Biography

Harry was born in 1888 to Wesley Jones and Arminda Nelson. ^[1] He married Beulah Smith in 1987. ^[2] Harry passed away in 1968. ^[3]

"Lake Union Dry Dock Company opened in 1919 and was the first substantial boatyard on the lake after completion of the ship canal. Its founders were Otis Cutting, John L. McLean (1871-1942), and Harry B. Jones (1888-1968).

Located at the southeast corner of Lake Union, LUDD also was the largest of the early boat builders and by 1929 had five dry docks, including one that could lift up to 3,500 tons. This gave the company a competitive advantage, as it could accommodate either a single large vessel or several smaller ones simultaneously. The number of dry docks was later reduced to two, the largest of which accommodates vessels up to 420 feet and can be used at sea. When it returned to Lake Union after World War II, it was tilted 45 degrees to make it through the canal's Ballard Locks.

In 1925 or 1926 the success of N. J. Blanchard's standardized cruisers led LUDD to start building a similar-looking but larger version, based on the boat built by Lewis Grandy in 1911 to Cutting's design. Twenty-four were produced, and several still can be seen on local waters. Also built during the 1920s was the steam-powered W. T. Preston, an Army Corps of Engineers snag boat. It was the last sternwheeler to work in Puget Sound and is now on the National Historic register and on display at the Anacortes Maritime Heritage Center.

Because of its capacity, LUDD did more large commercial and military work than the other boat builders on the lake. During Prohibition the company had it both ways, building speedboats used by bootleggers and 15 fast Coast Guard cutters used to chase them. But over the years it also produced a bevy of beautiful wooden cruising yachts, including Geary's 96-foot Blue Peter and several designed by Otis Cutting.

In 1941 LUDD partnered with Puget Sound Bridge and Dredge, and under the temporary name Associated Shipbuilders produced 16 wooden mine-sweepers for the U.S. Navy at the Lake Union facility, employing as many as 1,000 workers. At war's end the company was reorganized, again as Lake Union Dry Dock, now owned by original partner Harry Jones and George Hobart Stebbins (1894-1991), who had managed the yard during the war. Building and repairing large commercial and government vessels has been its bread and butter, including, in 2002, major repairs and renovations to Virginia V, the last operating steamer of Puget Sound's Mosquito Fleet. But Lake Union Dry Dock, nearing its centennial, still welcomed the opportunity to work on the classic wooden pleasure boats of an earlier era, many of which it built." ^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Illinois Births and Christenings, 1824-1940: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:H9TB-C66Z
2. ↑ Washington, County Marriages, 1855-2008: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPM2-TF7L
3. ↑ Washington Death Index, 1965-2014: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLWS-DMKC
4. ↑ https://www.historylink.org/file/20366

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/77380532/harry-burnell-jones
• https://classicyacht.org/research/classic-boat-builders-lake-union-drydock

Other Seattle Area Boatbuilders and Designers

• John Anderson
• Norm Blanchard, Sr.
• Norm Blanchard, Jr.
• Leigh Coolidge
• Frank Curtis
• Walt Curtis
• Al Curtis
• Otis Cutting
• Victor Arthur Franck
• Ruth Russell Franck
• Victor Russell Franck
• Bill Garden
• Ted Geary
• Lewis Grandy
• Earl Grandy
• Bill Grandy
• Tony Jensen
• Anchor Jensen
• Dewitt Jensen
• John McLean
• Frank Prothero
• Bob Prothero
• Robert Prothero, Jr.
• Sivert Sagstad
• George Stebbins