❖ Craftsman Karl Seastrom with a Special Wheel ❖

Master wheelmaker Karl Seastrom
with the historic ROOSEVELT wheel.
Dated May 1949
Original from the archives of the S.P.H.S©

The stout wooden wheel, once intimate with the historic ship ROOSEVELT, was built in the shop of Fred Sohl in 1905. The ship's wheel guided Capt. Bartlett to the Arctic and had been taking all weather on her open deck.
      After thousands of miles duty, she was seen at Karl Seastrom Marine Wood Specialties. In 1959, it was being prepared for public display in the new Maritime Wing under construction at the Museum of History and Industry.
   
     "The ROOSEVELT was a headline maker from the day her keel was laid", said Capt. Romaine Warner, one of the ROOSEVELT's skippers in the 1920s. "The ROOSEVELT was a wonderful ship. Big, heavy, lots of strength. Built wedge-shaped, 17-ft forward, 17-ft aft, so when she was frozen in, the ice would lift her instead of crush her."
      The ROOSEVELT's first service as a commercial vessel was towing lumber barges from Puget Sound to San Pedro, delivering record loads in record time. On one trip she averaged better than eight knots, towing the barge DRACULA loaded with more than 2,125,000 ft of lumber, reaching San Pedro in 141 hours.