❖ HOSTMARK AND THE HATTIE ❖

HATTIE HANSEN
O.N. 96233
Built 1893 at what was known on her US
documentation papers as Pontiac, WA.
Ordered by Capt. W.K. Curtis but sold before completion
to Capt. John L. Hansen.
HATTIE was later renamed SECHELT
by last owners in B.C., Canada.
71' x 15.7' x 6.6'
113 G.t. / 77 N.t.
Click image to enlarge.
Original photo collected by J. Williamson; from the
archives of the Saltwater People Log©

"Between the day that the Annie Gray went into service, and the night the Rosario was taken out of it, Hostmark saw cross-sound transportation develop. His career was linked closely with the companies which built up the routes, fought each other bitterly in the days of competition, and gradually brought about an integrated system. One of the transportation pioneers was Capt. John L. Hansen of the Hansen Transportation Co. One of his boats was the Hattie Hansen, named in honor of the captain's daughter.
      Alf Hostmark loved both the girl and the boat. In 1897 he married the daughter and became the skipper of the boat named for her.
      In 1907, when the Kitsap County Transportation Co., was formed, Hostmark was one of its organizers, along with W.L. Gazzam and H.A. Hansen, a skipper, and O.L. Hansen, an engineer, sons of Capt. John J. Hansen.
      Those were the days of rugged individualists, with no holds barred as skippers and their boats fought for passengers, freight, and sea room. Races between the boats were common, and collisions frequent. 
      One bitter rivalry was between Capt. Hostmark, then on the steamboat Kitsap, and Captain Chris Moe of the Monticello. Eventually, their two boats crashed.
      Capt. Hostmark, righteously indignant, charged that Captain Moe deliberately had him run down. 
       Steamboat inspectors, more tolerant of such things than their successors are now, decided that the accident wouldn't have occurred "had the masters been on friendly terms," and the best thing to do was forget it.
      Both men could laugh about it later. They became fast friends."
Source: The Seattle-Times, 30 December 1951. 

CAPTAIN ALF HOSTMARK
Dated June 1951.
He started sailing Puget Sound in 1889
when he family arrived from Norway.
His father Capt. Adolph Hostmark operated
the post office where Poulsbo was later established.
Capt. Alf commanded the HATTIE HANSEN,
the HYAK, and was skipper for the Black Ball Line
until the merger with Puget Sound Navigation Co.
When WA. State Ferries took over, the captain
was in command of the Fauntleroy-Vashon
run until a heart attack slowed his course in 1953.
Original photo from the archives of the
Saltwater People Historical Society©


 

SECHELT (ex-HATTIE HANSEN)
March 1911:
The SECHELT began running on the Victoria-Sooke route (with her new name) although most Victoria shipping men considered the narrow little craft unfit for service in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and prophesy of trouble was frequent.

24 March 1911: Near Race Rocks, lost with all hands, 18, crew and passengers.
      There is some incorrect information posted on a Seattle website accessed recently. There were no survivors.
      Because of the loss of life, there was a huge BC government investigation. This is posted on Library and Archives Canada regarding the steamer SECHELT  and her quick plunge 40 fathoms down in a south-west gale. 
       The crown examined a Surveyor for Lloyds Register of Shipping, a senior lighthouse keeper, a steamboat inspector, chief engineer, a surveyor, long-time ship masters, a superintendent of the marine railway, a boiler & machinery inspector, dock agent, wharfinger, a hull inspector, examiner of masters & mates, the lone eye witness and one of the two owners who was not on board for the trip. There were inquiries into the depth of hold, the term shade deck, scupper gates, mean draft, cargo ports, belt combing, broken sea at Race Rocks, an eddy wind, hand deck pump, reserve buoyancy, the character of the mate, dimensions of the hatch, the contents of the freight, where it was stowed, how much it weighed, the lines of the vessel and much more, I am still reading the 400+ pages.
H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest; Gordon Newell, editor. Seattle, WA., Superior Publishing. 
Library and Archives Canada
List of US Merchant Vessels of the US. 1901. p. 250.