 When he was age 13, he apprenticed to Craggs & Sons of Middlesbrough, and at the age of 20 was employed as a draftsman while studying naval architecture at night.He relocated to Ulster, Northern Ireland in 1888, where he served as draftsman-in-charge at the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast until 1892.In January 1892, Busch emigrated to the United States, and was employed as a draftsman at William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilders in Philadelphia.