Nilson & Kelez

Seattle WA

Most recent update: October 13, 2020.

Andrew S. Nilson, an immigrant from Norway, started building ships in Seattle in 1882. In 1909, he teamed up with Nicholas M. Kelez, a naval architect from Dubrovnik, and together they operated Nilson & Kelez Shipbuilding Corp., until it closed in 1922, The yard was at the west end of Atlantic Street, where the US Coast Guard station is today. The table below lists those vessels that I have been able to identify, although it is clearly incomplete.

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O/N Name Customer Type GT LOA Delivered Notes
207529 Comet freighter 107 94 1910 to USN 1918 as SP-772, post-war Dorothea, to USN 1942 as YAG-31, post-war Delpen, NLD
164545 Pioneer S. & G. No. 10 Pioneer Sand & Gravel hopper barge 647 140 1911
164671 Pioneer S. & G. No. 11 Pioneer Sand & Gravel hopper barge 647 140 1911
Pioneer Sand & Gravel hopper barge
Pioneer Sand & Gravel hopper barge
165171 Alaska White Pass & Yukon RW passenger 642 165 1913 to Canada 1927 (ON 116621), laid up 1951, scrapped 1964
165172 Yukon White Pass & Yukon RW passenger 642 165 1913 burned 1948
209542 Sumner halibut schooner 50 61 1913 abandoned 1936
209707 Union Jack Union Cod Fishing Co. halibut schooner 57 85 1913 sold 1914 as Delphia (Germany), captured by France 1915, sold to Australian owners
210842 Idaho halibut schooner 76 78 1913 to BuFish 1919 as Eider, to USN 1942 as YP-198, returned 1945, to USGS-1949, to Marshall I. 1955, sank 19??
210970 Oregon Columbia River Packers Assn. halibut schooner 107 80 1913 later St. Mary, Port Hueneme, to Mexico 1948
211859 Yakutat Pete Bjerke and John Selleret halibut schooner 60 68 1913
211956 Warrior Pacific American Fisheries cannery tender 82 59 1914 grounded and lost 1967
212012 Tyee Scott Daniel & Moe Bros. trawler 130 93 1914 later Chukotsk, Dorothy, to USA 1942 as FS-101, to Canada 1956, Shirley Rose, Tyee No. 1
212209 Alma Juneau Ferry & Nav. Co. passenger 95 83 1914 to USA 1943 as Q-113, burned 1964
213069 Chickamauga Pacific Towboat Co. tugboat 51 59 1914 later Sea Chicken, Chickamauga, scrapped 2014
dredge 1914 assembled in Mimnk Creek AK
165879 Susitna Knik-Susitna Co. barge 30 65 1915 NLD 1915
165880 Knik Knik-Susitna Co. barge 30 65 1915 abandoned 1945
213053 Jane Knik-Susitna Co. towboat 1915 lost 1915
213935 Breaker Nelson Lagoon Packing freighter 257 89 1916 abandoned 1940
215742 State of Oregon Alaska Pacific Nav. Co. freighter 1,616 215 1917 completed as Oregon, NLD 1945
216577 State of Alabama Alaska Pacific Nav. Co. freighter 2,088 254 1918 completed as Alabama, sold foreign 1919
216847 Bonnafone USSB cargo (#465) 2,542 268 1918 scrapped 1924
216919 Forster USSB cargo (#466) 2,552 268 1918 scrapped 1924
217231 Octorara USSB cargo (#467) 2,531 268 1918 scrapped 1924
217721 Snoqualmie/Adway USSB cargo (#468) 2,537 268 1918 scrapped 1924
220731 Cinyras USSB cargo (#2140) 2,537 268 1920 cancelled but completed as barge Griffson
225156 We Go Snow Creek Logging tugboat 34 57 1922 later Barbara Foss

Printed from shipbuildinghistory.njscuba.net