❖ CAPT. NORMAN DRIGGS: Ballard to the San Juan Islands. ❖

Captain Norman L. Driggs.
"Norman pioneered transportation over
the route from Friday Harbor to Anacortes
& to Bellingham. His first boat was the
VAGABOND, then the CONCORDIA,
CITY OF ANACORTES, BAINBRIDGE,
and the SPEEDER.
After competing for some time with
Capt. Kasch and the ALVERENE,
Capt. Driggs was identified with the 
 US Shipping Board and was
stricken while bringing an oil-tanker
to port in Seattle, WA."
Above words by his sister,
Marguerite Driggs Murray.
This photo scan is courtesy
of Jan Anderson.
Click image to enlarge.

"Captain Norman L. Driggs was born in Seattle on 14 May 1886. He was the son of Granville B. and Fanny Lake Driggs.
      For many years his grandfather, T. W. LAKE, owned and operated a shipyard at Ballard, WA., and Norman's play days were divided between this shipyard and the shores of the San Juan Islands where he developed a lasting love for ships of the sea.
      At the tender age of sixteen, the lad shipped on the schooner NELLIE JENSEN. Later he tried working ashore in a concrete works, but, Norman said, he 'almost starved to death' and the work was not at all to his liking. So he shipped again, this time on the tug MESSENGER, doing a deck watch for a while, then standing watch in the engine room.
      At this time Norman had an opportunity to enter college so he left the sea for a few long homesick watches, graduating from Pullman about 1907.

CITY OF ANACORTES
Freight and passenger boat 66' x 12'
with a 65 HP Troyer-Fox engine.
Built in 1909 at Reed's Shipyard,
Decatur Island, WA.
Capt. Robert Fullerton and engineer Griggs
were principal owners of the Co.
Later she was taken over
by the well-known Capt. Kasch.
Original photo with time-table inset
from the archives of
the Saltwater People Log.©

It was the happiest day of his life when he arrived back on the saltchuck again. 
      To start with he purchased a half interest in the CONCORDIA and established the first round trip schedule from the Islands––Friday Harbor, Lopez, Decatur, and Anacortes. 

      Later he built the CITY OF ANACORTES at Decatur and put her on the Roche Harbor, Waldron, Friday Harbor, Lopez and Anacortes route. Times were good and the rock quarry at Waldron Island was running full swing, shipping the rock to Grays Harbor to build the breakwater and jetty. And when things began to slow down, Norman bought the boats, equipment, and floating machine shop at Bremerton and started a ferry business between Bremerton and the Washington Veterans Home at Annapolis (Retsil.) He sold out later and went into the general towing business with the CONCORDIA and CITY OF ANACORTES, also chartered the FREDDIE, SKIDDOO, BUFFALO, VAGABOND, TAKU, and RAKU II. A year or so he started the Inter-Island Navigation Co, using the BAINBRIDGE, CITY OF ANACORTES, YANKEE-DOODLE, and GEORGIA.
      Norman carried the mail through the San Juan Islands for 8 years and encouraged the idea of the Anacortes-Sidney Ferry with Capt. Harry Crosby. He did not follow up the operation due to other interests, but Crosby did. 

BUFFALO 

CARLISLE II
From the archives of the Saltwater People Log©

It was at this time that Capt. Driggs chartered the CARLISLE II and started the Gooseberry-Orcas ferry run, and a year later sold out and built the 87-ft SPEEDER. Signed as mate on a shipping board boat during WW II; before she sailed the armistice was signed and the war was over.
      So Norman set out to work on everything afloat and didn't miss it very far at that. Among his commands of the last two decades are ROSARIO, COLUMBIA, SEA KING, TYEE, IROQUOIS, INTREPID, WALOLA, MOHAWK, MARVIN, BARNEY JR., and many others. 

MOHAWK (ex-ISLANDER)
Built at Jensen's Shipyard
Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA. 
From the archives of the Saltwater People Log©

Next came the tugs MARTHA FOSS, ANDREW FOSS, PATRICIA FOSS, and ANNA FOSS –– and when you make out the KATHERINE FOSS in the offing, rest assured it will be Captain Norman L. Driggs at the wheel, with that cheery smile which has won him a million friends and almost that many boats."  
Above text from the Marine Digest, Jan. 1944. From the archives of the Saltwater People Historial Society.

❖ JENSEN SHIPYARD ❖ Friday Harbor

VENTURE (ON 204609)
&0.5' x 15.3' x 5.4' cannery tender
with 175 HP steam plant
 built 1907 Griffin Bay,
San Juan Island, WA.
She was chartered to
White Crest Canning Co & Coast Fish Co.
She hauled 10 tons of spuds for P.A. Jensen &
transported the family to Seattle to visit 
the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909;
she was a busy gal.
In 1925 VENTURE was bought by
Wagner Towing
and depowered to be purchased by 
 Foss Launch & Tug in 1937
and renamed HILDUR FOSS.
Great notes in Mike Skalley's
Foss, 90 Years of Towboating.
Fate: Intentionally sunk 1 April 1949.
Photo courtesy of Nourdine Jensen.

      

"If it hadn't been that a horde of voracious grasshoppers that ate Ben Jensen, father of Albert Jensen and grandfather of Nourdine Jensen, out of his Iowa homestead in the late 1880s, there might never have been an Albert Jensen & Son Shipyard on San Juan Island.
      A former seaman and carpenter, Ben Jensen migrated from Norway to this country in the middle 1880s.
      "My grandfather came to San Juan County In 1883," said Nordine, owner of Jensen Shipyard, located at the east end of Friday Harbor Bay. "My Dad was about nine yrs old when grandfather came to this island. He had two sisters, Amelia Martin and Nellie Paxson. There were also three brothers, Pat, Joe, and Frank.
      Sometime around 1906 or 1907, Albert and his brothers went into the sawmill business in Friday Harbor. The mill was located in the vicinity of the Union Oil dock; early photographs show sailing vessels lying at anchor in the Bay waiting their turn to take on lumber. In 1919 the Jensens sold the mill and a short time later it burned to the ground.
      During the time the Jensen brothers operated the mill they also built two tugboats, the VENTURE, an 80-ft cannery tender they used to haul commercial freight. Both vessels were built on the beach at Griffin Bay.
      "In those days, if you didn't have a boat of some kind you were island-bound because there were no ferries," Nourdine explained.
      The NELLIE JENSEN served the Jensens for some eight years before she burned beyond repair.
      "I suspect my Dad also built the MARINER about the same time. She was an 80-ft cannery tender that operated around AK."
      Nourdine recalls his father telling about using the MARINER in AK for a season after which the vessel was sold to a Seattle cannery.
      "Dad was on his way to deliver the MARINER to a buyer when the engine quit. It was a stormy day off Iceberg Point [Lopez Island] and the vessel went aground. At the time Dad had his ticket for Australia with him, he was scheduled to go as the rep of Union Engine Co. However, he hadn't yet paid for the engine in the MARINER, but he lost no time getting a pile driver to the sunken boat where he managed to salvage the engine.

      

NEREID (ON 209491)

Fondly remembered in San Juan County.

Built by and for Albert Jensen as Master Carpenter;

72.7' x 16.75' x 6.4' ; 29 tons burden.

Launched Friday Harbor 1911.

Sold that year to Friday Harbor Cannery.

Source: Master Carpenter document filed at NARA, Seattle.

Photo from the archives of 

the Saltwater People Historical Society©

      That same winter Albert built the NEREID and installed the MARINER's engine.
      "These were the days of fish traps and non-powered fishing boats. These boats operated on the west side of San Juan and off Whidbey Is. They were towed out by a tugboat. Today they are called seine skiffs.
      When fishing was over the tug would round up the fish boats and tow them in. This was their only means of getting from one location to another. The tugs, or fish tenders, were first powered by steam and later by diesel."
      Nourdine points out that during the fish trap days (WA outlawed commercial fish traps in 1934, except for the treaty rights for Indians) a great amount of equipment was required to install and remove the traps, logs, and to store various tools required for the job.
      Before starting his Friday Harbor Shipyard, Albert Jensen worked as a steam engineer on various boats around the Sound. These vessels were affectionately referred to as the 'Mosquito Fleet'. After Jensen gave up steamboating, he taught school for a short time in Shaw Island's one-room schoolhouse. 
      Statistically, Nourdine questions the general assumption by laymen that more fish are being caught today than in earlier years.
      "That's pretty hard for me to swallow, particularly when you consider  there were some fifty or sixty canneries operating in the Puget Sound area. In the San Juans there were two canneries on San Juan Island, one at Deer Harbor and West Sound on Orcas. Anacortes had four or five and Bellingham had a half dozen. There were also a number of fish canneries in Port Townsend, Everett, Seattle" [and Shaw Island.]
      In 1910, Albert Jensen established his shipyard at the east end of Friday Harbor off San Juan Channel. Many changes have taken place since the yard opened all those years ago.
      "One of the most noticeable changes in our business has been the gradual change over the past five years from custom boat building to that of maintenance and repairs.
      Custom boat building, which has been our stock in trade since Dad first opened this yard, has been steadily declining each year, while assembly line type of boats is on the increase.
      Financing is another problem today. Banks are more willing to finance a boat that is already built and carries a price tag on it, rather than financing a boat still in the building stages."
      As to whether Nourdine prefers custom boat building to that of maintenance and repairs, he has this to say:
      "Personally, I much prefer to work with handcrafted boats, but as far as making a living goes, we really made no money to speak of on our handcrafted boats. There is actually more money to be made in the maintenance and repair business today."
      Although the Albert Jensen Shipyard still employs the same number of men [at the time of this writing] between 5 and 7, depending upon the season, the requirements for this new type of work differ from those of custom boat building.
      "You've got to roll with the punches, so we've been gradually changing our method of operation to meet this new demand. We've had to. If we depended solely on custom boat building today we'd be out of business. It's that simple."
      In thinking back over some of the boats his firm has turned out, a number of outstanding vessels come to mind.

MOHAWK (ex-ISLANDER)
ON 221640 
91.6' x 21.1' x 7.2' ; 173 G.t. 140 N.t.
Blt by Albert Jensen, Friday Harbor,
September 1921.
Source of data:
Federal MCC document from NARA, Seattle.

       "Perhaps our best known was the 91-ft ISLANDER launched in 1921 and later named the MOHAWK. Prior to WW II, the MOHAWK was sold to Puget Sound Freight Lines. She was later conscripted by the US gov and used to tow supplies to Kiska Island in AK."
      Other memorable vessels built by the yard include the LIBBY, a 54-ft cruiser owned by a Portland man, who moored her in Anacortes. There was also the PUFFIN, a cruiser built for Dr. Clark, and the RUSSWIN built in 1947 or '48 for Doc Russell of Orcas, and then later owned by Gordy Fox. Then there was the HI-SEAS, a 50-ft charter cruiser that was a former USCG vessel and completely rebuilt by the Jensen yard and owned by J.H. Woods of Olga. The most recent handcrafted boat turned out by the Jensen yard was the STRUMPET, a 35-ft troller designed by local architect, Jay Benford, and owned by the author, Ernie Gann. The list goes on.

BÅTEN of Friday Harbor, WA.
Launching, 5 April 1978
A smidgeon under 20 ft.
Designed by Jay Benford,
then of Friday Harbor, 
for Marilyn Anderson & Rachel Adams
of Crane Island, San Juan Archipelago,
 by Jensen Shipyard, Friday Harbor, WA.
Photo possibly by Al Hamilton,
on the scene this day. 
Shared by Nourdine Jensen
to SPHS web admin.

      

There was a moment's lull as Nourdine Jensen stared reflectively from the window of his small shop office. The rain beat a staccato rhythm against the tin roof. A slow grin spread across his face.
           "From where I stand the boat business looks good for a least another 65 years."

Gordon Keith. Voices from the Islands, True Stories about those Who Live in One of America's Most Beautiful Areas, Washington State's San Juan Islands. Thomas Binford Publisher. 1982.
Keith was a resident of Orcas Island, WA., who had many short stories and photographs published by the Islands' Sounder.
   

❖ Off to the Knakerman ❖

Lake Washington Shipyards, 
dated 1937.
Click to enlarge.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"Moored at the Lake Washington Shipyards at Houghton, near Kirkland, is a fleet of forgotten ships, some of which played a prominent part in the transportation of yesteryear on Puget Sound. In the group are the old ferryboat WEST SEATTLE, carrier of thousands of commuters across Elliott Bay in other days; the HYAK, which operated in Poulsbo; the MOHAWK, of the San Juan Islands route; the TACOMA, fleet mate of the famous FLYER of the Seattle-Tacoma route; the KULSHAN, remembered as the connecting link between Seattle, Bellingham, and Anacortes; the SOL DUC, once the pride of the Port Angeles route; the MORNING STAR, freighter which operated in Vancouver, BC; the CITY OF BREMERTON, the ATLANTA, the WINSLOW, the SUQUAMISH and the stern-wheeler TOURIST, all veterans of the Puget Sound routes, awaiting their fate, which may lead to the ship breaker's torch."
The Seattle Times, 1937.
   

KALAKALA
1927-2015

      This week of posting so goes the KALAKALA (ex-PERALTA.) The most photographed ferry in the world.