❖ SCHOONER SOPHIE CHRISTENSON--FULL OF FISH BUT OUT OF FOOD IN THE BERING SEA ❖

Dories transfer food from liner GENERAL LEE
to fishing schooner SOPHIE CHRISTENSON in distance.
L-R: Chief Steward E.A. Gruby; Capt. C.S. Hansen; (?)
Sophie had radioed the crew was starving from depleted
supplies from adverse weather.
Photo back-stamp dated 29 October 1934.

SCHOONER SOPHIE CHRISTENSON
ON 117099
675 gross tons; 180.6' x 38.9' x 13.4'
Built 1901 by Hall Brothers at Pt. Blakely, WA.
For owners: Sudden and Christenson of San Francisco.
Here she is heading home to Poulsbo owner after 57 days
at sea with a record catch of cod, one year later than the 
top photo with GENERAL LEE.
1935 original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"A near-tragedy of the Pacific was averted with the arrival of the States Liner GENERAL LEE, commanded by Capt. C E Christensen, out of Seattle. The SOPHIE CHRISTENSON was a cod-fisher and had been out of Seattle six months with the largest load of codfish in her holds than was ever carried by any American fisher. Due to rough weather and adverse winds, the CHRISTENSON was entirely out of food supplies. In the path of the GENERAL LEE's route to the Orient, they laid after asking for assistance by wireless and waited for them to reach her. Upon arriving there, Capt. Hansen with the assistance of Chief Steward E. A. Gruby loaded into dories sent by the CHRISTENSON more than 1,200 lbs of food supplies. That amount of food, they figured would keep life in the bodies of a crew of 48 men aboard, until they would reach their homeport, Seattle, to which they were bound and hoped to make in less than a month's time." Unknown newspaper publisher, dated 29 October 1934.

1933: J.E. Shields was master on his 1st trip north to the Bering Sea. That was the largest cargo of salt cod ever landed either before or since. 
1934: Three schooners, SOPHIE CHRISTENSON, WAWONA and the AZALEA, with auxiliary schooner DOROTHEA, came home from the Bering with a total catch of 1,633,425 fish. 
      Lost: Einer Kirby, swept overboard from the SOPHIE outward bound 600 miles west of Cape Flattery. H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Gordon Newell, editor. Superior. p.429.   
  

❖ THANK YOU GORDON NEWELL ❖

L-R: Author, editor GORDON NEWELL (1913-1991)
Captain Shaver
aboard Steamer PORTLAND,
 27 November 1966.
Delivering 70 years of maritime history pages
 from the Oregon printers to the Washington publisher.
Original photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

If you have found yourself involved with any maritime history research of boats or their operators, you've probably found yourself buried in or pointed in the direction of a copy of the H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. These texts are a little scarce but are found at most important libraries and places of research, an invaluable aid for those studying Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia waterfront life. 
      Here is a news clipping that revealed the release of the monumental effort:
     " A truck loaded with 800 books, weighing a 6,200 pounds, left the Lincoln $ Allen Co Bindery, 1600 SE Division Street, Friday afternoon for Seattle, to deliver the first batch of the H. W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest.
      Covering 70 years of maritime history in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, each copy of the book contains 776 pages and weighs 7.75 pounds. It is bound with a heavy imitation leather cover, with a stamped design on the front and back, similar to that of the Lewis and Dryden Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, which was published in 1895. The new book picks up history where the Lewis & Dryden book left off.
      The McCurdy book was compiled and written by Gordon Newell, Seattle and Olympia author, after H. W. McCurdy, Seattle shipbuilder and historian, made a grant of $25,000 as a starting fund. Superior Publishing Co, Seattle, was given the publishing contract.
      Printing, however, was done in Portland by the Graphic Arts Center, which ran more than 1.5 million pages through its presses. The book contains approximately one million words and 1,000 illustrations.
      The composition was done in Portland by Litho Compositors of Oregon, and negatives and halftones were made in Seattle by Artcraft Engraving Co. The paper, weighing 17,000 pounds, came from an Everett, WA, mill; the binding material was from New York. Ten days were required for binding the 2,000 copies.
      The first load was delivered to Superior Publishing Co which will distribute the copies to founder-subscribers who reserved copies at $50 and $75 each. In three days time, it will be the official publication date, after which the price will be boosted to $100 a copy, according  to the publishing firm."  Unidentified newspaper clip from 27 November 1966.

Gordon Newell wrote many books including:
So Fair A Dwelling Place
S.O.S. North Pacific
Ships of the Inland Waters
Pacific Lumber Ships
Ocean Liners of the 20th Century
Pacific Steamboats
Pacific Tugboats
Pacific Coastal Liners
Totem Tales of Old Seattle
Westward to Alki

❖ A TRIP ON THE YANKEE DOODLE ❖

YANKEE DOODLE
Mural by the famous Anacortes artist/historian Bill Mitchell.
Photograph by Mary Matzek, 2006.

The YANKEE DOODLE was a small boat with a very narrow beam that ran between Bellingham, Whatcom County, and Anacortes, Skagit County, stopping at many places among the Islands of San Juan group, carrying mail and passengers. Captain and owner of the good ship YANKEE DOODLE was Bill Kasch from Fidalgo Island. Captain Kasch was a firm believer in the slogan "the mail must go through," so the YANKEE DOODLE never stopped for stormy weather.
      I recall one day while returning to Orcas Island from Bellingham aboard the vessel; we encountered some very stormy weather off the point of Lummi Island. Waves were washing over the boat, and the cabin had water up to the seats. I was the only passenger aboard and was sitting with my feet propped up on the opposite seat, scared to death. The next big wave flooded the engine and it stopped. I could hear Captain Kasch in the engine room pounding on some iron, gasoline was floating around on top of the water, and Capt Kasch was singing. I nervously glanced around to see if there were any life preservers. "Why did I decide to return home this morning?" I wonder to myself. It hadn't seemed to be very windy at the dock. But then I remembered hearing Capt Kasch calling out just before we left the dock, 'all aboard for the San Juan Archipelago, if you don't care where the Hell you go!'
      Breaking over the bow came another big wave. Everything that was loose was banging and floating around. The little old pot-bellied stove that furnished the heat was smoking. Another clanking came from the engine room and suddenly the engine started. The door of the engine room swung open and Capt Kasch, covered with grease and oil, poked his head through the door singing––"Nearer My God to Thee."
       At that time I was too frightened to think that it was a joke. But after all, the mail must go through!
Above text from: They Named it Deer Harbor, Covering the Period of 1852 to 1912.  McLachlan, Edith. Deer Harbor, WA. (1972.)

Search for the McLachlan book here.

❖ LIBERTY SHIPS––FROM MODEL TO LAUNCHINGS ❖

Henry J. Kaiser, Sr, and his wife, Bess.
They inspect a Liberty Ship model in the early 1940s. 
Henry J. and his son, Edgar, local industrialists built
Libertys for the US government in three yards in Portland, OR. 
Some 30,000 workers helped launch as many 
as four per week.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

West Coast Shipbuilder
Henry J. Kaiser
Used a model in a demonstration of how his
yards launched a 10,500-ton Liberty ship
in 4 days, 15 hours, and 25 minutes.
Original photo dated 13 November 1942 from
the archives of Saltwater People Historical Society©

Liberty Ships was the name given to the EC2 type ship designed for Emergency Construction by US Maritime Commission in WW II. They were nicknamed 'Ugly Ducklings' by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
      The first of 2,711 Liberty Ships was the SIR PATRICK HENRY, launched on 27 Sept 1941. Altogether 2,710 were completed as one burned at the dock.
      The 250,000 parts were pre-fabricated throughout the country and welded together in c. 70 days. A Liberty cost $2,000,000. A group that raised $2 million in War Bonds could suggest a name for a Liberty Ship.

The President visiting the Kaiser yard;
Kaiser-Vancouver built ten EC2s at their Portland Yard.
Roosevelt attended the launch on his President's
Tour of the Nations Defense Installations and War Plants.
original undated photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"Camera in the Kaiser Shipyard"
Launching of the first of three Liberty ships within 24 hours.
Night shot taken at the shipyard with flash and yard lights.
7 April 1944.
Photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

Richmond Shipyard Launching of the last Liberty Ship,
BENJAMIN WARNER
Liberty hull #2700
Henry J. Kaiser, head of the shipyard.
Lita B. Warner, daughter of Sam Warner of motion picture fame.
The vessel was named after the sponsor's grandfather.
Bess Kaiser is at the right.
Dated 1 July 1944.
Original Acme photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

HENRY J. KAISER
Viewing models from his shipyards.
Back stamped 25 September 1946
Acme Telephoto.
Original photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

Henry J. Kaiser, West Coast industrialist, looked over his exhibit of ship models as he prepared to testify 23 September before the House Merchant Marine Committee which was probing wartime shipbuilding profits. In defense of his wartime operations, Kaiser contended that he saved the nation nearly $500,000,000 on war contracts and more than two years of precious time in the construction of Liberty ships. 

To read more about the dimensions, crew, builders, names of the Liberty Ships without listening to me, please see US Maritime Commission.

      Edgar F. Kaiser, native born Washingtonian, who took over the helm of the industrial empire from his founding father, Henry J. Kaiser was the general manager of the three Kaiser shipyards in Portland. He also played major roles in the building of Hoover, Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams. 
       Edgar received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his efforts to increase the availability of low and moderate income housing.  
      The Kaiser Family Foundation purchased the Four Winds Camp in Deer Harbor, Orcas Island, to keep it alive and well after the retirement of Director Ruth Brown, who founded the youth camp in 1927.   

❖ CAPTAIN PEASLEY and CAPPY RICKS

Meet Capt "Matt" Peasley, resourceful and two-fisted skipper of the "Blue Star" fleet––in real life he was Capt. Ralph E. Peasley, of Aberdeen, WA.

Captain R.E. Peasley, 14 Feb. 1929.
Known throughout the world as the hero of Peter B. Kyne's 
sea stories, was in his 37th year of high seas sailing.
Click photo to enlarge.
From the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

      Peter B. Kyne pictured Peasley exactly as he was––stalwart, keen of eye, vigorous, friendly and a masterful sailing man. When you read Kyne's 'Cappy Ricks', stories of romantic Pacific Coast shipping, you get a perfect view of Capt Peasley, as he was in 1930.
      The tall mariner quit the sea––temporarily, at least––but if the sailing ships were abroad again the chances are he would be right back at his old command. Not even Mrs. Peasley could keep him ashore. In fact, Mrs. Peasley probably would go along!
      It has been quite awhile since Capt Peasley and Peter B. Kyne first met, but the passing years have served only to enhance Kyne's 'Cappy Ricks' characters and build around Capt Peasley an admiring aura of fame and popularity that made him a chosen man wherever he went.
      In his home region of Grays Harbor, he was a favorite without reservation. Shortly after he retired from the sea he ran for port commissioner and was elected by an enormous majority. Then he served the state as district inspector for the liquor control board––and that was a job that required as much application and hard work as running a ship. Only recently the Aberdeen Pioneers Association elected him president.
      Among Kyne's many duties at that time was to peruse reports sent in by the fleet masters. He was immediately attracted by Capt Peasley's. They were of such concise and original nature that in them Kyne found inspiration and subject matter for what ten years later flowed from his pen as the story of Matt Peasley, Cappy Ricks and the latter's beautiful daughter.
      "Aw, they call me Matt wherever I go, all right." said Peasley, "but Kyne's stories are mostly all fiction. No skipper could be as good as that fellow Matt. No shipowner could have so much fun as Cappy Ricks, but that isn't saying we don't like to read about them. I know Mrs. Peasley and I do."
      As depicted in Kyne's novel, Peasley's marriage to the shipping magnate's daughter was a romantic event, and as it applies to the real Capt Peasley's marriage it is not wholly imaginary. Mrs. Peasley's father was Capt James Dalton, prominent in Grays Harbor lumbering and shipping circles, and she grew up among sawmills and ships.
      They were married in 1903, shortly after a great fire leveled the business district of Aberdeen. Capt Peasley had brought the schooner WAWONA into Willapa Harbor for a cargo of lumber, and while she was burdening there the skipper went by train to claim his bride. Their wedding trip consisted of a brief train journey to Seattle––two days or so––and then they headed for home. At Gate City they separated, Capt Peasley taking another train to Raymond, whence he sailed the following day. At that time he was sailing the WAWONA in the coastwise trade, but at that, it was six weeks before he saw his bride again.
      It was some years later that Mrs. Peasley tired of sitting at home waiting, and decided she would go to sea, too. So with him she went, and for nearly two decades the Peasleys sailed together––to Honolulu, to Callao, to Newcastle and a host of other ports of the Pacific.
      "Yes, said Mrs. Peasley, "I was a poor sailor at first. But I got so I could 'take it' with the rest of them. I can remember one time when we were standing out to sea at Cape Flattery. It was so rough that every sailor aboard was more or less sick, but not I. That was after I had gotten my sea legs."
      Capt Peasley sailed many windjammers in his 40 years on the Pacific. Among them were the four-master MARY E. FOSTER, the schooner FRED J. WOOD, the schooner LOUIS, first five-master on the Pacific Coast and named after Louis Simpson, San Francisco ship and mill owner; the WAWONA, MELANCTON and VIGILANT, and many others.

Schooner VIGILANT
Heading out with a load of lumber.
Undated photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

      Of them all, both Capt and Mrs. Peasley liked the big, fast-stepping schooner VIGILANT the best. They took this finely appointed five-master on her maiden voyage in 1920 and sailed her for nine years, mostly in the Honolulu lumber trade. She operated between Bellingham, WA, and Honolulu. When the E. K. Wood Lumber Co of Bellingham and Hoquiam sold her some six years ago, the firm offered Capt Peasley a steam command, but he could not take it. He retired rather than go in for steam.
      In his four decades as a sailing man on the Pacific, nearly 35 years of which were as master, Capt Peasley never had a wreck. He came close once on a reef off the coast of Australia, and another time in a boisterous blow inside the Straits of Juan de Fuca, but both times good seamanship cheated the sea of its prey.
      Born in Maine, Capt Peasley comes of a long line of seafaring men. Like his ancestors, he went to sea at a tender age and at 22, he was entrusted with his first command. Most of his seafaring life he spent on the Pacific, and to South Africa he went only in Kyne's imagination, there to further the 'Blue Star' line's interests by subduing that redoubtable person called "All-Hands-and-Feet."
      The roughest sea Capt Peasley ever experienced was in late January 1922, when he was a few hundred miles off the coast of Washington with the schooner VIGILANT. A hurricane blew up, the same storm that felled billions of feet of Western WA timber.
      The log of that voyage told a vivid story of a tumultuous sea after the barometer skidded to 29.01 and a gale of 100-mile intensity raged for four hours. Mrs. Peasley was along, and she says it was a harrowing experience, although the stout VIGILANT survived without great damage.
      Recently the sturdy VIGILANT was reported long overdue in a bad storm. En route to Honolulu from Seattle, she was out 53 days before word was heard of her on the Pacific Coast. Capt Peasley's faith in the staunch craft was vindicated, when she limped into port, pretty well battered, but still sailing. A couple of seamen were hurt in the raging seas that  smashed over the VIGILANT.
      On Grays Harbor there are legendary tales of windjammer skippers who sailed their ships right up to the docks at Hoquiam and Aberdeen. That was a matter of some 12 miles of what was then a tortuous channel. It is not all legend. Twenty years ago Capt Peasley sailed the schooner FRED J. WOOD over the bar and almost up to Hoquiam.
      "I could have warped her up to the dock at Blagen's mill, I think," said Peasley, "but a dredge was squatted right in the middle of the channel at Grays Harbor City and we had to let the tugboat hook on. That tug had tried to keep up with us all the way from Westport, and believe me, we gave them a race!"
      Capt Peasley was a vigorous man, young looking and with ever a twinkle in his keen eyes. He stood about six feet three inches and had the straight figure of youth. His famous mustache and shock of black hair were but slightly touched with gray. Before he started on his new job with the state liquor control board he was a faithful attendant at meetings of the Aberdeen lodge of Elks, where a special seat was always his.
      Before the war he and Kyne met occasionally, but for many years the famous writer and noted mariner never crossed trails. If and when they do, there should result an interesting reunion and a fine picture for the newspapers."
Above text from the Eugene Register Guard. 29 March 1930.
   

CAPPY RICKS book search







1930, November: 

Auxiliary schooner SANWAN, 1930.
107.6' x 26' x 15'
Designed and built by Robert Moran.
Launched at his estate on Orcas Island, WA., 1917.
Date stamped original from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

Capt "Matt" Peasley kept sailing. In this year he was reported off on a three-month cruise of the South Seas in the good ship SANWAN, under his command. The SANWAN put into San Francisco harbor for a couple of days, from there she headed to Los Angeles, where twelve western youths were signed to join the ship. They were scheduled for a great adventure––I am not locating data on the oceania chapter. Did they visit the South Seas? In the middle of the following summer Peasley was at the helm of another ship.

1931, July 14:

Capt "Matt" Peasley 
Aboard LINDA (ex-ROAMER)
Seattle, WA., dated 14 July 1931.
Click to enlarge.
Original photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

Jack London's old ship of romance, the ROAMER, and Capt. R. "Matt" Peasley, immortal hero of Peter B. Kyne's sea stories, was the rare combination that, according to some national news, would lead ten Seattle youths along the paths of adventure in Alaska, the summer of 1931. The trim auxiliary sloop, renamed LINDA, was casting off en route to Alaska on a scientific expedition that included stops near Glacier Bay and Mount Fairweather. The latter named places are haunts of the Killer whale, that they wanted to hunt with cameras, instead of harpoon guns. They had also made plans for trips inland to study the flora and fauna of AK. The photo was taken just before departure.

❖ HISTORIC SMITH ISLAND LIGHT ❖

Smith Island Lighthouse
Photo by Bernie McNeil
Published by Smith-Western, Tacoma, WA.
Card from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"Automation has robbed Washington's island lighthouses of the aura of adventure that was once associated with living at these isolated stations. The Smith Island light has been extremely familiar to boaters and seamen passing through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It is the third oldest lighthouse site in the entire Puget Sound area. Only Tatoosh and Dungeness preceded it.
      Because Smith Is is composed of sand and clay instead of hard rock, its story is different from the others; today's light is not the original one erected in 1858. An aid to navigation was essential at this location, where Rosario Strait meets Juan de Fuca, but the currents had a tendency to erode the bluff on which the tower must stand. Looking into the future, the builders carefully constructed it 200 ft from the edge and believed that the structure would be safe. 
      The old tower was built of white-washed brick and the lower portion was wide enough to accommodate the keeper's living quarters. At first, a lone man was assigned to the post and he brought his family along. Thus Mr. and Mrs. John Vail and their grandchild were the initial inhabitants of the island.
      In that day wandering Indians from [Haida Gwaii] were a menace to remote outposts near the water and it was considered advisable to provide a fort in which the lightkeeper might take refuge. Accordingly, a blockhouse and a barn were built close by the tower. If the lighthouse had been provided with metal doors and window shutters instead of wooden ones this protection would have have been needed. 
      The tower went up through the center of the house and the top of the revolving lantern was painted red. The light was first shown on 18 October 1858.
      For six months the Vails, who had been joined by Mr. Applegate, an assistant keeper, enjoyed a placid existence. The housewife amused herself gathering marine curiosities and observing the bird colonies. So many sea pigeons nested on the island that whites and Indians came there to hunt the birds with hooked sticks, dragging them out of the holes in which they burrowed.
      Then one day in May 1859, five large canoe-loads of Haida Indians pulled ashore,