1938 ❖ STEAMING THROUGH THE LOCKS ❖

Sternwheeler THE DALLES
(ex-UNDINE)
221499
Bonneville Dam
15 January 1938.
Original photo from the archives
of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

"The navigational facilities provided Columbia River shipping by the Bonneville Dam were in operation this year and the first vessel to transit the locks was the sternwheeler The Dalles, that was dwarfed in the gigantic water chamber. The locks were the world's largest single-lift construction. 

Vessels were lifted 60-feet in addition to permitting navigation of river steamers for many miles upstream. The dam and locks permitted ocean craft to ascend to the Dalles, OR., making that hither-to inland point, 200-miles from the ocean, a seaport."
The above note is on verso of this original photo.

UNDINE 

Documented as needing only one crew.

516 g.t., 485 n.t., 

170' x 28.5' x 7.3'
260 HP.

1921: Launched at Portland, OR., as a passenger vessel for Harken Transportation Co. During the early post-war years, Harken was the only major operator of passenger steamers on the Columbia River. UNDINE was used for freight and passenger service between Portland and Astoria by way of the various lower river ports on both sides of the river. The development of riverbank highways diverted passengers from the excursion steamers. The completion of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway along the WA shore diverted traffic from points previously served only by steamboats.

1934 or '35: She was carrying diesel oil upstream and wheat downstream to Portland. She could carry 300 T. of wheat aboard.
Later she was chartered to haul supplies for the dam construction.

1940: Retired.

1947: Reportedly she was partially sunk at Vancouver.