❖ BERING CODFISH FLEET OF 1914

Robinson Fisheries Company & Porter Fish Co,
Fidalgo Island, Washington.
Click image to enlarge.
Low res scan of an original antique photo from the
Saltwater People Historical Society©

Robinson Fisheries Company
Postcard from the archives of the Saltwater People Log©

Schooner ALICE
Preparing to head out from Anacortes, Washington.
Suspected to be earlier than the 1914 essay below.
Low res scan of an original photo from the
archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

BERING CODFISH FLEET OF 1914

"Schooners AZALEA, WAWONA, and ALICE reach Port in the order named—Robinson Fisheries Flagship Returns with Most Fish Ever Brought Home in an American Bottom.

AZALEA
Baldheaded codfish schooner
heading north to the Bering Sea fishing grounds.
Low res scan of an original donated by
sailor Miles Mccoy, Orcas Island, WA.
Click image to enlarge.
From the archives of the Saltwater People Log©

 Eberhardt Bruns (1902-1982),
then a resident of Shaw Island, WA.
Hanging highest in the rigging,
going north on the schooner AZALEA,
for Robinson Fisheries, circa 1924.
We have Eber's written memories of
signing ships' papers as Chief Engineer
on a full-rigged schooner with no power.
Those can be seen here

With the arrival of the Robinson Fisheries Company’s schooner ALICE, Capt. John McInnis, in port today with a full catch of Bering Sea codfish, three of the Anacortes fleet are home from the north after one of the best seasons on record in the Pacific. The Matheson Fisheries flagship AZALEA was the first to arrive Tuesday and was followed by the Robinson flagship WAWONA. This was the maiden trip for both the WAWONA and AZALEA and both made good, the WAWONA bringing back a record-breaking cargo.
      Distinguishing herself on her maiden voyage as a codfisher by bringing out of the Bering Sea the largest catch of codfish ever brought home in one trip by an American vessel, the Robinson Fisheries schooner WAWONA arrived at her homeport in Anacortes Tuesday night. Her hold was filled to capacity with a catch of 240,000 of the finest fish ever brought out of the Bering. The catch will easily weigh 550 tons.
      The ship, which is the largest vessel of the Puget Sound codfish fleet has a catch that exceeds the number of fish ever landed in an American bottom and caught and prepared on the vessel in one trip. This applies to the Atlantic as well as the Pacific coast. Thus Anacortes, the “Gloucester of the Pacific,” has beaten the records of the Atlantic.

Codfish schooner WAWONA
heading to the Bering Sea.
165' x 35' x11.5'
Launched in 1897 at Fairhaven, CA.
Date and photographer unknown.
Click image to enlarge
Only archived photo of the big W at sea, from the
Saltwater People Historical Society©

      Almost all of WAWONA’s cargo was caught in deep water, ranging from 32 to 45 fathoms and almost all of the other vessels caught their fishing shoal water.

      The WAWONA made an unusually fast trip, both going and returning. The vessel cleared from Anacortes on 31 March and sighted Sanak Island at the entrance of Unimak Pass and the Bering on 8 April. The past season has been a particularly stormy one, but the fishing was exceptionally good. Owing to rough weather the WAWONA, in common with the other vessels of the fleet was late to start fishing, storm following storm for several weeks. In the gale of 24 May, the WAWONA lost an anchor and 50 fathoms of chain. Shortly after that she went through another storm and lost another anchor and 50 fathoms of chain, leaving the vessel with only one anchor to finish the trip. They depended on this and no further accident happened. The trip was free from any sickness or casualties, and after the weather settled the fishermen made up for lost time.

*Capt. Charles Foss and all of his crew are enthusiastic in praise of their staunch vessel. Capt. Foss declares that the ship would not have been better if she had been built especially for cod fishing. The WAWONA, built for a lumber carrier, was purchased by the Robinson Fisheries company last winter to take the place of the schooner JOSEPH RUSS which was wrecked two seasons previous in northern waters.

Codfish schooner JOSEPH RUSS
on the Bering Sea, Alaska.
Click image to enlarge.
Low res scan of an original photo from the
Saltwater People Historical Society©
Photograph by John Thwaites.

      Second mate Emil Isakson was high line with a catch of 17,036. First mate Sam Ostman was second high line with a catch of 16,203 and Chris Norvick was third man with a catch of 14,442. From these figures the individual catches ranged all the way down to 5,000, most of them being 9,000 to 12,000. 

      The WAWONA arrived in the Straits of Juan de Fuca after a remarkably fast run of ten days from the north. On reaching the straits she became becalmed and being unable to get a towboat, she sailed into Anacortes and arrived at her wharf without the aid of a towboat."
Anacortes American 10 September 1914

Schooner WAWONA. 1964.
berthed in Lake Union, Seattle, WA.
It was 50 years previous when WAWONA
made her maiden voyage to the codfish banks
in the Bering Sea as flagship for Robinsons Fisheries.
After several months the Save Our Ships
committee secured title to the schooner
from William Stoddert, Anaconda.
A campaign committee of 60 business and
civic leaders tried to save the big ship
who was born with 6"-8" thick,
120' long, clear old-growth, fir planks.
Volunteers worked and worked but the full
restoration never happened and in 2009
she went screaming to the knacker man.
Low res scan of an original photo from
the Saltwater People Historical Society©

* Captain Charles Foss, age 70, while in command of the WAWONA, died 16 August 1935 at Unimak Pass, Alaska. A Saltwater People post including photos of the tombstone for the well-known captain left behind on Akun Island can be seen here.

❖ SHIPBUILDING around WASHINGTON ❖ (updated with two added links)

The Island County Historical Society has given us some insight to the various phases of early shipbuilding that went on in the highly regarded yards of Washington State. There were many more shipyards not illustrated here, but these photos from our files let us travel back to some of the scenes of boat-building activity, large and small. Interspersed are a few of the vessels that came from the yard featured.

      "One of the first small shipbuilding yards was located on Whidbey Island where Capt. Thomas Coupe turned out several small schooners at a place that came to be known as Coupeville. 

Matthews Ship Building Co.
Hoquiam, Pierce County, WA.

The Matthews Shipyard,
Hoquiam, WA.
25 May 1916.

      

HALL BROTHERS SHIPYARD,
Eagle Harbor, Kitsap County, WA.

Fish tender SUPERIOR
built 1912 at Hall Brothers Shipyard.
Designed by L.H. Coolidge; built for
Lee H. Wakefield of Apex Cannery,
Anacortes, WA.
85-ft x 18-ft
Known as the largest gas-engined towboat on
Puget Sound, at the time.

      The labor-intensive job of building a sailing vessel in the 1870s went through many phases. Visualization in the form of a wooden half model was the beginning. The model is basic because it allows the builder to see if the shape of the hull will allow water to flow around it and to see how she will ride in the water.
      This model is the basis for developing precise drawings, carefully committing the gentle curves of the hull to paper. These curves are called the lines. The drawings are then enlarged, and full-sized wooden patterns for the ribs and timbers are cut. 
      Usually, in the spring before the thaw, teams of men would head for the woods to select the proper trees, offering strength and clarity, with just the right curves for each rib. It is important that this is done before the sap flows as 'sap-wet wood' will warp and twist. 
      Next, the backbone of the ship, the keel, the 'focus of strength' is laid, running a hundred feet or more. It must be as straight as an arrow and built of large strong wood logs. Everything rises from the keel, which rests on wood support blocks.

This work underway was for a large vessel,
comparing the size of the men to
the big frames.
Click image to enlarge.
Raymond, WA.
Photo dated 1913.

      Gradually each rib is fitted, individually, and the skeleton of the great ship takes shape, revealing the lines of the original model. The decking pieces, called floors are placed spanning the area between the ribs.

Big seasoned timbers being readied for fitting.
Aberdeen Shipyard, Gray's Harbor County, WA.
Click image to enlarge.

More big timbers being prepared, WA.

Huge timbers lined up for 
several ships being built.
Vancouver, Clark County, WA.
Click image to enlarge.

  

Planking going on.
Unknown shipyard.

Lindstrom Shipyard, Aberdeen, WA.
Founded by John Lindstrom & C.E. Green
in 1899. Closed in 1907. 
Click image to enlarge.

W. J. Patterson (81735)
Loading at American Mill Co,
Hoquiam, Pierce County, WA.
645 G.t.
Built by Lindstrom Shipyard in 1901.

During the winter months, caulking is prepared from hemp fiber bound with tar, preparatory for filling the chinks in the hull. The caulking is done after the outside planking is accomplished with great care, some are heated so they can be contoured to fit. The twisted hemp, called oakum is twisted and forced into the hull and deck seams with a caulking iron and mallet. Up to seven miles of oakum was often needed to make a vessel watertight. 

The hull was then painted with red lead paint and the deck coated with hot tar. The keel was sheathed with copper to protect the wood from worms.
      By the time the vessel was ready for launching she would have an identifying name, but be far from seaworthy. She would slide into the water near the yard where she was built, often with the help of a smashed bottle of wine or rum. 

Building and launching at
The Foundation Company Shipyards,
Tacoma, Pierce County, WA.
Click image to enlarge.

GRAY'S HARBOR MOTORSHIP CO.
Aberdeen, Washington.
Twin-screw steamer ABRIGADA
Just before launching on 1 Dec. 1917.
The first wooden vessel launched for the  
US Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation.
288-ft x 49-ft x 26-ft.
Photo by the Jones Studio, Aberdeen/Hoquiam, WA.

      

FOREST FRIEND
(219452)
1,614 G.t.
243' x 44' x 19'
Launched in 1919,
at Grays Harbor Motorship Co.,
Aberdeen, WA.
The FOREST FRIEND was the first ocean
vessel to berth at the south end of
Lake Washington, near Renton,
where she loaded 1,550,000 ft
of lumber at Taylor's Mill.

RISØR
Was built in 1917 
by Puget Sound Bridge & Dredging Co,
Seattle, WA.
The Norwegian owned ship was dressed
& ready for her maiden voyage.
Original photo from Williamson Coll. #4661
from the archives of Saltwater People Log©

Once the ship was launched the work on the interior living quarters was completed, the masts stepped, braced, and rigged, ready to receive the thousands of square feet of sails that had been hand-crafted by skilled sailmakers. Ironmongers had been busy for weeks forging the necessary hardware to handle and hoist the sails. With the installation of pumps, anchors, and other necessary equipment the vessel was ready to receive supplies for the first voyage and set sail.
      The needs for thirty men for four years were then stored in the belly of the ship: 100 barrels each of salt beef and pork, 131 barrels of flour, 2000 gallons of molasses, 1,119 pounds of coffee, 24,000 cigars, 39 pecks of salt, 172 pounds of nutmeg, 36 pounds ginger, 319 pounds of tea, 864 buttons, three dozen suspenders, and the traditional supply of rum."
Island County Historial Society. Sails, Steamships, & Sea Captains. 1993. Coupeville, WA. pp 60-62. 
The sixteen photographic images are from the archives of the Saltwater People Log.

On this website readers can also view some data and photos on a post of the Skansie Brothers Shipyard, Gig Harbor, WA. by clicking HERE.

And a post for San Juan County's Jensen Shipyard can be seen HERE.       

🎆 SEAFAIR OPENING WEEKEND 🎆

IT IS SEAFAIR OPENING

and FLEET WEEK

Seafair has hosted Seattle's Fleet Week since 1950.

This year the Seattle Navy League, Boeing, 

and the Port of Seattle also welcome the vessels 

and personnel. Seafair offers free admission to

 military vessels and personnel to the 

Seafair Weekend Hydroplane Race and the Air Show.

Some reports say Seattle's Fleet Week was an outgrowth of the Golden Potlach celebration in 1911. This event was suspended during WWI but was revived in 1934 with "Seattle Potlach and Fleet Week."

      For more of the 2019 events please click this link:

The fleet in Seattle through the years.
Please click image to enlarge.

Have a great visit!
The sailors on the lower card were 
singing and dancing but they 
forgot to come to Seattle.

❖ STEAMERS OPENED PUGET SOUND TRAVEL

Northwest Washington State
with Puget Sound.
Click image to enlarge. 
Map published by C.P. Johnson Co., Seattle.

"Residents of western Washington, ever since the early days of civilization here, have faced the crossing of Puget Sound.
      The only change is man’s struggle to cross the Sound. And man struggles with man, as well as with the Sound, for there still are those who curse and those who bless Peter Puget’s waterway.
      This is the story of that struggle.

Port Blakeley, Puget Sound, Washington Territory.
Verso dated 1882.
Ships await loading with steam rising from the sawmill
in background. Lumber shipping was one of
the first industries in the Sound.
Click image to enlarge.
Original photograph by Huff, from the archives
of the Saltwater People Log©

Port Ludlow
Photo by Torka Studio, Pt. Townsend, WA.

Port Ludlow, WA.
47°55'25" N   122°40'32" W
Listed on the map above.

      In the beginning, there was timber. They were all sawmill towns... Port Ludlow, now just a yachtsman’s pleasant harbor dozing in the memory of her great mill; Port Gamble, her historic mill; Port Madison, a maritime suburbia; Port Blakely, her modern homes not quite erasing all the remnants of what once was the world’s largest sawmill, and Seattle, a metropolis whose historians still remember Yesler’s Mill.

Port Gamble, WA.
Click image to enlarge.

Port Blakely
Milling & Shipping Lumber on Puget Sound, WA.
Edward H. Mitchell, Publisher, San Francisco.

      So it was that the first organized crossings of Puget Sound were steamers, augmented by company tugs, which obligingly carried passengers, were the first. This was enough. Near the turn of the century, there were no highways; the dirt roads were no highways; the dirt roads did not wander too far from the milltown shores.
      If you wanted to travel, you did so by boat... by the mosquito fleet of passenger vessels. Darting here and there, they served more than 200 communities.
      Fares varied. There were no regulatory bodies. The fare was determined mostly by what it cost a man to operate his vessel, by the competition and by the traffic. In 1872, it cost $1, each way, between Port Blakely and Seattle on the Success, or on the Augusta, linking Port Madison and Seattle. But in 1887, in Poulsbo, you paid .50 cents to reach Seattle by steamer.

Poulsbo, Liberty Bay, Keyport, WA.
Photo by Pacific Aerial Surverys, Inc., Seattle, WA.
From the archives of the Saltwater People Log©

      That's about the way it was until the days of WW 1. By this time, the automobile revolution had forced the building of highways. Man was on the move. He wanted to see the other side of Puget Sound, not just as a foot passenger, but in a shiny, new, black Ford. Larger passenger boats were constructed, with hoisting devices for loading a few cars aboard.

HYAK, RELIABLE, VASHON II
Early Mosquitoes of Puget Sound.

       But this was cumbersome and costly. Thus the era of the ferry, a vessel with at least one end open to permit a person to drive a car aboard.
      In 1919, there were only three ferry runs on Puget Sound: from Seattle to its water separated peninsula, West Seattle; between Des Moines and Portage on Vashon Island, and across the Narrows, between Tacoma and Gig Harbor, technically, the very first “cross-sound ferry run.”
      But in 1920, the Puget Sound Navigation Co, the 'Black Ball Line,' converted the old steamer Bailey Gatzert, into an automobile ferry and put her on the Bremerton-Seattle route, thus creating the first real ferry run to the Olympic Peninsula.
      A similar conversion gave Bainbridge Island its first vehicle-carrying vessel three years later when the Liberty went on the Port Blakely run toting a maximum of 32 Model Ts.

M. V. LIBERTY 
Low res scan from an original from the archives
of the Saltwater People Log©

Steamer PUGET
Dated 8 July 1923
Built originally as a steamboat, here she is being pressed 
into service as a ferry for the Seattle-Port Ludlow route.
Photo from the archives of the
Saltwater People Log©

      Right there, perhaps, was where the man-to-man struggle began over what kind of crossing should be made of Puget Sound. For the car ferry apparently spelled the doom of the passenger-only vessel although whether this should be put down as a permanent 'death' remains to be seen; even now [1964], there is talk of a return to fast passenger-only vessels, perhaps of the hydrofoil design.
      But in the 1920s, the brave “mosquito fleet” began to die.
      The runs serving the western side of Bainbridge Island and their adjacent mainland ports of call were the first to go. In 1924, a tiny, six-car ferry, the Hiyu, began to shuttle between Fletcher Bay and Brownsville. A bus ran between the ferry landings at Port Blakely and Fletcher Bay for the benefit of those who didn’t come by car.
      Mixed up in the struggle of man-with-man was a business rivalry between Black Ball Line and the Kitsap County Navigation Co, also known as the white-collar line. White-collar passenger steamers still served Eagle Harbor, Yeomalt, Ferncliff, Rolling Bay, and around the end of Bainbridge Island to Port Madison. Ferries running from Ballard to Indianola and Suquamish and to Port Ludlow had replaced passenger-vessel service to those and other nearby North Kitsap ports."
Words by Walt Woodward. Kitsap County Herald, 1 April 1964.