Port Blakely, Bainbridge Island, Washington facts for kids
Port Blakely is a small community on Bainbridge Island, Washington, located in the western United States. It's on the east side of the island, a bit to the south. People usually think of Port Blakely as the area around the crossing of Blakely Hill Road and Blakely Avenue NE. The name was sometimes spelled Port Blakeley in the past.
Port Blakely's Busy Past: Mills and Ships
Port Blakely got its name in 1841 from the Wilkes Expedition. It was named after Johnston Blakely, an American naval officer.
In 1863, William Renton started a large sawmill here. A sawmill cuts logs into lumber. Later, in 1880, three brothers named Isaac, Winslow, and Henry Knox Hall moved their shipyard to Port Blakely. Their shipyard was close to the sawmill.
At one point, the Port Blakely sawmill was huge. It was known as "the world's largest sawmill under one roof." Both the lumber mills and the shipyard had many homes and services for the workers and their families.
The Inca was a special ship. It was the first true five-masted schooner built on the West Coast. The Inca was launched at Port Blakely in 1896. Another large five-masted schooner, the H.K. Hall, was launched here in 1902. It weighed 1,237 tons.
The Hall Brothers' shipyard was very busy. Between 1881 and 1904, they built 77 different ships. These included barks, barkentines, and many schooners with three, four, or five masts. They also built steamers, a tugboat, a government boat, and several yachts. The Hall Brothers were very important for building most of the schooners used in the Pacific Coast lumber trade.
The shipyard later moved to Winslow in 1903.
