1929 ❖ A 4th CLASS POST OFFICE COMING THROUGH ❖The CHICKAWANA

Mailboat CHICKAWANA
Arriving Olga, Orcas Island, San Juan Islands.
Undated photo by Geoghegan of Eastsound, WA.
Salt talk for Saltwater People history helper,
Corkey North.
Original from the archives
the Saltwater People Historical Society©
Click to enlarge.

"Picture yourself sitting on a large rock at Marine Park overlooking Bellingham Bay on a blustery spring day. The islands are in a foggy mist and their presence is silhouetted like giant sea monsters in the distance. Now, imagine it's 1929. One thing you could have seen in the bay that you can see today are the mailboats, the OSAGE, and the CHICKAWANA, (named after Native American tribes), and Homer Irwin securing the mailbags as the boat clips along at 8 knots towards Shaw Island.
      In the age of email speed, where we simply tap the 'send' button on our computers, it is interesting to look back on how past generations received 'all' of their mail. In the 20s and 30s, the communities of many islands waited patiently for the mailboat to arrive from Bellingham.
      In 1929, this strapping young man, Homer Irwin, began a 12-year career on our local waters. 'When I first started our first stop was Shaw Island, then to Orcas and down to West Sound. We stopped at Deer Harbor, Waldron, and Stuart Islands. Just around the bend from Roche Harbor was the Orcas Lime Kiln, and then we went down to Friday Harbor. The next day we would turn around and come back.' I was amazed a the responsibilities of boats like these that traveled out into the bay in the early mornings and returned every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights. 'When we got home depended on the ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor. They brought the mail over that far and they had different schedules. We'd get into Bellingham anywhere from 5:30 to 11:00 at night.'
      The CHICKAWANA had a 4th class US post office right aboard the boat. 'I was an official mail clerk and worked under bond.' Irwin remembers fondly all of the excitement and speaks with respect and admiration for those men he worked with. 'As far as I know, of the two boat crews, my old deck and I are the only ones left. The others are all gone.'
      There was a workable system on the CHICKWAWANA by the use of bells. 'There was a bell with a gong on it, and a smaller bell that we called the Jingle Bell. When the bigger bell rang once it meant to go ahead slowly. Once you started going ahead then you'd sound the Jingle Bell and that meant to go full speed. If you were already going full speed it meant to slow down. One more bell meant to stop and take it out of gear. Two more bells meant back-up.'
      The bells were taken out of the CHICKAWANA when a new engine and wheelhouse control was installed. 'Those bells were stored up in the bow. I wanted those bells, and why I didn't bring them home when I was on there and had them, I don't know. I'd like to know who got those bells.'
      Irwin is truly a local treasure with limitless stories about our area, about his job on the water, he smiles, 'I wouldn't do it for all the money in the world now, but we were young and didn't know any better. Some of the times it was really hard with our weather, but as I look back on it I enjoyed every bit of it.'
Gloria Dawn. Local Treasures, The Echo. Unknown date.