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Todd Shipyards

The Todd Pacific Shipyards Corporation was founded in 1916, as the result of a merger between three shipbuilding companies. Following the merger, Todd Shipyards became the first iron-and-steel shipbuilding yard in the Northwest. One of the Todd Shipyards' first major construction projects was the completion of submarines for the Electric Boat Company.

A Quick History of Todd Shipyards

Over the last nine decades of its existence, the fortunes of the Todd Pacific Shipyards Corporation have risen and fallen due to changes in demand for its services as a result of a variety of factors.

The first major boom for the company - as with many other United States shipyards - was during World War II. During the way years, the Todd Pacific Shipyards Corporation constructed and repaired more than 23,000 U.S. Navy ships. By this time, the company owned eleven different facilities across the country. The company experienced a decline following the end of the war, and during the 1950s and 1960s the company underwent major reorganization. During these years, the company reduced the number of its ship-building facilities from eleven to seven, with these stationed on the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts.

In the 1970s, the company experienced a new surge of activity, with construction projects completed for Washington State, and the United States and Australian Navies.

However, a second decline occurred during the 1980s, and the Todd Pacific Shipyards Corporation filed for bankruptcy in 1986. The company restructured again, and reopened again in 1990 with considerably reduced holdings. From 1990 until the present day, the Todd Pacific Shipyards Corporation's sole yard and headquarters has been located on Seattle's Harbor Island.

Currently, the Todd Pacific Shipyard Corporation is the largest ship construction and repair yard in the Northwest.

Asbestos Use in Todd Shipyards

During the latter half of the twentieth century, a darker side to the history of Todd Shipyards - and many other shipyards across the country - began to emerge, concerning the widespread use of asbestos in the ship-building industry.

Throughout the majority of the twentieth century, asbestos was used extensively in the ship-building industry. Asbestos is a naturally-occurring substance that is highly fire-resistant and provides excellent insulation, making it ideal for use in the ship environment, where many locations were subject to extremely high temperatures.

Asbestos was used in an extensive range of products and construction materials in the ship-building industry, including insulation materials, valves and flanges for ship boilers, pipe insulation, spray-applied coating for boilers and for insulation, gaskets and turbines, and wall coatings and paint.

Workers cut and sanded products containing asbestos, applied asbestos products via painting and spraying, and other types of activities. Ship-repair during was a particular hazardous occupation, as repair activities must be completed as quickly as possible, and workers often carried out their jobs with little thought to personal safety - their only thought was often getting those ships repaired and ready for battle as soon as possible.

Tragically for many thousands of ship-yard workers, asbestos is also highly toxic. Long term, repeated asbestos exposure is now known to cause several different lethal diseases, including lung cancer, and a rare form of cancer called mesothelioma.

The dangers of asbestos were known by many companies long before large numbers of shipyard workers began developing deadly diseases such as mesothelioma. The greatest tragedy of the legacy of asbestos in the ship-building industry is that shipyards failed to supply their workers with adequate protective equipment to ensure their safety from the inhalation of lethal asbestos fibers.

Few workers were supplied with the safety equipment that might have protected them from asbestos exposure, and because of this, large numbers of shipyard workers began developing diseases such as mesothelioma in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Unfortunately, most of these workers had no idea they had been exposed to highly toxic levels of asbestos until they began developing asbestos-related diseases. They had no chance to undergo screening procedures that might have saved or at least prolonged their lives, simply because they did not know they were at risk.

Are you at Risk?

The Todd Pacific Shipyard Corporation and other American shipyards did not cease using asbestos-containing construction products until the 1970s and 1980s. Because many asbestos-related diseases have a very long latency period of several decades, people exposed in the 1960s and 1970s may be at risk of developing such diseases, even if they have not yet noticed any symptoms.

If you worked at a Todd Shipyard prior to the 1980s, or know someone who did, it is highly likely that asbestos exposure occurred. This knowledge is vital, because many early symptoms of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases are very similar to symptoms of other conditions that are often much less serious.

If you believe you may be at risk, knowledge of mesothelioma symptoms and undergoing regular screening procedures may help doctors diagnose asbestos-related disease early enough for treatment to have a positive effect.

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