Captain Ed Shields was born in Seattle and grew up on the waterfront, which led to his great knowledge and love of sailing vessels and the sea. He completed a master's degree in engineering at Harvard in 1940 and later studied navigation, earning his license as "Master of Ocean Uninspected Sail or Motor Vessels of Any Gross Tons" in 1948. He worked in the Shields family fishing business for many years, and when that business wrapped up, he took a job with the Coast Guard in the Seattle engineering office. He worked there until he retired in 1976.