The Shipyard Agent

As an undercover investigator, Augusta Clawson was assigned to Portland’s Swan Island Shipyard to join the ranks of female welders in World War II. Meanwhile, she surreptitiously sent reports back to Washington, DC, cataloging her daily observations and offering an unfiltered representation of the difficult, exhausting work these women performed. The full story of her role in establishing improved training and safety guidelines for the women laboring to build America’s ships has not been told-until now.

Author Biography

Beverly Lionberger Hodgins was born in Portland, Oregon, and for many years enjoyed the surrounding rivers, lakes, mountains, and forests before moving to equally lovely Washington State. As the great-granddaughter of Oregon pioneers, Hodgins has a distinct interest in all things regarding the settling, development, and history of the Pacific and Inland Northwest, and enjoys writing about fascinating people who lived before—particularly women who lived life on their own terms. Hodgins’s screenplay Wayward Warrior, based on her husband’s Vietnam service, was a semi-finalist for the FilmMakers International Screenwriting Awards. She once served as a personal interest story reporter for the Washington State Employees’ Intranet. She is the author of Mercy and Madness: Dr. Mary Archard Latham’s Tragic Fall from Female Physician to Felon (TwoDot), the essay “A New Dawn” published in the anthology Chocolate for a Woman’s Courage, and poems published in college literary reviews. She lives in Spokane, Washington, with her husband, Tom.