Emma M. takes to the sea

The idea for this story came from Jerry Sheldon, who as a boy, watched a boat being built in a shed near his home on Hillcrest. The details are from issues of the Shelton-Mason County Journal.

Over a period of three days in May 1942, a homemade fishing boat called Emma M. made the 2-mile trip down the highway from a backyard shed on Arcadia Street, Hillcrest, through downtown Shelton to a successful launch at Bedell's Moorage on Oakland Bay.

Emma M. was the creation of brothers Art and Bill McLaughlin, who despite both working full-time jobs at the Rayonier mill digester plant, "completed their tremendous undertaking without outside assistance in the astonishingly short time of two years and one month, just ahead of priorities, price raises, and material shortages caused by the war."

The boat was 52 feet long with a 14-foot beam, weighed 40 tons, and was valued between $12,000 and $25,000. It was powered by a 40-horsepower Frisco Standard gasoline motor, and the brothers expected it to have a greater cruising range than most boats of its type because they had installed gas tanks with a storage capacity of 1,000 gallons. The holds could handle 22 tons of fish. The boat carried its own electric light plant and had bunks for a crew of six (four below decks and two off the wheelhouse). Bill's wife, after whom the boat was named, was to be the cook on the boat's first trip to the halibut banks at Neah Bay.

Art and Bill hired Aberdeen house mover Herman Anderson to get their boat to the bay. Soft shoulders on Arcadia Street proved to be a challenge, and the entire first day was spent moving the boat the two blocks from its shed to the highway. The rest of the trip, down the hill and through the heart of Shelton, was completed without incident on the second day. To ensure that the Hillcrest grade was taken very slowly, a logging truck acted as a brake while the Anderson Transfer truck supplied the pulling power. Once on level grade, the powerful logging truck pulled the load "with comparative ease and swiftness" to the launching spot, arriving shortly before noon. The actual launch was accomplished the next day by dragging Emma M. and her supporting cradle onto the tideflats at the morning low tide and waiting for the evening high tide to float the boat free.

The next few weeks were spent mounting the mast and some superstructure and placing ballast. Finally, on the morning of July 17, the McLaughlins cast off from Bedell's Moorage and headed for the fishing banks off Cape Flattery on the Emma M.'s maiden voyage. They were to join a sister ship from Bremerton and proceed to Neah Bay, which would be their base during the fishing season.

The last news item on the Emma M. was in the May 27, 1943, Journal. The McLaughlin brothers were installing a new diesel power plant in the boat, and hoped to have it ready in time for the upcoming tuna run.

■ Jan Parker is a researcher for the Mason County Historical Museum. She can be reached at [email protected]. Membership in the Mason County Historical Society is $25 per year. For a limited time, new members will receive a free copy of the book "Shelton, the First Century Plus Ten."