Building the WATSON A. WEST

Cousins and McWhinney Shipyard (circa 1901).
Possibly one of these vessels is the WATSON A. WEST under construction.

William Henry McWhinney was born in St. Andrews, New Brunswick in 1853, and moved to Warwig, British Columbia with his parents at the age of four. From 1874 until 1880, he worked in the logging and shipbuilding trade in British Columbia, Washington and California. He was noted for building a marine railway and was employed in ship repair at Eureka, California. Relocating to Hoquiam, Washington in 1899, McWhinney went to work at George Hitchings' shipyard. A year later, he established a partnership with Euphronius Cousins of Eureka and started the company Cousins & McWhinney Shipyard of Aberdeen, Washington. In 1901, the same year the WATSON A. WEST was completed, Mr. Cousins died and the firm was operated by McWhinney alone until 1904. McWhinney was noted for building several four-masted schooners during this period until the shipyard was destroyed by fire.