HISTORIC BRIGANTINE BOXER

 

Brigantine Boxer
US Naval Training Vessel
Arrived in Puget Sound in the early 1920s.
During her colorful career in the NW waters,
she was only commanded by three masters,
Capt. S.L.T. Whitlam, 
Capt. Isak Lystad,
Capt. E.L. Bush.

Originally a brigantine-rigged training vessel at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, the Boxer made cruises in Chesapeake Bay and under sail, attracted much attention. From the Navy, the vessel was transferred to the US Bureau of Indian Affairs and came to Seattle in 1923 from the Atlantic Coast by way of the Panama Canal, towed by Coast Guard cutters operating in relays.
          A 300-HP diesel engine was installed in the Boxer at the Todd Shipyards in Seattle and the vessel was ready for service as a government supply ship.

The BOXER
dated 1936.
"Food for Alaska was leaving Seattle aboard this 
Indian Office boat to relieve shortages caused by
the maritime disturbances. She will be followed 
a few days later by the ARCTIC, a 
government-chartered boat."
Original gelatin-silver photograph from the 
archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©
Credit to the Public Works Administration.

The Boxer on her rounds 
Nushagak River, SE Alaska.
Click image to enlarge.
Undated original from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

1942: Now retired from service, the Boxer was sought by the US engineers for an undisclosed service and soon was transferred from the Department of the Interior to the War Department.
          The log of the Boxer is as colorful as a storybook of adventure. It tells of volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands hurling fire, rocks, and ashes into the sky, of the bagging of a giant polar bear on the ice floes of the Arctic, of battles with storms in the Bering Sea, and the rescue of natives of the Far North.
          Until the motorship North Star, then in other service, was commissioned in 1932, the Boxer was the supply ship of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Arctic and made annual cruises to Point Barrow, the farthest north settlement under the American flag.

1943-1944:

The power schooner, Boxer, was sold by the government following brief use as a dormitory for security guards at the government locks, to the West Coast Steamship Company of Los Angeles. Before being transferred south she was thoroughly overhauled and a new 300-HP diesel engine was installed at Bellingham, WA. to prepare her for use in the Los Angeles-Central American trade. H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Gordon Newell, editor. Seattle. Superior Publishing. 1966.

Marine writer R.H. Calkins wrote for the Seattle Times, in 1942.