TROUBLE IN A STORM OFF WHIDBEY ISLAND ❖ ❖

 

F.V. MIDWAY
lashed to Leiter Hockett's salvage tug AMAK
after three months underwater near
Whidbey Island, Washington.
Four were lost on 9 March 1959.
Click image to enlarge.
Original photo from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

Four Seattle fishermen were lost when the 56-foot fishing vessel Midway capsized and sank in a storm half a mile off Partridge Point.
        The overturned boat was sighted by the tug Tartar and reported to the Coast Guard.
        Less than 14 minutes later the tug reported that the fishing boat had sunk.
        The men lost were Bjarne Olsen, John Eikevik, Carl Jensen, and Simon Ingebretsen.
        The Midway's 18-ft dory was found about the same day; it still had the canvas stretched over it, indicating it had not been used.
        The Midway was bound Bellingham to Seattle when the accident occurred.
        The vessel's owner, Albert Anderson, was not aboard because of an ailment.
        The vessel, a trawler, had been off the Washington Coast and had unloaded her catch yesterday in Bellingham, before departing for Seattle about 3:30 p.m. She was riding high, without cargo, and with little ballast when she capsized.
        The Midway was a sister ship of the Northern Light, which sank ten days ago in Georgia Strait. The two were launched a few weeks apart 15 years ago and had fished together much of the time.
        Text from the Seattle Times three months later.

From Gray's Harbor into Gray Fury

 

FRANCIS H. LEGGETT
Built in 1903
1,606-ton steel steam schooner
Captain C. Maro
Hands lost 60 in 1914
Click image to enlarge.
Photo inscribed verso as leaving
Samoa, CA. with Eureka in background.
From the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

"The year was 1914, just after midnight on the morning of September 18, when the steel steam schooner Francis H. Leggett foundered in a raging gale 50-miles south of the Columbia River entrance. Of the 37 passengers and crew of 25 aboard the Leggett, only two were rescued. The vessel had left Hoquiam deeply laden with lumber for California, in charge of Capt. C. Maro, and upon encountering the heavy seas off the Oregon coast, her deck load shifted, she capsized and sank.
      The Japanese cruiser Idzumo sighted the foundering steam schooner and dispatched a brief wireless message, which was intercepted by the Port of Portland station, the Portland––San Francisco liner Beaver, and the Associated Oil tanker Frank H. Buck. The warship, operating under wartime restrictions and searching for the cruiser Leipzig, made no effort to render assistance, however, and refused to give her location or any further details of the tragedy.

       The tanker was the first to find the floating wreckage marking the spot where the Leggett had gone down, picking up a passenger, George Pullman of Winnipeg, who had been clinging to a plank for the many hours since the sinking.
      The Beaver, Capt. Mason, arrived on the scene late that night, picking up James Farrell of Seattle, who had also clung to a floating timber.
Although the steam schooner Daisy Putnam and the Standard Oil tanker El Segundo also joined the search, no other survivors were found.
The Francis H. Leggett was one of the most modern of the new type of steam coasters, having been built only the previous year for the Hammond Lumber Co. At the time of her loss, she was under charter to Charles R. McCormick & Co.

      The earlier loss of the Port Blakeley-built four-masted schooner Nokomis, built by Hall Bros, in 1895, provided a tragic and ironic footnote to the loss of the Francis H. Leggett.
      The Nokomis, commanded by Capt. Jens Jensen, sailed from Astoria for Paita, Peru in January, lumber-laden. The captain was accompanied by his wife and two small children, one a babe in arms.
      The schooner carried two mates, a cook, cabin boy, and six seamen.
Off the Columbia River, southwest winds of hurricane force struck the schooner, washing the Chinese cook overboard and driving her back towards Cape Flattery in damaged condition. Capt. Jensen put in at Port Townsend for repairs to sails and rigging and the vessel was then towed to sea, but bad luck continued to plague her.
      Off the Cape, she fouled the tug and damaged her martingale, but this was repaired at sea and she continued on her voyage. After reaching latitude 20 North, she encountered heavy fog, and for some days Capt. Jensen was forced to rely on dead reckoning. On the sailing route between Pacific Northwest ports and the west coast of South America, prevailing winds made it most practical to cross the Line at about 110 degrees West Longitude in the vicinity, at 10 North Latitude, of Clipperton Island, a low-lying speck of land on the broad expanse of ocean. The Huerta government of Mexico had recently abandoned the light and fog signal on the island, and on the night of 27 February breakers were sighted dead ahead. Strong cross-currents made it impossible to put about, and the Nokomis crashed on a reef at the north end of the island. Heavy seas soon pounded her to pieces. All hands reached shore, but they were almost destitute, existing on brackish water, shellfish, and seagull eggs in addition to a few supplies which had drifted ashore,
      After five months of privation, the second mate and three seamen volunteered to set out for Acapulco, 700 miles away, in a damaged boat. They reached their objective after incredible hardships, and the USS Cleveland was dispatched to rescue the castaways, all of whom eventually recovered from their ordeal.
      After reaching San Francisco, Capt. Jensen left his family at the home of his father-in-law in Olympia and proceeded to Aberdeen, where Capt. Maro of the Francis H. Leggett had kindly offered him passage as his guest to San Francisco, where he planned to seek another berth as either master or mate of a sailing vessel. Capt. Jensen was among those lost in the foundering of the Leggett. Having survived shipwreck and almost unendurable hardships on distant Clipperton Island, he was fated to lose his life while practically in sight of his home and onboard a modern, full-powered steel steamship."

Source: The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Gordon Newell, editor. Superior Publishing.1965. No. 338.

❖ TUG HENRY FOSS (1900-1959) ❖ Seattle to Saltspring Island

HENRY FOSS (ex-JOHN CUDAHY)
ON 13610
Low res scan of an Official Photograph 
by the ARMY TRANSPORT SERVICE 
dated 16 June 1943
Click image to enlarge. 
From the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

"The Klondike strike pulled the entire Northwest out of the doldrums following the 1893 hard times––it was not referred to as a depression in those days. But of more immediate interest to the five water girt counties bordering on the Straits and the Gulf of Georgia, was the arrival at Fairhaven of Roland Onffroy in 1897. Onffroy, a professional promoter, scented the latent possibilities of the salmon canning industry. Hieing back to Chicago he got the interest of big figures in the meat packing trade. The next year his newly formed Franco-American Packing Co. became the cornerstone of the giant Pacific-American Fisheries Co which took over all available trap sites at heretofore unheard of prices.
      D'ye mind the original P.A.F. fleet, the Eclipse, Michigan, Susie, Lady Agnes, Victor, Little Giant, and the twin screw Ernest A. Hamill? the latter was a light draft iron tug intended for the Yukon River under the command of John "Crazy" Anderson and left a wide swath of damage in her clumsy wake. In addition, the Elk, Union, and Beaver were chartered. Onffroy, ever the one to demand the best in floating equipment, commissioned H.B. Kirby to build the finest pair of tugs ever to be set afloat for cannery tender duty. Bearing the name of Chicago stockholders, they were launched at Ballard in 1900 as the Charles Counselman and the John Cudahy. The unlamented Hamill was sold to Spreckles and spent many years on San Francisco Bay as the Crolona. But the new craft, while 16-ft shorter and full powered with a compound engine and 13 and 28-inch bore by 24-inch stroke, were still too bulky for effective trap brailing. Carrying a crew of thirteen, the Cudahy went into commission with Edward Masny, master.
      Three years service convinced the management that still smaller craft were better suited to their needs and the splendid tugs were sold––the Counselman to Honolulu and the Cudahy to the Grays Harbor Stevedoring Co for bar work on that Harbor.
      Most noted of the Cudahy's masters was "Draw Bucket" Johnson, who for a long term of years escorted sail and steam lumber carriers over Willapa and Grays Harbor Bars. One of her few appearances on the Sound was in 1907 when she and the Daring brought the dismasted and water-logged square rigger William H. Smith to Seattle.
      When Merrill & Ring purchased the boat for log towing on the Straits. Captains, Wm. Spooner and Miles Bolenbaugh handled her in this trade. She went back to her former owners in 1920 and in addition to her house forward was cut down to the former dimensions. Allman-Hubbs Co., of Hoquiam, succeeded to ownership and in the mid-30s laid the venerable Cudahy aside in Hoquiam River boneyard. It looked like finis for the faithful ship, but the Foss Co of Tacoma, who has an eye for sound design and honest construction, took over in 1943 and rebuilt her at their own yards. [photo above dated 1943.]
      Henry Foss was the name give the powerful re-born Cudahy, a 750-HP Enterprise diesel, supercharged to provide an additional 250-HP, furnishing the push. Taken into government war duty almost before the paint was dry, the Henry Foss was sent to the Aleutians. One of the first to be released, the tug has since operated from Port Angeles. Scutt* has been unable to credit the long list of engineers who have faded from memory. Even the present competent occupant of the berth who sails with Capt. Arnold Tweter must go unrecorded."
Above text by Osborn, Stewart C. for Pacific Motor Boat. September 1946.

Below a short bio on the above author from Pacific Tugboats. Newell, Gordon and Joe Williamson. Superior Publishing. 1957.
"Stewart C. Osborn of Port Orchard, WA, wrote for Pacific Motorboat magazine for many years under the pen name "Scuttlebutt Pete." Although terribly crippled by arthritis, 'Old Scut' knew the NW workboat fleet and the men who operate it because the tugboat men were his friends. He couldn't go to them, so they brought the news to him. He wrote it up in a salty, sunny style that was all his own. In the early 1950s, the "Piling Busters" tugboat men threw a party for Scut. They brought him a short-wave radio and after that he got his news hot off the airwaves, listening to the news and gossip of the 'tugboat band.'
      In April 1954, Pacific Motorboat reported, "Aye lads, Ol' Scut passed on a bit of a tide ago." Thet's the way Stewart Osborn would have written it. He was mourned by tugboat men from Cape Blanco to Nome."

HENRY FOSS (ex-JOHN CUDAHY)

Launched 1900

Designed by L.H. Coolidge

Built by E.H. McAllister in the record time of six months,

for Pacific American Fisheries of Bellingham, WA.

Power plant: 450-HP Vulcan steam engine.

Primary service, Puget Sound. 

1905: Pacific American Fisheries sold her to Grays Harbor Stevedoring Co of Aberdeen.

1919: Sold to Merrill & Ring Logging Co for towing log rafts from the Pysht River log dump on the Straits to Port Angeles.

1922: CUDAHY bought by Allman Hubble Tug Co of Hoquiam.

1930: (mid): She was sold to Knappton Towboat Co for general towing on the Columbia R. 

1941: Foss Co purchased the boat on 19 June 1941 and towed her to the Foss Shipyard in Tacoma where she underwent one year of repair and received a 1,000-HP Enterprise diesel. 

1942: On 26 May the pride of the Foss yard was christened HENRY FOSS, shortly before Henry Foss joined the navy. Capt. Walt Stark in command for two week's running before she was requisitioned for military duty in WW II and assigned to the US Army Engineers. She served them for 18 months and then returned to Foss in good condition.

1944: In September there was a tragic accident with the loss of Capt. Norm Carlsen, and the Mate Mr. Talbert at Port Towsend, WA. 

1959: Friday 13 Feb. In command of Capt. Warren Waterman the HENRY came to a "grinding and abrupt stop on a rock near Beaver Point on Saltspring Island. There was a 50-knot gale blowing and the seas extremely rough. The HENRY FOSS overturned and sank in 150-ft of water, throwing all seven men into the cold and rough water of Swanson Channel." Two men were pulled from the water. The Chief Engineer survived the exposure but deckhand Richard Lothian died of exposure after reaching the hospital. The loss of the HENRY's six men was the most painful calamity in the Foss' long history of tug boating; the tug was not salvaged.
Lost: 
Capt. Warren Waterman
Chief Mate Lawrence Berg
Assistant Engineer, Martin Gullstein
Deckhand, Oswald H. Sorenson
Cook, Erick W. Danielson.
Richard Lothian

Notes in the timeline section of this essay are courtesy of Michael Skalley's Foss; Ninety Years of Towboating. Superior Publishing. 1981. Saltwater People Historical Society collection.

      

❖ TUG GOLIAH ❖

The below undated original photos are from one collection just archived from descendants of mariner, Harry D. Wilkins, who worked on the GOLIAH. No story came with the images other than a few short inscriptions on the back, but included below are some GOLIAH words from the historian/author Gordon Newell.  

GOLIAH
ON 204800
414 G.t./221 N.t.
500 Ind. HP.
Owned at this time by Puget Sound Tug Boat Company.

Tug HERCULES
ON 204801
414 G.t./ 221 N.t.
500 Ind. HP.
Built 1907, Camden, N.J.
According to Pacific Tugboats,
 she is GOLIAH'S sister ship who
towed her around Cape Horn from the east coast to CA.

"In many ways, Puget Sound's second GOLIAH was typical of the Northwest's big deep-water steam tugs, both in appearance and in the work she did. Built in 1907 by John Dialogue of Camden, N.J., the GOLIAH and her sister tug, HERCULES, were massive, powerful steel steamers, 151' long, 27.1' beam and 15.2' depth, with a speed of better than 13 knots.
      The two boats came to the West Coast, via Cape Horn, the HERCULES towing the GOLIAH, which was loaded with extra fuel for the HERCULES' boilers. In San Francisco they went to work for the Shipowners' and Merchants Tugboat Co, but in 1909 the Puget Sound Tug Boat Co sent Capt. Buck Bailey and port engineer J.F. Primrose to the Bay to have a look at the GOLIAH. Their report was enthusiastic and the PSCo bought her. Capt. T.H. Cann piloted her north from San Fran.
      Shortly after WW I, the GOLIAH returned to the East Coast, having been sold as the sailing-ship trade of the PSTBC diminished. During the years she operated in the Northwest she had the comfortable reputation of a 'lucky ship.' This in spite of the many hazardous exploits in which she engaged.
      In 1916, skippered by Capt. T. Nielsen, the GOLIAH snatched the disabled Norwegian freighter NIELS NIELSEN from almost certain destruction on the lee shore of Vancouver Island, a feat which has been vividly described by R.H. "Skipper" Calkins, in his book High Tide (1952.)

Photo inscribed:
"Ship REUCE in tow of tug GOLIAH,
bound for Chignik, AK.
A slight list to starboard;
in smooth water after 3 days of pounding.
If there is such thing as a 'Hoo-doo Ship',
this is it."
ON 110498
1,924 G.t./ 1,601 N.t. 
Built 1881 in Kennebunk, ME.

      One of the GOLIAH's specialties was the towing of big Cape Horn windjammers up the coast when they had a deadline charter to meet on the Sound. In January of 1914, the GOLIAH set a new speed record for herself by towing the big American square-rigged ship ARYAN from the Golden Gate to Victoria in 89 hours and 30 minutes. The ARYAN, last wooden square-rigger built in America, was a heavy-hulled cargo carrier due to load nearly two million feet of timber for south Africa, and tugboat men agreed that her fast trip north was quite an accomplishment, even for the GOLIAH.

SEYMOUR NARROWS, B.C. 
Text on verso from this Wilkins collection:
"A more treacherous body
of water does not exist."
These photos were taken before Ripple Rock was
successfully drilled and blasted with dynamite in 1958.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

      In June of the same year the GOLIAH set a new Alaska towing record, beating the one she had set two years earlier. Towing the barge JAMES DRUMMOND northbound and the barge ST. JAMES southbound, she completed the round trip between Seattle and Gypsum, AK.––1,900 miles––in 10 days and 12 hours. 

GYPSUM, Chichagof Island, near Iyoukeen Cove, AK.
A destination for part of GOLIAH'S work, as mentioned
in this piece by author Gordon Newell.
From the GOLIAH photo collection from the family of
mariner Harry D. Wilkins.
Original, undated photos from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

Both barges were loaded to capacity, but in their younger days they had been noted clipper ships, their fine-lined hulls helping the powerful GOLIAH to set another towing record.      
      In October 1910, GOLIAH ran into bad luck while engaged in towing a big barge, with tragic results. At the time the tug was hauling rock from Waldron Island, in the San Juans, to Grays Harbor, where it was used in the construction of the jetties at Westport. A fleet of nine seagoing barges was used to transport the rock, all of them tripped-down sailing ships like the PALMYRA, BIG BONANZA, CORONDOLET, JAMES DRUMMOND, and ST. JAMES, all of the staunch and seaworthy, and all of well over a thousand tons register. The smallest of the fleet was the ex-schooner WALLACUT, built at Portland, OR, in 1898, and rated at 798 gross tons. This was the barge that GOLIAH was towing to Grays Harbor. The story of what happened is contained in a shipping bulletin datelined Port Townsend, 5 Oct. 1910:

      "The loss at sea of Andrew Henderson, aged 24, and Hans Christensen, aged 25, from the rock barge WALLACUT is the latest of the long list of casualties due to the gale in the North Pacific Sunday. The men were swept from the barge while it was in tow of the tug GOLIAH at six o'clock in the morning off Destruction Island, while the craft, deep-laden with stone for Grays Harbor jetty work, was contending against a sea so furious it seemed almost certain to cost the lives of the five men constituting the barge's crew.
      A report of the tragedy was brought here by Capt. John Jarman, master of the barge, whose command was forced to return to Neah Bay after vainly trying for 30 hours to cross the bar into Grays Harbor.
      A point near Grays Harbor Bar was eventually reached, the barge leaking badly, and under weather conditions that prevented making an effort to pass into Aberdeen. With this plan frustrated, the tug turned for a return course to the Sound. While Henderson was about to relieve Christensen at the wheel, a wave more furious than any of the others that had threatened to send the barge to the bottom, broke in a big curling comber over the weather rail, sending both men clear of the ship and into the sea. The accident was witnessed by Capt. Jarman and his two other sailors, but no aid could be given. 
      Capt. Jarman is a veteran on the North Pacific and describes the storm through which he passed as the most severe experienced in these waters."

      Capt. Buck Bailey, who was skipper of the GOLIAH that trip, was noted for laughing in the teeth of the North Pacific when it was in its worst moods, frequently taking whatever big PSTBC craft he was piloting into danger which kept all other deep-sea towboats safe at anchor. If he mis-calculated that time, at the cost of two lives, he made it up many times over in daring rescue operations which made him famous the whole length of the Pacific Coast. 
      At the termination of the Waldron Island rock-towing contract, the GOLIAH steamed down the coast to take her station off the Columbia River mouth. 

CURZON
From the GOLIAH collection.
Possibly preparing for a pilot from the GOLIAH,
when the big tug was stationed off the Columbia Bar.
Undated original from the S.P.H.S.©

The Puget Sound Co. had decided to set up a pilotage and towing service there in opposition to the established bar tugs. The GOLIAH, with ample accommodations and oil tanks capable of stowing a month's supply of fuel, was well designed for such service, and she spent most of her time cruising off the lightship day and night, with her bar pilots aboard." Pacific Tugboats. Newell, Gordon. Superior Publishing. Pg 116-119.

Aboard the tug GOLIAH.
Unidentified mariner.
If you can identify this man, please let us know his name
for our history files.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

❖ PAMIR and PASSAT ❖

Barque PAMIR
Martin Treder working on a model
of the ship PAMIR (1905-1957)
then plowing between Germany and South America.
The model was a year in the making; constructed with a
steel hull containing 40,000 rivets, 32 sails, 4,000 pulleys,
and cost about $9,000. It will be placed in cases
showing the evolution of water travel.
Original 1931 gelatin-silver photo from the archives of
the Saltwater People Historical Society ©

BUILDING A MUSEUM 1931

"Natural History Museums are the result of decades of painstaking collecting and the institutions are classed according to the number of genuine specimens they contain. However, in Chicago, a museum is literally being manufactured, and the fact detracts none from its worth. Scores of artists, wood-carvers, machinists, and electricians are at work building models for the Museum of Science and Industry founded by Julius Rosenwald. The Museum aims to portray the evolution of man's mechanical and scientific knowledge, and while every attempt is being made to get genuine exhibits, it is necessary that many be in miniature. Wherever possible the models will work; by pushing a button a student may see a gas engine, in section, in operation, or watch wheat being ground into flour and put in sacks. Similar working models will cover all fields of man's activities. The museum will be the only one of its kind in the Americas, and one of the few in the world. It will be housed in the rebuilt Fine Arts Building in Jackson Park, Chicago."

Publication unknown; incomplete news clipping from the archives of the S.P.H.S. 

Barque PAMIR
Suspected to be 1946 when she was sailing
out of Vancouver, BC, under the New Zealand flag.
Original photo postcard from the archives of S. P. H. S.©

Barque PAMIR
Builder: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
For: F. Laeisz Line

Launched: 29 July 1905
375' x c. 46' x  23.5'

Carried: 40,000 sq. ft of sail

Speed: the top was 16 knots/ regular speed c. 8-9 knots.

One of 10 near-sister ships used by Laeisz Co in the South America nitrate trade.
Fate: caught 21 Sept. 1957 in a mid-Atlantic hurricane.
Captain Johannes Diebitsch
86 aboard/ 6 survived.

Gunter Hasselbach
Kiel, Germany, 25 Sept. 1957
Radio telephoto (UP) from the archives of 
the Saltwater People Historical Society©

The Coast Guard has identified the sixth survivor of the ill-fated German bark Pamir as Gunter Hasselbach. They reported that Hasselbach was the lone survivor of 22 men who abandoned ship in a lifeboat. The other five survivors were en route to Casablanca aboard the American transport ship Geiger. Of the 57 crewmen aboard the Pamir, only the six are known to have survived when the ship was lost in the mid-Atlantic hurricane. 

Many false reports have been published. For further reading from this source, including her ownership and past masters here is a Link

Update 2 February 2015

There is an 8-page in-depth article by Captain L. Gellerman on the colorful, 4-mast barque PAMIR with some of her life spent in the PNW; it can be found in  The Sea Chest, June 1985 published by the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, Seattle, WA.
There is a chance they may have a back issue of the journal.  
For membership information in that society please see this link.

A quote from that great piece:
" 'Then', writes Mr. MacNeil,  'we witnessed a drama reminiscent of that age, long past when the clippers reigned supreme. As we stood spellbound, PAMIR, came racing toward us. Huge seas boiled over her bow. Her sails, billowed out to the full, were a scene of grandeur––heeled well over in the terrific wind, she swept by majestically at a good 14 knots. SNOHOMISH's flags ran up, spelling 'Bon Voyage,' and her whistle hooted farewell to one of the last great wind ships. Soon she disappeared hull down on the horizon.'"

PASSAT, 
dated 25 July 1960.
Permanent anchor at Luebeck, Germany.
The vessel was purchased by the city
with hopes she could become a museum. 
The PASSAT is a sister ship of the PAMIR. 
The two vessels were caught in the same storm
that sank the PAMIR, but one managed to
escape with severe damage. Since then the
PASSAT has not been in regular use. 
Original silver-gelatin photo from the archives of 
 the Saltwater People Historical Society©

 

This 137 pg book describes the three voyages that the PAMIR made to Vancouver and Vancouver Island, BC, and records the careers of the tugs that towed her to and from the open ocean. Included are many unpublished photographs of the actual voyage tows, and illustrations by the author (a crew member on the tugs at the time) showing the PAMIR under tow and the rendezvous off Cape Flattery.
The Vancouver Voyages of the Barque PAMIR
Author; Richard Wells.