Manufacturing opportunities in the state of Washington . as limited. On the other hand, the general demand forships was becoming acute and had to be met. Then the questionarose, why not wooden ships .• Investigations were made. Theenduring qualities of the hard, coarse-grained Douglas fir be-came known. It was learned, too, that on the hills of the Stateof Washington, overlooking great harbors and ideal sites forship building construction, grew dense bodies of this and othertimber well suited for this purpose, while huge mills withmodern equipment were readv to saw this timber into any size or

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Manufacturing opportunities in the state of Washington . as limited. On the other hand, the general demand forships was becoming acute and had to be met. Then the questionarose, why not wooden ships .• Investigations were made. Theenduring qualities of the hard, coarse-grained Douglas fir be-came known. It was learned, too, that on the hills of the Stateof Washington, overlooking great harbors and ideal sites forship building construction, grew dense bodies of this and othertimber well suited for this purpose, while huge mills withmodern equipment were readv to saw this timber into any size orshape required. The rest of the story is tjuite faiinliar. ^Nlen with a visionof tile future and well supplied with cajjita] came forward. Thefirst of the new wooden shij)s were built in Seattle for a Nor-wegian company and several yards were soon started on thestrength of the foreign business promised. Even before theUnited States declared war, wooden ship building had made afair start and many contracts had been undertaken for foreio-ncorporations.. 92 Manufaciuring Opportunities in Washington UNITED STATES BECOMES INTERESTED. Early in the spring of 1917 the United States shippingboard sent representatives to the Northwest to investigate thepossibihties for the speedy construction of a large number ofvessels. A meeting was lield with the lumbermen and shipbuild-ers in Seattle, April 4, 1917. The findings of that board weresummed up in the statement of Theodore Brunt, its vice chair-man, who declared th.at the board was fully satisfied that Doug-las fir was perfectlv adapted for ship building purposes and thatthe Pacific Northwest would be looked to on account of its un-limited supply of such wood to render invaluable service in car-rying out the ship building program. About that time, April, ]917, the tug, J. D. Boyden, built 29 years before, was dockedon Puget Sound; numerous holes were bored in her hull; everyplank was sound. Since then the growth of the industry has been