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SKAGIT CHIEF built at the plant of the Lake Union Dock and Machine Works, Seattle, Washington. Back stamped with date 31 March 1935. Her day of launching. Ready to enter service for the Skagit River Navigation Co. She was named after an old Seattle-Tacoma mailboat of the 1870s and is the first steamboat built on Puget Sound in many years. She will be under command of Capt. H.H. MacDonald, who designed her.
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A new sternwheel steamboat, the 2nd SKAGIT CHIEF was launched by Lake Union Dry Dock in February; replacing the HARVESTER, sunk the previous year by the runaway PRESIDENT MADISON. Link to that stormy day here
Anna Grimison, president of the Navigation Co., and the only woman head of a steamship firm on the Pacific coast, was mistress of ceremonies.
The steamer was christened with a bottle of Skagit River water by Mrs. Grimison's six-year old niece, Carol Sylliaasen.
Designed for the Seattle, Stanwood, Mt. Vernon, and La Conner route, the shallow-draft vessel was fitted with 'spuds' (heavy upright beams that could be lowered to the riverbed) to enable her to hoist herself over shoals & to make difficult turns in the River.
Of 502 tons, with dimensions of 165' x 40.' x 7'. The SKAGIT CHIEF was fitted with the engines from the former Columbia River steamer G. K. WENTWORTH of 1905.
1956:
SKAGIT CHIEF, one of the last two Puget Sound commercial sternwheel steamers, was sold by the SRN & T Co to the Portland Harbor Marina which planned to convert her to a floating restaurant on the Willamette River.
The sternwheeler was taken in tow by the MARTHA FOSS late in October. On the mourning of 29 Oct., while proceeding through calm seas off the Grays Harbor entrance, the old river packet quietly sank. There was no warning and the crew of the tug was not aware of her foundering until they felt the drag on the towline and had to disengage it to prevent damage to the tug. There was no one aboard the CHIEF at the time of her loss.
There we are from birth to death 1935-1956.
The steamer was christened with a bottle of Skagit River water by Mrs. Grimison's six-year old niece, Carol Sylliaasen.
Designed for the Seattle, Stanwood, Mt. Vernon, and La Conner route, the shallow-draft vessel was fitted with 'spuds' (heavy upright beams that could be lowered to the riverbed) to enable her to hoist herself over shoals & to make difficult turns in the River.
Of 502 tons, with dimensions of 165' x 40.' x 7'. The SKAGIT CHIEF was fitted with the engines from the former Columbia River steamer G. K. WENTWORTH of 1905.
1956:
SKAGIT CHIEF, one of the last two Puget Sound commercial sternwheel steamers, was sold by the SRN & T Co to the Portland Harbor Marina which planned to convert her to a floating restaurant on the Willamette River.
The sternwheeler was taken in tow by the MARTHA FOSS late in October. On the mourning of 29 Oct., while proceeding through calm seas off the Grays Harbor entrance, the old river packet quietly sank. There was no warning and the crew of the tug was not aware of her foundering until they felt the drag on the towline and had to disengage it to prevent damage to the tug. There was no one aboard the CHIEF at the time of her loss.
There we are from birth to death 1935-1956.
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