Marco Is Calling It Quits In Seattle After 52 Years ff

After 52 years of building tuna purse seiners, trawlers, tugboats and other vessels on the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Seattle, Peter Schmidt has decided to relinquish the helm. However the company will continue building tuna purse seiners and other boats in Chile and Peru.

The 83-year-old founder and president of Marco Seattle is shutting down the large shipyard near Fishermen's Terminal because of a prolonged slump in the boat-building business. About 50 people are losing their jobs, with the operation set to close later this week. The Marco operation in S-America with 600 employees will continue full blast, and has been showing a strong growth over the last few years.  “There aren't any orders in Seattle,” said Schmidt, who founded the company in 1953 after working as a naval architect and serving on a tanker and an attack transport during World War II. “We just don't have the level of work we had historically.”

Schmidt plans to sell the 5.5-acre property for about $10 million or lease space in some of the 10 buildings that border Salmon Bay. Zoning laws require that the site continue to be used in an industrial capacity, he said.

Known worldwide for well-crafted tuna seiners, crab boats, and hydraulic fishing machinery, Marco rose to prominence during the king crab boom that started in the 1970s. By the 1980s when it was making gillnetters for the Alaskan salmon fisheries, it employed more than 800 people in Seattle.

But the business declined in recent years as new regulations created an oversupply of fishing boats and equipment, Schmidt said. As a result of that glut, the company was reduced to doing repair work on existing vessels. In the past five years, it built just 14 new boats -- 12 tugs and two pilot vessels. Because of the number of competitive bidders for those projects, Schmidt said, the business was not very lucrative. “I've held on too long," said Schmidt, who plans to spend more time with his grandchildren and racing his 40-foot sailboat. "I have a lot of things I want to do in this world. It is not an exciting business anymore.”
 
Marco will continue to run fishing, boat-building and mining operations in Chile and Peru under the direction of Schmidt's son, Hans. The company, which set up operations in Chile in 1960, now has about 600 employees in South America who harvest swordfish and scallops and build 300-foot tuna purse seiners. It will keep an international sales office in Seattle and a small manufacturing facility.

The demise of Marco's Seattle shipyard caught some by surprise. “Wow. That is quite a shock,” said Port of Seattle spokesman Mick Shultz. “They have been around a long time, and they are an important shipyard in Seattle.” Asked whether the port would be interested in acquiring the Marco property, Schultz declined comment.

Others said that Seattle is losing one of its best-known boat builders. “Their reputation as a quality shipbuilder was excellent,” said George Neilson, president of Lake Union Dry Dock, a longtime Seattle competitor. He called the closure “one of the unfortunate realities” of the boat-building business. “We have been seeing a pretty depressed market for four or five years,” Neilson said. “It is a struggle.”

Matt Nichols, chief executive of Nichols Brothers Boat Builders on Whidbey Island, said his firm competed “neck and neck” with Marco for more than four decades. “Peter (Schmidt) is a very good competitor,” said Nichols, who stopped by the Marco's Seattle operation this week to say goodbye. “Peter was always a straight shooter and never pulled any punches.” Nichols called the decision to close Marco a smart move given the poor economy and the increasing regulatory environment in the state. “There is just not much work out there,” said Nichols, who expects other shipbuilders to trim back as well. “We are all struggling to get jobs.”

The closure of Marco's Seattle shipyard was especially rough on the employees, some of whom worked on the docks for decades. “The people who were most recently laid off had been there the longest and knew each other the best,” said Bob McMahon, who is losing his job as general manager of the shipyard division after 32 years. “They had been friends for 20, 30 or 40 years. It was very difficult. For most of them, it has been their lifetime jobs.” The 61-year-old said he is hopeful that another shipbuilder will buy the property and rehire the work force.

That is also the hope of Chuck Hughes, who represented about two dozen welders and fabricators at Marco as business manager of Boilermakers Local 104. “It is tragic,” Hughes said. “There are only seven or eight full-service union shipyards in Seattle, so the loss of any one is significant.” With an increase in repair work at naval shipyards and on the Washington state ferries, Hughes said the laid-off workers should be able to find jobs this year. Still, he said Marco's disappearance from Seattle is a big blow. “It is one of those employers that absolutely saddens us to lose,” Hughes said. “They have been a loyal union employer. It was heartbreaking news.”