❖ A FREIGHTING MOSQUITO ❖ WAKENA 1911-1925 ❖

WAKENA
208632
Built in Portland, OR., in 1911
116.5' x 25.7' x 7.8'
310 G.t. / 226 N.t. 
Click image to enlarge.
Photo purchased from the Puget Sound Maritime, Seattle, WA.
Negative 955-5.

The twin-screw, gas powered freight barge WAKENA owned by Clatskanie Transportation Co and formerly operated in connection with the sternwheeler BEAVER between Portland & Clatskanie was transferred to Puget Sound in Sept 1914 by Capt. Bernt Olsen. Soon after she was sold to Border Line Transport Co. 

1915: Walter Allenby of Seattle, first mate, and August Krotz, quartermaster, were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning aboard the vessel early Nov. 1915. The WAKENA left Tacoma on the morning of 4 Nov, bound for Seattle and towing a large barge alongside. A head wind was encountered all the way to Seattle, with the result that an air pocket was apparently formed between the towing vessel and the barge at the point where the barge rested against the vessel, the gasoline engines of the freighter pumping a steady flow of lethal fumes, which were not dispelled as would normally have been the case. Allenby and Krontz were asleep in their staterooms, which were found to be full of fumes, and it was impossible to revive them upon the WAKENA's arrival in Seattle.

1917: 

This standard size dated postcard is one of only a few
business documents found to represent the cannery
that operated on Harney Channel, Shaw Island, WA.
It was found in an antique rolltop desk that was once used in
the Shaw Store by proprietor 'Gene' Fowler. The desk was
being cleaned and glued together for a donation to the
Shaw Island Historical Museum. From this document, we
learn of one of the vessels that transported canned fish
and fruit produced by the Shaw Island Canning Co. 

Cannery building at the Shaw Island Landing.
The plant operated between 1911 and 1922.
This photo is dated between 1930 and 1951.
Click to enlarge. 

1925: WAKENA was sold by Border Line transportation to the LaTouche Packing Co for use as a floating cannery in the Alaska herring fishery.

          While bound for Alaska in the service of LaTouche Packing Co the motor freighter WAKENA caught fire off Nanaimo on 27 May 1925 and was completely destroyed, the officers and crew were rescued and taken to Nanaimo by tug BELLE.
     
Source: 
Gordon Newell, editor. The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the PNW. Superior Publishing. 1965.