THE FOREST BARKENTINES

            FOREST FRIEND 

Built with two sister ships
at Gray's Harbor, WA.
1919. 

 

The barkentine rig –– that strange marriage of square and fore-and-aft sails, came to the bloom on the west coast.

Such a combination of differently cut canvas obviously prompts the question: Why the two rigs? Why not keep either to the square of the schooner rig? The answer lay in the use to which such vessels were put or, more correctly, the pattern of trade routes such vessels would traverse most inexpensively.

With lumber being king and the new countries "down under" clamoring for building materials, the Barkentine rig was ideally suited for the long runs in the Trades to "fetch" up the Antipodes. Vessels of this rig could run the large schooners out of sight in the Trades or on voyages such as to South Africa or the Islands.

Three later-day examples of this rig were the beautiful, large barkentines FOREST FRIEND, FOREST PRIDE, and FOREST DREAM, built in 1919 at Grays Harbor, WA. 

The vessels measured 249 feet by 44 feet by 19 feet and had 1,650,000 board feet capacity.

Their maiden voyages took them to Sydney, Australia with lumber, the usual pattern being then to load coal at Newcastle for Honolulu, Callao, Mauritius, Antwerp, the Caribbean, San Antonio, France, Cadiz, Queenstown, Noumea, Iquique, Pimental, and Stromstad were other ports of call.

These big barkentines were not clippers, but on occasion showed their heels and demonstrated that as late as the 1920s profits were to be made in sail. In April, 1925, after temporary layup in Lake Union, FOREST PRIDE loaded 1,560,000 feet of lumber at Williapa Harbor for Adelaide, Australia at $15 per thousand (1,000 board feet,) returning to Seattle in December in forty days from Callao.

In 1926, she went outward to Adelaide in ninety-eight days, returning in eighty-two days during which passage she logged 2,222 miles in nine days, or an average of almost 247 miles per day. That was good sailing in that day and age!

All three vessels operated under tow along the West Coast for a while, sometimes in tow of the steamship FOREST KING.

In the late 1920s, FOREST DREAM was sold at auction in Australia after a charterer had gone bankrupt. A group of officers from the Swedish training ship C.B. PEDERSEN purchased the vessel and operated her between Europe and the West Coast of South America, carrying guano and then logwood between the Caribbean and Central American ports and France. She finally was destroyed by fire at Stromstad, Sweden, in 1933.

The PRIDE, after arriving in Seattle in September of 1927, was laid up in Lake Union never to feel the press of wind-filled canvas again. Later, as a barge, she assisted in raising the ill-fated ISLANDER. There is a post of that adventure on this site..

FOREST PRIDE

FOREST PRIDE took lumber from Bellingham to Noumea, New Caledonia in the excellent time of forty-two days, then crossing to Newcastle to load coal for South America. On the run from Australia to the West Coast she logged seven hundred miles during a forty-eight hour stretch.

In the spring of 1929, the FRIEND was libeled by a shipyard at Vancouver, B.C., that had not been paid for repairs. She was laid up there until 1938 when the Island Tug and Bargo Co., purchased the ship for conversion to a hog fuel barge.

Thus came to an end the rather short-lived careers of three graceful but sturdy sail carriers, plodding onward in an age which had outrun their kind. It is a wonder they lasted as long as they did.

They were not only three ships, they were a culmination of hundreds of years of evolution and development, from the full-rigged ship and the topsail schooner, the end result being a combination of the advantages of the schooner and the square-rigger. By using a square-rigged fore mast, the barkentine had the advantage of spreading a larger sail area before the wind, as compared to the fore-and-aft schooner. The rig came into great popularity as a substitute for either large 3 or 4 masted schooners or ships about 1880.

Pacific Coast builders gave a good deal of attention to this rig. While more expensive to build than the schooner rig, the barkentine was far less costly than a ship or a bark and
required fewer hands.

The "forest" barkentines were fine examples of the rig. They were a credit to their builders and beautiful manifestations of the shipwrights' art during sail's last stand.

Words by Mr. Gordon "Chips" Jones for The Sea Chest membership journal 

published by the Puget Sound Maritime Society, Seattle, WA.

                                                

THE FOREST FRIEND

 

Captain Edward L. Tindall,
One-time master of
Barquentine FOREST FRIEND

Low-res scan courtesy of his 
great-grandson,
Ed David,
to accompany the below essay.

FOREST FRIEND
219452
built 1919, 
Aberdeen, WA. 
243' l x 44' b x 10' d.
1,614 G.t.
click image to enlarge.
scan from a gelatin-silver 
photo from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historial Society©

Words by Reece Hague,
Formerly with the Adelaide Journal.
Published by The Mail,
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
31 August 1929

10 June 1929

"Take off your hats, gentlemen, she is the last of a vanishing race."
        The speaker was Capt. Edward L. Tindall, veteran master mariner, and as he spoke he directed attention to a barquentine sailing with all the grace and dignity of her kind, through the heads which give access to the beautiful Sydney Harbor.
        A closer examination would have revealed that the barquentine had lost much of her pristine splendor, but to the sailor and his landsmen friends, she was a thing of beauty and romance.
        It was February 1928, the barquentine FOREST FRIEND majestically entered Sydney Harbor, to awaken memories and longings in the hearts of many old seadogs.
        Capt. Tindall himself had almost decided to settle down to a humdrum existence on land, but the sight of the FOREST FRIEND revived a latent longing to take his place once again on the poop deck of a windjammer.
        As he left the harbor, musing over past happy years, Capt. Tindall murmured, "Oh, for one last trip on a ship such as that."
        Little did he then realize that less than 12 months later she should be towed, under the command of none other than Capt. Tindall himself, into the Esquimalt Harbor, Vancouver Island, there to be ignominiously libeled, and eventually sold for her value as a hulk.
        It was actually only a few days after his first glimpse of the FOREST FRIEND that Capt. Tindall was informed that a skipper was required for the barquentine, and his desire to sail once again the high seas as the master of a windjammer was realized.
        In May this year, while the FOREST FRIEND was lying at Esquimalt with libel notices nailed to her mast, I met Capt. Tindall, and told him that I had been present in Port Adelaide, Australia, in the latter part of 1927, when I had seen the barquentine in a similar predicament.  
        Together we gathered up the threads of the story that I was now unfolding.
        In November 1919, when the whole world was crying out for ships to carry freight, a new and splendid barquentine, bearing the name FOREST FRIEND on her bows, sailed for the first time out of the harbor of Aberdeen, Washington, where she had been constructed a cost of £ 25,000. In June 1929, the same ship was sold to Victoria, B.C., for ￡800 to a firm of general towage contractors.
        For the first 2 or 3 years of her life, the FOREST FRIEND sailed jauntily over the great ocean.
        Then, as more and more mammoth steamships were built by the seafaring nations of the world, the owners of the FOREST FRIEND found it increasingly difficult to secure suitable cargoes.
        Speed in transporting cargo became a watchword, and fewer and fewer cargoes were available for the fast-vanishing sailing ships.
        The climax, of the FOREST FRIEND came in May 1927, when, 90 days after she had sailed from Anacortes, WA, the barquentine, badly battered by storms, limped into the Port Adelaide Harbor.
        Immediately, the American master of the ship cabled to his owners for money with which to meet the ship's liabilities. The owners considered that the FOREST FRIEND had been sufficient of a liability for some years, and ignored the request.
        Harbor officials became tired of waiting for the dues and libeled the ship.
        Long legal proceedings followed, and after many delays, a Supreme Court judge ordered the sale of the vessel.
        At the sale, an offer of £ 500 was received, and the barquentine was knocked down for that sum to South Australian interests styling themselves the Massey-Mort Shipping Co.
         Legal costs absorbed most of the £ 500, and the crew were sent to their homes in the United States by American boats, and the master obtained a berth as second mate on a ship bound for America.
        Capt. Adams another American sailor, who happened to be in South Australia, accompanied by his wife and child, was given command of the FOREST FRIEND, and in February 1928, sailed for Sydney. Heavy weather was encountered, and one morning, while Capt. Adams was attending to one of the halyards when his oilskins 
caught in the barrel winch, and he was severely injured.
        The mate signaled with flares, and a pilot cutter was dispatched from Sydney to the FOREST FRIEND, which was then laying 20 miles from the heads. The captain and his wife and child were taken ashore and the ship was taken to anchorage by the mate.
        Three weeks later Capt. Adams died from his injuries, and on 29 March 1928, Capt. Tindall took command of the barquentine. She sailed for Peru with a cargo of Australian coal.
        Capt. Tindall's words:

"We set out from Sydney with a scratch crew of 13 men. The first mate was an inveterate drunkard and as I had been unable to get a second mate I was forced to appoint one of the men from the forecastle. He turned out to be quite useless.
        Only three of the crew were experienced sailors, and before we had been out two weeks I had trouble with one of them. He was a Russian. He was demoralizing the rest of the crew, so I sent for him, and with the aid of the storekeeper and steward, I put handcuffs on him. I kept him in irons for the rest of the voyage.
        As soon as I reached Callao, Peru, I cabled the owners for funds to pay off the crew, but it was two weeks before the money arrived. In the meantime, the crew refused to work until they got their money.
        When I paid off the crew, I was left on the ship alone except for the mate, who had gone on a prolonged drinking bout as soon as he got his money.
        Before I could get a fresh crew to take the boat out it was necessary to get a portrait from the port captain, and he insisted that I should take my old crew back. I did not want the men back and squared the immigration authorities to lay off them, but the port captain called upon the police to arrest them and put them on board the FOREST FRIEND. the police would bring one or two on at a time, and as soon as they had departed in search of another batch the first crew would go back on shore.
        The port captain got so sick of seeing me around that he approved one of the many crew listed I had presented to him. I left Callao in ballast for Port Townsend, Washington.
        The trip from Peru was uneventful until we ran into the latitude of San Francisco when gale after gale struck us. For a long time, we lay off Cape Flattery but managed to get 10 miles down Juan de Fuca Strait. It commenced to blow hard from the southeast, and I had to anchor in Neah Bay. There we waited for a fair wind, but the barometer was dropping, and had weather was looming up. We were in a very dangerous position off an exposed coast when a coastguard wirelessed for a tug. Four hours after we had left in tow for Port Townsend a howling gale set in."
        It was in November 1928, that the FOREST FRIEND arrived at Port Townsend. Capt. Tindall was instructed by his owners to proceed to Port Winslow, WA, for cargo on charter. A survey of the ship showed that repairs amounting to ca. £1,600 would be necessary before the underwriters would insure her for the outward voyage. The charterers refused to release £2,000 in trust, and Capt. Tindall was reduced to borrowing money on the security of the ship and himself to pay off the crew.
        Pleas to the owners in Australia for money were in vain, but eventually, they instructed Capt. Tindall to proceed to Esquimalt, Vancouver Is, B.C. On arrival in B.C., the captain was informed by cable that the company owning the ship had gone into liquidation. Claims amounting to £950 were immediately filed against the ship.
        Once again, as had happened at Port Adelaide, libel notices adorned the masts of the FOREST FRIEND. Witnesses told Mr. Justice Martin, in the Victoria, B.C., Admiralty Court, that the FOREST FRIEND was valuable only as a hulk and might fetch £1,000 at a forced sale.
        The ship was appraised at a value of £950, the total of the claims against her, and early in June a sale was conducted on the deck of the vessel.
        When the terms of the sale were explained, it was discovered that as the FOREST FRIEND was of American registry it would be necessary to pay duty amounting to ca. £ 400 on the barquentine before she could be used off the coast of B. C., Canada.
        The additional sum for duty brought the price to more than anyone was willing to pay, and no bids were received.
        The Admiralty Court authorized the marshal to receive private bids on the vessel, and on 23 June, Hodder Brothers, general towing contractors of Vancouver, tendered an offer of £ 800 for the vessel. The offer was promptly accepted.
"What will be the future of the FOREST FRIEND?" I asked the Hodder brothers after they had left the Admiralty office.
        Mr. Hodder shook his head somewhat sadly as he replied, "Well, I am afraid she will have to end her days as a hulk carrying lumber or other commodities. It seems a shame for such a noble ship, but after all, what else can I do with her?"
        And this is the tale of the FOREST FRIEND, one of the stateliest sailing ships that ever sailed the seven seas. She is to be relegated to the menial tasks of the hulk engaged in the lumber or the cannery trade on the B.C. coast.
        And how does Capt. Tindall view the fate of the barquentine of which for 12 months he was the master?
        "She was a fine ship," he said slowly, as I walked with him after he had taken his last view of his late command. "but I suppose, the days of the sailing ship have passed."
        Capt. Tindall, however, will command another sailing ship.
        "I have been instructed to find a small barque and take it to Peru, he told me.
        It will not have the stately lines of the FOREST FRIEND but in the eyes of Capt. Tindall it will be infinitely superior to steam.

There is another SPHS post of this former Washington-built sailing vessel HERE

If anyone has ship's plans for FOREST DREAM, FOREST FRIEND, or FOREST PRIDE, please email or leave a comment in the box below. Thank you.

❖ BARKENTINE ON LAKE WASHINGTON AND THE PACIFIC ❖ 1927

Barkentine FOREST FRIEND
219452
243' x 44' x 19'
1,614 T
double-topgallant-yard 
Built 1919 in Aberdeen, WA.
for Andrew Schubach.
Original photo from the archives of
the Saltwater People Historical Society

FOREST FRIEND Arrives at Queenscliff after beating Pacific storms; short of food & water.

With her sails tattered & torn, part of her deck load of lumber lost overboard and her officers and crew of 14 men short of food & water, the Seattle five-masted barkentine FOREST FRIEND, long overdue, arrived at Queenscliff, a short distance from Melbourne, after being in peril on the storm-swept Pacific for many days.
      News of the plight of the big sailing vessel was received in Seattle yesterday by Andrew Schubach, president of the Grays Harbor Motorship Corp, owner of the FOREST FRIEND and W.S. Barr, manager of Seattle office of J.J. Moore & Co, who had the ship under charter.
      The FOREST FRIEND sailed from Port Gamble 5 May for Adelaide and anxiety was expressed for the safety of her crew when word reached Seattle that she had been driven 500 miles off her course by storms and had arrived at Queenscliff in distress. The vessel was 106 days making the voyage from Puget Sound to Australia. Not a word came from the FOREST FRIEND from the time she went to sea off Cape Flattery early in May until she was sighted last Wednesday by the steamship MARRAWAH, 35 miles south of Port Lonsdale, AU. A very heavy storm came up and the barkentine was blown down the Australian coast. Arriving in Adelaide, the MARRAWAH reported sighting the vessel & tugs were sent to search the sea for her. The next heard of the FOREST FRIEND was when she put into Queenscliff, 500 miles from Adelaide.
      The officers & crew, nearly all of whom were from Seattle, follow:
Capt. Harry Johnson, master, Fred Steen, mate; C. Gaby, boatswain; H. Jorgenson, carpenter; G. Houlkes; G.R. Shaw; Oscar Kalilen; Aage Henricksen, A. Demonde and A. Berg, able seamen; Willis Wright and Wayne Cox, ordinary seamen; J. Johnson, cook, and Elias Hynning, cabin boy.
      The FOREST FRIEND loaded 2,000,000 ft of lumber at Port Gamble for Adelaide. She was towed to port from Queenscliff to discharge.
Above text from The Seattle Times, 21 August 1927.
There is a post of her sister ship FOREST PRIDE on the Saltwater People Log HERE

FOREST FRIEND:

1923: Capt. Alex. Zugehoer lifted a cargo of 1,500,000 ft of lumber at Taylors Mill at the south end of Lake Washington, near Renton, for San Pedro. FOREST FRIEND was the first ocean vessel to berth at this extremity of the Lake.Taylor's Mill having previously lightered its cargoes to vessels moored in Lake Union or Elliott Bay.

Archived with these inscribed names of owners at
TAYLOR MILL, Lake Washington, Seattle. 
Undated photo from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

1927: sold to Massey Mort Shipping Co of Adelaide.
1938: Taken over for barge service by Island Tug and Barge. 

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"On board" through the years: Capt. Walter H. Meyers; Capt. Nels F. Anderson.