❖ WHALER HEADING TO THE BERING ❖

Whaler WESTPORT
209877
Original photo dated 1935
Click to enlarge.
From the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

The WESTPORT, one of the 14 ships of the Pacific Coast whaling fleet, shown leaving Seattle for the treacherous waters of the Bering Sea, some of which were uncharted at the time of this photo. With the harpoon gun on her prow, the men believed there would be a big profit in whale oil that year.

The next year, the crew of the Seattle whaler WESTPORT,
had their ship breakup on Bight Reef in the Aleutians
15 Sept. 1936.
The crew escaped and was brought to Seattle, 
5 October, on the Coast Guard cutter CHELAN.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

1912: Built by the former Moran Brothers Shipyard (renamed the Seattle Construction and Drydock Co.) for Gray's Harbor Station of the American Pacific Whaling Co.

G.t. 116 / 59 N.t. 
88' Reg. L.  x 19.0' x 11.5'
450 HP-triple expansion engine, single Scotch boilers of 180 lb. working pressure.

1934: Capt. Harold C. Kristensen, 50, master of WESTPORT, killed when the harpoon gun he had fired, collapsed, & its heavy steel frame toppled over on him in western AK waters.

1935: WESTPORT lost off Akutan, AK., September 1936. No lives lost.
Above dated material from H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest . Newell, Gordon, editor.