ONE HAPPY CAPTAIN........ 1965

 

Captain Louis Van Bogaert
with his prize of friendship from 
craftsman Ralph Hitchcock, Seattle, 1965.
The steamer Rosalie, his sweetheart.
Original gelatin-silver photograph from the archives 
of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

"Capt. Louis Van Bogaert who retired in 1957 after 54 years on Puget Sound vessels, 
had a special fondness for one boat, the ROSALIE.
      He had gone to work on the ROSALIE as a watchman in 1910. Later he was second mate, then first mate, and finally, in 1914, her skipper. So the captain was especially happy about a gift which he took back to his home in Alhambra, CA, after a recent visit in Seattle.
      It was a bottle with a scale model of the ROSALIE in it. The model was the work of Ralph C. Hitchcock, a past president of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society. Hitchcock had driven from California to Seattle with Captain Van Bogaert and on several occasions, Van Bogaert had wanted to stop and look for a bottle with a shipmodel in it. But Hitchcock always found an objection.

    

Ralph Hitchcock
Ship model maker. 
Photo dated 1965, Seattle.
Gelatin-silver original photo from the archives of
the Saltwater People Historical Society.©

"I'll get you a bottle," Hitchcock kept saying.

But Van Bogaert was surprised when the bottle turned out to have a model which Hitchcock himself had made.

      Hitchcock made the model of the famous Puget Sound passenger vessel FLYER which is in the State Historical Museum in Tacoma, but the ROSALIE is the first model he ever assembled in a bottle.
      The model was in 334 pieces before Hitchcock began assembling it inside the bottle, which has a neck with a diameter only three-quarters of an inch across.
      The ROSALIE, 136 feet long, was built in Alameda, CA in 1893. She carried passengers between San Francisco and Oakland when it cost only a nickel to make the trip.
      Then the ROSALIE came to Puget Sound, but when gold was discovered in Alaska she was put into service between Seattle and the Northland. Among her skippers while she was owned by the Alaska Steamship Co., was Capt. Johnny (Dynamite) O'Brien.
      Much of ROSALIE's service was in the San Juan Islands as part of the Puget Sound Navigation Co fleet. That was where Van Bogaert served aboard her.

Steamer ROSALIE
off the coast of Lopez Island, dated 1907.
click to enlarge.
L.A. Cadwell has marked numbers on the buildings,
the schoolhouse, two churches, the Creamery,
 the Post Office, the Store, and
"part of our orchard", in the foreground.
Original photo from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society ©

The ROSALIE (L)
Click to enlarge and view the 
 Sidewheeler YOSEMITE
Steaming through the Islands.
Postcard mailed in Eastsound in 1907
Original photo from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

1907, July 7.

"When on the Victoria route a few days ago, the steamer ROSALIE won a fine silver service in competition with the steamer VICTORIAN in a voting contest to determine which was the more popular vessel." Good going, Rosalie!
        The ROSALIE's career came to an end 22 June 1918, when she caught fire while tied to a pier of the Duwamish Waterway and was a total loss." 

Words with no byline from the Seattle Times Oct. 1965