Meydenbauer Bay whaling fleet

William Schupp bought a whaling operation at Westport and brought it to the east side of Lake Washington after the Ballard Locks were built, and the locks let the eighty-eight-foot boats pass through the lake freely [1]. From 1919 to 1942 the American Pacific Whaling Co. kept its fleet in Meydenbauer Bay for seven months of the year, tied up for repairs and made ready for the next season, coming back in September from Alaska waters [1]. Schupp favored the freshwater port because it dealt with the barnacles on the hulls [1]. His grandson William Lagen shipped out on those vessels, leaving for Alaska in May and returning in September, since the weather turned and the lines would freeze and snap [1]. Whaling stank, Lagen allowed, though he called it the smell of money [1]. The ships sometimes came home with as many as 250 whales in a season, and the trade employed more than 200 people, second in Bellevue to farming [1]. The business closed in 1946 [1], and the ships went to the U.S. Navy and then to the Soviets under the lend-lease program [1].