The John Thomas Scott business papers and plans (SAFR 15793, HDC 126) consists largely of technical data on shipbuilding and heavy machinery manufacturing compiled by John T. Scott during the course of his career as a marine engineer and plant superintendent with San Francisco Bay Area shipyards. The collection is composed of records from the three companies he worked for: Union Iron Works, Moore & Scott Iron Works and the Pacific Coast Shipbuilding Company. There are seven series are composed from the found groupings of materials: Correspondence, Subjects, Reports, Projects, Notebooks, Ephemera and Vessel Plans. A more detailed finding aid is available through the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Research Center. The collection is available for research use without restriction.

John Thomas Scott was born in 1864 or 1865. The place of his birth not known, but it is likely San Francisco. His uncles were Henry Tiffany Scott and Irving Murray Scott, the owners of the Union Iron Works in San Francisco's Potrero district. John was a marine engineer by profession, and followed his uncles into the family business, becoming a superintendent of the works in 1895. He managed operations at this famous shipyard for 11 years until he left in 1905 to begin his own business, in partnership with Robert S. and Joseph A. Moore. The Moore & Scott Iron Works commenced operation in 1905 at Hunter's Point, in San Francisco, then moved in 1909 to the site of W.A. Boole's old yard on the shore of the Oakland Estuary. Moore & Scott was a very successful operation, which continued to thrive under the name of Moore Drydock Company after Scott sold his interests in late 1917. Scott's next venture was the short-lived Pacific Coast Shipbuilding Company, which he established in 1918 in partnership with his uncle Henry at Bay Point, California (present day Port Chicago) to take advantage of the World War I shipbuilding boom. Scott lived in San Francisco until 1909, subsequently in Burlingame, and finally by the side of Lake Merritt in Oakland. He died at the age of 96 in March of 1960.

121.7 linear ft.

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This collection is open for use unless otherwise noted.