Victorian Shipyards  

The dredging of channels in the 1870s and 1880s allowed deep-draft ships to enter the Estuary for the first time. Shipbuilding yards began locating here, particularly on the Alameda shore where vacant land was plentiful. The most important of the early yards were those of Charles G. White and Hay & Wright. Both moved across the bay from San Francisco to Alameda in 1890 and occupied marshland sites west of the Webster Street Bridge. Both shipyards were among the most important on the coast, turning out a wide variety of wooden vessels, from small steamers and ferryboats to schooners and barkentines. Customers included lumber and sugar shippers as well as traders plying the northern waters of the Klondike routes. White moved his operations to Puget Sound prior to 1900. Hay & Wright remained in business in Alameda through 1905.

Woodruff Minor
Historian

  "Walk Along the Water"
  © Oakland Museum of California, used with permission.

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