18Scuttled 1945
251178Freighter1013560013/07/18Torpedoed 1942
261179Freighter1013560020/07/18Torpedoed 1942
271180Freighter1013572807/08/18Scrapped 1948
281181Freighter1013560017/08/18Torpedoed 1942
291182Freighter1013560029/08/18Scrapped 1960
301183Freighter1013552714/09/18Torpedoed 1944
311184Freighter1013563730/09/18Torpedoed 1942
321185Freighter1013564415/10/18Scrapped 1936
331186Freighter1013556530/10/18Torpedoed 1943
341187Freighter1013560013/11/18Scrapped 1938
351188*Freighter10135561—/04/19Torpedoed 1943
361925Freighter10135596—/12/18Wrecked 1946
371926Freighter10135548—/01/19Scrapped 1954
381927Freighter1013576623/10/18Torpedoed 1942
391928Freighter10135607—/11/18Torpedoed 1942
401731Freighter1079680005/12/18Scrapped 1948
4117321079680024/12/18Scrapped 1950
421733Freighter1079680031/12/18Collision 1943
431929EldenaFreighter10796800—/05/19Torpedoed 1943
441930Freighter10797041—/05/19Torpedoed 1942
451734Freighter1079685402/04/19Scrapped 1950
461735Freighter1079680022/04/19Scrapped 1953
471931Freighter10796800—/06/19Scrapped 1957
481736Freighter1079680008/05/19Scrapped 1952
49173710796800—/05/19Scrapped 1950
501932Freighter10796844—/07/19Wrecked, 1945
51173810796800—/06/19Scrapped 1947
521933Freighter10796847—/07/19Scrapped 1947
531739Freighter10796800—/07/19Torpedoed 1942
541934Freighter10796800—/08/19Torpedoed 1942
551740Freighter11056400—/07/19Scrapped 1967
561935Freighter11056463—/08/19Torpedoed 1941
571741Freighter11056318—/08/19Sunk as breakwater, 1944
581936Freighter11056379—/08/19Scrapped 1959
591937Freighter11056400—/09/19Scrapped 1951
601938Freighter11056400—/09/19Bombed, 1943
611939Freighter11056400—/09/19Torpedoed 1941
621940ElktonFreighter11056400—/09/19Mss 27
631941Freighter11056458—/10/19Torpedoed 1942
641942Cripple CreekFreighter11056400—/10/19Torpedoed 1942
651943Freighter11056400—/10/19Torpedoed 1942
661743EffnaFreighter11056400—/11/19Torpedoed 1941
671742EffinghamFreighter11056400—/11/19Torpedoed 1942
681744Freighter11056325—/11/19Torpedoed 1942
691745Freighter10797000—/11/19Scrapped 1963
701944NileFreighter10797000—/12/19Wrecked 1927
711945Freighter10797000—/12/19Torpedoed 1941
721946Freighter10797031—/12/19Scrapped 1960
731947Freighter10796887—/12/19Torpedoed 1942
741948Freighter10796895—/01/20Scrapped 1952
751949Freighter10796896—/01/20Sunk as breakwater, 1944
761950Freighter10796885—/02/20Torpedoed 1944

LEGEND: Yard No. = yard number; USSB No. = USSB number; Name = name of ship. Two digit field following names in this colum indicates last two digits of year in which ship was renamed. Names followed by a "y" indicate a yard name that was not subsequently used during the ship's service history. Type = type of ship, either freighter or tanker. Design No. = USSB Design number. Ships with no listed number were built prior to the introduction of the system. GRT = gross register tons. Ships for which an exact tonnage is not available are listed here with the nominal GRT of the type, usually recognizable by the last two digits being zero. Deliv. = date of ship's delivery to customer. For some ships the exact date is not known. Fate = fate of ship.

Sources for this table: Pacific Ports Annual pp. 63–64, 402-405; Jordan; shipbuildinghistory.com; and various individual DANFS ship entries.''

Footnotes