Pacific advantage: Wooden shipbuilding in British Columbia,Washington State and Oregon during the First World War

Abstract

This comparative overview assesses physical and cross-border factors behind wartime wooden shipbuilding in North America’s Pacific Northwest. Local resources, government procurement arrangements, private companies running shipyards, and types of workers building standard ships to a variety of designs are considered. Wooden shipbuilding, from a programme perspective, was soundly managed but delivered ships too late to have any real impact on the First World War.