From the turn of the 20^th century until the late 1970s, Queensborough was home to many boatbuilding outfits. Dawes Shipyard, Sather Boatworks and Mercer Shipyards were well-known wooden boat and ship builders.

Les Gunderson built wooden boats at Sather Boatworks for 36 years, until 1995. This was an art as much as a science, and was a craft Les learned from his father, who was also a master boat builder. Building a wooden boat began with a “half hull,” a scale model of the boat used to get the proportions of the boat just right. Les used hand tools, shaping the wood with an adze and drilling bolts using an auger. He sealed the cracks and crevices between planks by tamping cotton and oakum into them with a caulking (pronounced “corking”) iron and hammer.

There are no straight lines; each piece is individually made. It wasn’t mass production. Every plank, every post, every window was custom made, and there wasn’t a square piece on the whole boat... everyday something was different. 
-LES GUNDERSON, master boat builder, Sather Boatworks            

Helen Hughan was the secretary at Mercer Star Shipyard from 1944 to 1949. Mercer Star Shipyard was a family business, and the Mercers were prominent residents of New West. Mercer Star Shipyard was a large enterprise, at times employing as many as 200 men, and two women. Many of the vessels built there are still in use today. Helen found her job exciting. There was constant activity in the office, working with ships’ crews, suppliers, and tradesmen. Occasionally, Helen was invited to go along with Gordon Mercer, the ships’ architect, to take the boats for a test sail along the North Arm of the Fraser.

All these people came to Mercer’s to do work on the boats. You were always on the phone. And everything they wanted, they wanted it yesterday. Gordon would throw a piece of wood on my desk and say "order that and I want it yesterday!" 
-HELEN HUGHAN, secretary Mercer Star Shipyards

We had many, many launchings. They were wonderful parties and the food they would put on. It was fun, really, really fun... I got to decorate the bottle up to make it look like a champagne bottle because Mercer's wouldn't buy champagne... They would get a giant bottle of 7-Up, decorate it all up. It rankled them to crack a bottle of champagne over the bow of a ship. 
-HELEN HUGHAN, secretary Mercer Star Shipyards