❖ CAPT. HARRY CROSBY ❖

Capt. Harry W. Crosby
He came from Minnesota
to Puget Sound in 1888.
HWC bought his first schooner HARRY in 1892.
He was especially proud of commanding the
KAILUA & the LANAKAI to the south seas.
This photo is dated October 1937.
The well-known mariner passed away
in 1953, at age 75 years.
Original photo from the archives of the
Saltwater People Historical Society©

PUGET SOUND's ENERGETIC FERRYBOATSOPERATOR

by Robert C. Leithead for The Sea Chest, September 1978. 

Membership journal of the Puget Sound Maritime. 

Gelatin-silver original photographs

 from the Saltwater People Historical Society.©

"Captain Harry William Crosby was a man of many talents. Tugboat man, steamboat man, Alaska cannery man, salvage expert, property owner, investor, capitalist, his restless spirit always was challenged to turn a profit. Not one to sit back and wait for events to develop, his entry into the exploding auto ferry business on Puget Sound in the early 1920s directed the course of many routes that exist to this day.
      Even in 1922, American motorists had no easy way to get over to Victoria and Vancouver Island with their cars. It was either the SOL DUC across the Strait of Juan de Fuca or the Canadian Pacific from Seattle or Nanaimo, a dubious choice in either case. A few small cars could be accommodated, but often could be loaded aboard only by lowering the top, removing the windshield, and, in extreme cases, letting air out of the tires in order to squeeze through the side port of the vessel.
      Crosby proposed a realistic approach. Why not operate out of Anacortes [Fidalgo Island, WA.] through the scenic San Juan Islands to Sidney, just 18 miles north of Victoria? He enlisted Anacortes and Victoria businessmen for support and publicity. Meanwhile, shopping about Puget Sound ports, he came upon the unsuccessful former kelp harvester HARVESTER KING, only four years old and laid up in Everett due to financial difficulties. Never one to overspend, for $12,000 he was able to secure the 96-ft long craft, essentially a power scow with square bow and stern. A minimum of alteration took place. When ready, the main deck forward was left entirely open except for a four-foot-high bulwark on each side to close in the auto area––a space that could handle 9 or 10 cars in three lanes. Cars were loaded and unloaded over the bow only, necessitating backing off at the end of the run. A cabin enclosed the 100 H.P. Fairbanks-Morse "CO" engine, which was placed well aft and closed off the stern. Above this on the second deck was the passenger cabin and forward was a raised wheelhouse. To completely identify this strange craft, on the outside of each bulwark 3-ft high letters proclaimed: "VICTORIA, ANACORTES FERRY." The sign extended about 3/4 the length of the vessel.

Sternwheeler GLEANER
204548
1907-1940
422 G.t. 408 N. t.
144.3' x 39.5' x 5.7'
Data from Merchant Vessels of the US 1935.
Click image to enlarge.
Original photo by James A. Turner from
the Saltwater People Historical Society©

      

To round out the new service the 140-ft sternwheel steamboat GLEANER was chartered from J.H. Cayne and Associates. She was taken to Todd Dry Dock to have her bow at main-deck level built out and rounded so that she could land at the Anacortes and Sidney ships. About 25 cars could be handled on and off the newly shaped bow. For landings at regular steamboat docks, she would use her freight elevator, installed two years earlier, to side-load cars.

      Preparations were made for the inaugural trip on 26 April 1922, with Chamber of Commerce delegates from Seattle and Anacortes participating. It was planned that HARVESTER KING would make the first trip from Anacortes but she was late arriving from Seattle so the GLEANER was substituted. What had been advertised originally as a three-hour crossing was later modified to require less than five hours. A fare of $4, one-way, and $6, round trip was charged for cars under 3,000 pounds weight. The passengers paid $1. each way. The run was an immediate success; in June alone 600 cars and 3000 passengers were carried. GLEANER's charter was terminated in September, after which HARVESTER KING carried on alone for another month with her single daily round trip until the service was terminated for the winter.
     

CITY OF ANGELES 
(ex-CITY OF LONG BEACH)

M.V. PUGET
Original photo date stamped 8 July 1923
Click to enlarge this great image.
Saltwater People Historical Society©

It was obvious that much better service would be required the next summer. Puget Sound Navigation Co decided at this time to convert two of their steamboats, CITY OF ANGELES and PUGET, into auto ferries. The former was immediately chartered by Harry Crosby for the Sidney run. 
      A vast improvement over the previous summer, this 125-ft twin screw steamer could carry 40 cars on two decks, using an elevator to raise and lower cars to and from the upper deck. Not a 'drive-through' ferry, turntables were provided on both decks to speed the handling of cars. Captain Louis Van Bogaert took the CITY OF ANGELES up from Seattle and stayed with the vessel as the PSN rep. An excursion was made out of Anacortes on May 8 and two days later, the steam ferry took up her regular schedule of one daily round trip. Stops were made each way on the three-hour crossing at Orcas and Roche Harbor.

M.V. MOUNT VERNON 
(ex-ROBERT BRIDGES)
Capt. Ole Tangeraas 
In Harney Channel, bypassing the flag stop of
Shaw Island Landing, Harney Channel, 1923.
from the archives of the Saltwater People Log©

      It soon developed that a second vessel was needed to augment the service, so Harry Crosby shopped around for a suitable running mate to the CITY. He joined with Roy W. Crosby (no relation) and bought the former Port of Seattle ferry ROBERT BRIDGES at public auction. 

M.V. MOUNT VERNON
Obstruction Pass, Orcas Island, WA.
A few years later when Capt. Oldow
and 3 crew had her on a run 
 to Chuckanut, Bellingham, WA.
Photo from the archives of the
Saltwater People Historical Society©

This craft had been a dismal failure on the West Seattle run due to a completely unreliable semi-diesel engine and was secured at a very low price. A $38,000 rebuilding job at Ballard Marine Railway altered her into a 28-car, 400-passenger auto ferry. Originally a double-ender, she now became a single-ender with a new 200 H.P. Fairbanks-Morse semi-diesel engine driving a propeller at one end only. The auto deck was rebuilt with an Australian hardwood, which could serve as a dance floor as well. 

      Renamed MOUNT VERNON, the initial trip was made on 30 July, with 120 Mt. Vernon Chamber of Commerce members aboard. Both CITY OF ANGELES and MOUNT VERNON were emblazoned with large signs, 'VICTORIA-ANACORTES FERRY,' painted on their sides.
      A double daily round trip schedule was set up similar to the previous year. Patronage increased by leaps and bounds. Altogether, the two ferries had carried 5,200 cars and over 19,800 passengers for the year. During the summer a rate war developed between the Crosby ferries and three small passenger boats operating between Anacortes and the Islands. The ALVERENE (W.H. Kasch Nav. Co.,) the SAN JUAN II (San Juan Transport. Co,) and the SPEEDER (Speed Service Transport Co.) were all charging higher fares at the start of the season and had to cut their rates to match Crosby's. At this point Puget Sound Nav. Co decided to buy the run, including the MOUNT VERNON, and carry on the rate war themselves. And so Harry Crosby retired from auto ferrying that fall.
      

M.V. ELK
221669
1921-1938
L: "Ellen & Francis on ferry ELK, 1 July 1923."
Center: "Ferry ELK leaving Longbranch
on the 3:30 trip, 18 March 1923." 
R: "on ferry ELK to Longbranch, WA.
 18 Mar. 1923."
Click image to enlarge.
Original photos from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

He was not idle long. We next hear of him at Tacoma, where he had purchased the little 66-ft ferry ELK to start a new run between Old Town, Tacoma, and the head of the bay at Gig Harbor on 2 May 1924. ELK had been built in 1921 from what had been laid down like a fishing boat at the Skansie Shipyard in Gig Hbr. She could carry 10-12 cars and had been operating on the Point Defiance-Gig Hbr route under lease from Pierce County. Later, still owned by Skansie, she had inaugurated the Steilacoom-Anderson Island-Long Branch run until replaced by the new CITY OF STEILACOOM in the spring of 1924.

STEILACOOM FERRY LANDING
original photo from the Saltwater People Log©

      The year before, Sound Ferry Lines (Joyce Bros.) had started a cross-Sound run from Edmonds to Kingston and now Ballard was interested in establishing their own route to the Olympic Peninsula. Crosby was contacted and with the ELK not faring too well at Tacoma, he decided to switch operations to Ballard. The landing slip was at the Ballard Dock. On each trip, the ferry had to pass through the Lake Washington locks to reach Puget Sound, then cross over to Kingston. A four-round trip daily run went into operation in June and lasted until fall. This run might be considered the forerunner of the Ballard-Snohomish ferry, which started in the fall of 1928, or the Ballard-Ludlow ferry the following spring. But the crossing time required by the ELK turned out to be a handicap. Crosby could not see a very rosy future for the run and it was not resumed the following year. The later Ballard ferries berthed at a new slip, located just outside the locks. 
      That winter, Capt. Crosby came up with a daring plan. He envisioned a really short crossing to the Olympic Peninsula: Alki Point to Manchester. He joined with Roy Crosby again and with others to incorporate as the Crosby Direct Line Ferries, capitalized at $175,000. Ferry slips were built at Alki and Manchester and a 65-car ferry was ordered from Marine Const. Co., on the Duwamish River.

AIRLINE (ex-ELK)

      Anticipating heavy patronage ELK was lengthened 38-ft and repowered with a 150-H.P. Fairbanks-Morse 'CO' engine. She received a new name, AIRLINE, and made her inaugural run for 'Crosby Direct Line Ferries' 12 April with the usual attendance of commercial club members. The auto capacity had been doubled by the lengthening and was such a popular new service that Crosby secured the 18-car ferry GLORIA of Tacoma to help out with the cars on weekends. Built as the passenger steamer FLORENCE K, she had been converted into an auto ferry two years before. Still powered by a steam engine, Crosby renamed her BEELINE.
      There was so much competition on the Navy Yard Route and strong protests by Kitsap County Transportation Co and Crosby to the State Department of Public Works. Finally the Navy Yard Route's parent company, Puget Sound Nav. Co consolidated with Crosby Direct Line Ferries early in 1926. PSN continued to operate until the Alki slip was washed out in Jan. 1936. It was not rebuilt and thereafter the Manchester ferry ran directly to downtown Seattle. Crosby Direct Line Ferries meanwhile had been disincorporated in 1928.
      This ended Captain Crosby's participation with ferries in Puget Sound. In a span of only four years, he bought four vessels, chartered two, built one, and stirred up two rate wars.

 
Ferry route in the San Juan Archipelago
Photo by Webber
Click to enlarge
from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society© 

✪ The Lost Ship That Came Home

CURACAO,
 Capt. Brooks.
Three original photos from the archives of the
Saltwater People Historical Society© 

"One of the unusual stories I wrote while marine editor of Seattle's evening newspaper concerned the steamship CURACAO, known as the lost ship that came home. The CURACAO was wrecked at Warm Chuck, AK, 21 June 1913, while laden with 800 t. of coal and 750 t. of cannery supplies. She sank in 78' of water at low tide. The vessel, insured for $110,000 was abandoned to the underwriters. Sixty days later, the wreck was purchased by the Vancouver Dredging & Salvage Co. for $4,000.   

      Capt. Harry W. Crosby, a pioneer of the Seattle waterfront, had a major role in the unusual salvage feat. He furnished the scows and tugs used in the operation and was on the job long hours in a diving suit. 'We salvaged the cargo in the fall and returned the next June to continue the work of raising the vessel. It required two months to complete the job, working on three tides. The CURACAO was down one year and eight months', Crosby said.

      After the general cargo and coal were salvaged, a channel was dredged ahead of the ship for a distance of 110'. Then a passage was flushed underneath the keel. Slings were passed under the hull and a cofferdam constructed around No. 1 hold. Six hundred empty gasoline drums with a total lifting capacity of 270 t, were placed in No. 2 hold. Scows were moored over the sunken ship to aid in lifting the vessel.
      Using a special gear on the scows, 6.5" cables, and powerful pumps, the CURACAO was lifted and dragged forward into the newly-dredged channel.
      The Pacific Steamship Co, the former owner, purchased the CURACAO from the salvors for approximately $90,000 and after extensive overhaul and repairs, returned her to service. Capt. Crosby, known on the waterfront as Seattle's mariner-capitalist, had a one-third interest in this strange salvage operation, which made it possible for a "lost" ship to return to service.
      After 56 years under the US flag, the CURACAO was sold to Greek interests who operated a fleet of ships out of Shanghai and transferred to Greek registry. The vessel's last service under the US flag was for the Alaska Steamship Co., which operated her from Cordova to Kodiak and Cook Inlet as a passenger and freight carrier.
      The unusual salvage operation that returned the wrecked CURACAO to service was only one of the strange dramas of the sea in which she had a stellar role.
      Carl Strout, one of the veterans of Seattle's waterfront, was purser of the CURACAO, his last seagoing job, while she operated out of San Francisco to Mexico and Central America. Strout was on his way to his room when the ship was in Mexican waters on one of her voyages in this service when he was attacked by two alien sailors. Both were drunk and had decided to avenge some fancied wrong.
      'Trow heem to the sharks,' one of the sailors said, as they seized Strout. Capt. Fred W. Brooks, a sea roamer of the old school, who was master of the CURACAO, heard the commotion and came out of his room with a pistol in his hand. The two sailors were overpowered, placed in irons and turned over to the federal authorities when the ship arrived back in the US.
      In those days, the Mexican-Central American run was a difficult one. In each of the ports, the majordomos would come out to the ship in their bare feet, carrying swords. The ship officers would hardly get acquainted with them, when there would be a revolution or a political change and they would have to deal with new majordomos, immigration, and post office agents, multiplying their troubles.
      The CURACAO was painted white and looked like a large steam yacht. During her Mexican and Central American service, the vessel was owned by the Pacific Steamship Co. She carried general merchandise south and coffee north.
      Captain Brooks, the CURACAO's skipper, a colorful seafarer, was known from the Galapagos Islands, where he was shipwrecked, to Nome; from Liverpool to Buenos Aires, and from Seattle to Hong Kong and other big ports in the Orient. He formerly was master of the freighter STUART DOLLAR and remained with that vessel during her long idleness in Lake Union. I visited Capt. Brooks several times aboard the STUART DOLLAR and talked over old times in shipping with him." 
Above text from High Tide, The Big Stories of Seattle's Waterfront
R. H. "Skipper" Calkins, Marine Digest, 1952

In her later years, according to Jim Gibbs in Disaster Log of Ships, she operated strictly as a freighter to Alaska. In 1940, she was purchased by Greek interests, renamed HELLENIC SKIPPER; while bound for the Orient, mysteriously exploded and foundered 125-miles NW of Grays Harbor, WA, 10 July 1940. Her crew escaped.

Other officers and crew:

Capt. William Thompson (1913)