Johnny Warnes isn’t afraid of making big moves. The Rigging Shop foreman was born in Morton, Wash., but grew up in West Seattle.
“By the time Jeremy came along, we were living in the Burien area. Then we moved from there to Tukwila. Then we moved out to the Key Peninsula.”
He now calls Mason County’s Harstine Island home, an act of “self-sabotage,” he said, laughing.
Johnny started his career in 1980, working alongside his father, who was an operating engineer, and grandfather, who was also a rigger foreman, at Lockheed Ship Building and Construction Co.
“It’s always been in the family.”
He joined Foss as a journeyman in 1996, leaving in 2004 only to return two years later.
“I wanted to do something a little different,” he explained. “I had an opportunity to go work back on the big vessels, aircraft carriers and stuff.”
Johnny has three sons and his second-born, Jeremy – as well as his nephew – have joined him at Foss. Jeremy is an apprentice mechanic in the Steel Shop, less than a year away from becoming a journeyman.
“I’ve was an auto mechanic from high school graduation in 2002,” said Jeremy, who has been at Foss for more than two years now. “I like anything with moving parts, pretty much. I was always fixing things. Right now, I’m working with tow wenches.”
“Our sea boat…the outboard motor went bad on us,” said Johnny, “and I basically took it all apart and then never put it back together. After it got moved, probably twice, he rebuilt the whole thing and found all the parts. He’s been able to pull anything apart and he can put it back together. He’s got a lot of good rigging skills too. He almost came to work in my shop.”
The shipyard may be just a stopover in Jeremy’s career – he said he’s considering going to sea.
“I’ve always loved the water, so I’m thinking that after my apprenticeship, I’ll see about going to work on the tugboats, work my way up to being a tugboat captain.”
While Jeremy wants to have a family someday, he now parents a “big, fluffy puppy.”
“That’s my grand-dog,” jokes Johnny.
And while the pair lost Johnny’s ex-wife, Jeremy’s mother, this past summer, Johnny believes she would have loved seeing her son at work.
“I’m certain she was quite proud of him.”
The two enjoy their time together at their lake property, waterskiing and tubing, a welcome break from the rigors of shipyard life.
“Every time a vessel comes in here, we all dive right into it, do what needs to be done, and it sails off, and you feel good that it was done and it was done right,” Johnny said. “We offer a good, quality product and, before you know it, you can’t remember what you worked on a month ago because they just keep on rolling through.”
“I’ll think about retirement in a couple of years,” he concluded. “It will be nice to sit back at my house on Harstine and watch the grass grow.”
