There's a lot of
history here at the Pacific Fishermen Shipyard.
It's not just the vessels and the boats that they work on,
there are also the signs.
A lot of history,
some of this stuff goes back really, really far.
We we keep the dream alive here, so so is a special place for you.
So Ballard is a special place for you,
These signs that it means so much.
They do. They mean a lot.
Tyler Adams is the shipyard safety and environmental compliance manager
A Ballard native,
He says the signs are a big part of Ballard's history.
So all of the signs here at Pacific Fishermen Shipyard are beloved
local businesses that, for one reason or another, have gone out of business
and we were able to obtain their signs and put them up here
so that the community can remember what Ballard kind of used to be.
A lot of small businesses owned by families, paying wages, stuff like that.
And unfortunately, it seems a bit of a graveyard
for those type of businesses,
but at least somebody is out here reminding people of how it used to be.
First, it
started with us noticing people going out of business, and we were trying
to get their sign, contact him, ask if we could have it.
And then it started with people calling us and saying
that they're getting rid of their sign or they're they're going out of business.
Do we want the sign?
Do I have a favorite sign?
(sigh)
Probably the Viking Tavern.
Not the coolest sign here, but if you're talking an old Ballard bar
that everybody used to go and drink at, it's the Viking.
And we all miss it terribly.
I've been to almost all of them.
Captain's Nautical Supply. I used to live on a sailboat.
I went in and out of there every week.
The University meat and poultry type place
great smoked stuff.
Been to Crown Hill Hardware
A bunch of times.
Ballard Inflatable Boats fixed my inflatable boats.
You've got Zestos, everybody knows
Zestos from across the street at Ballard High School
Trident... all these great places that are not around anymore.
But yeah, we used to go to almost all of them.
Isn't that cool? It's a pretty cool thing.
So that was a Russian device that they used to lay right
above the cables that were communication cables across the Pacific Ocean,
and they would listen to communications through the cable with that device.
And one of the fishermen who's a shareholder here at Pac Fish,
was dragging some nets along the bottom.
And that thing came up in it.
So he turned it over to the Department of Defense.
They took all this secret stuff out of it and gave it back to him, and
he gave it to us.
And as of right now, yes,
those googly eyes are the largest googly eyes in the world.