❖ ORLAND OLSON AND HIS SCHOONER ❖ BY LEO MAHAN

Model of the schooner C. S. Holmes
Carved by Mr. Orland Olson
that he began in ca. 1934.
He is now 101 years of age.

Sail Ahoy! Avast the halyards! Come about! 

Batten down the hatches!

A story of Orland Olson and his Boat

There I, Orland Olson, was standing on the deck of the schooner, C. S. Holmes. I had seen her many times across the water in Seattle at the Foss Tug and Barge facility on Lake Washington Ship Canal. I had fallen in love with what I saw. I decided to make a model of this schooner and finally got enough courage to go to the dock where she was moored. I brought paper and pencil with me to make sketches of her and to get some dimensions of her size. I was sketching away when suddenly, a voice called out from the ship. It turned out to be the captain, Captain John Backland. He saw me standing on the dock, with pencil in hand, and invited me to come aboard to get a closer look at what was here. I tell you, my heart skipped a beat at the invitation and I hastened aboard. Then, for a moment, in my mind's eye, I could hear sounds like you see in the title above–the captain's orders bellowing across the deck. At that moment I envisioned myself as one of the shipmates. (Later when I suggested to my parents about becoming a sailor they put the brakes on that idea-and, boy, I'm glad.)
      Having drawings and details now of the ship to guide me I was ready to begin on the model. I started when I was 15 years old which would put it about 1934. My father got me a piece of straight-grained cedar, some 30-inches long and I started whittling away. At about the same time, I had met and was going with Phoebe, who became my wife. We had this thing where we would go to church and then would come back to the house. I would carve away and she was content to watch and give advice. I finished the hull, laid in the decking, put on the sails that my mom had made, and finished the rigging. Now, about 5 years later came the time to launch it. I put it in the water at what was the Golden Gardens Pond by the Sound. It was a thing of beauty, a joy to behold as the wind filled the sails and moved swiftly through the waters just like the one she was modeled after--and I was her captain!
      Life goes on. You know how it is. Phoebe and I married. We moved from place to place, job to job, house to house. The model was upstairs at times and then in the basement, never unloved––but time takes a toll on boats as well as humans. We made the move to Cristwood and the one thing my son wanted to keep was the boat. 

Orland Olson
Restoration of the C. S. Holmes
Congratulations!!

So I  brought it here and have been working at restoring it and will pass it on to him. There have been many hours of pleasure in refitting it. Making over 100 grommets to hold the sails in place, (my daughter-in-law made them out of nylon)--remembering the pulleys I made out of flattened buckshot. Ah, yes, she is the beauty that you can see in the lobby area by the dining room. The plaque tells the specifics of this marvelous schooner, built in 1893; it sailed to the Arctic, the South Pole, and the Fiji Islands carrying lumber, sealskins, and salted cod among many other items. She set a record for sailing from San Diego to Marrowstone Island in the upper Sound in 4 1/2 days."








Written by Leo Mahan.
May 2006.
Cristwood Courier
Submitted to Saltwater People by Orland's grandson, Rich Olson.  
Thanks to all of you for this great story.

❖ FULL-RIGGED SHIP HENRY VILLARD ❖ 1882-1929

HENRY VILLARD

Model of the full-rigged ship  
with Stanley Griffiths,
Seattle, WA.
According to Keith Sternberg, who 
studied this model in its glass case
in the home of Churchill Griffiths,
"the model was built on board the 
real ship by Capt. Walborg, who was 
a sailor and knew the details of the 
spars and rigging."

Click image to enlarge.
Photograph from the archives of the
Saltwater People Historical Society©
Photographer and date unknown.

HENRY VILLARD
95688
219.2' x 39.8' x 24.1'
G.t. 1,552 / N.t. 1,452
Launched 17 May 1882 at
Arthur Sewall & Co, Bath, Maine.
Low-res scan courtesy of the
State Library Victoria, AU.

The Henry Villard was named for the first president of North Pacific Railway and was built to carry material used in constructing the road. She took out the first cargo of rails sent to the Columbia River and thereafter any of her voyages were to Portland, Seattle, or Tacoma with similar material. On two or three occasions she took case oil to the Orient and in 1901 made a voyage from Savannah, GA to Honolulu with phosphate rock. She was operated at intervals in the coastwise trade. 
      The Villard was a good carrier, generally loading 2250 tons of wheat, with no fast passages to her credit. On three occasions she took sugar from Hawaii to N.Y. and these passages were made in faster time, proportionally than her runs to or from coast ports, they being 97,100, and 107 days.
1907: Capt. Charles O. Anderson was master off Cape Flattery when a gale hit; he reported the barometer dropped to 28.65, the lowest reading he had ever taken in 20 years on the North Pacific. 
1910: Operated under tow since this year by the Ocean Tug and Barge Co; they had retained much of the top hamper until taken over by Griffiths who found her laid up in the Oakland Creek.
1913: Capt. Griffiths purchased the Henry Villard at San Francisco and had her towed to Puget Sound by the steam schooner John C. Hooper, before her conversion to a barge for the ore trade between Granby mine at Anyox, B.C. and the Tacoma smelter. For over ten years she carried coal and ore on Puget Sound.
1929, Feb: After having been laid up at Winslow for a long time, she was purchased from James Griffiths & Sons by Nieder & Marcus, Seattle shipbreakers who had her towed to Richmond Beach, saturated the hull with gasoline and then burned to recover the copper and iron used in her construction. The funeral pyre of the Henry was shared by the legendary Sound speedster, Flyer, sold in her old age as the Washington by Puget Sound Navigation Co to Nieder & Marcus.

Other associated crew:
Capt. James G. Baker was her first commander. He was formerly of the Sterling, who met death while the master of the Kenilworth. Capt. Baker made two voyages in the Henry Villard then succeeded by 
Capt Fordyce B. Perkins. In command for eight years.
Capt. Frank W. Patten. (1854-1913) in command for three years. Son of Capt. Lincoln Patten.
Capt. Eben L. Murphy. Master in 1898.
Capt. Richard Quick, a native of Newfoundland who started sea life at age 12. He was in command for three years then went to Edward Sewell for 21 years.
Sources:
H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Gordon Newell, editor. 1965. 
American Merchant Ships 1850-1900 by F.C. Matthews.

❖ WIND WRECKAGE OF 1934

The 15,000 ton liner PRESIDENT MADISON
windswept into steamer HARVESTER,
Smith Cove, Seattle, WA. 
October 1934.
Original out-of-focus photo by Marine Photo Shop.
from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

The arrow indicates the keel, partly submerged,
of the sternwheeler HARVESTER,
that plied between Seattle and Mount Vernon.
The crew leaped to safety aboard nearby barges.
The NORTH HAVEN (L), and the tug ROOSEVELT
also were damaged as they pounded against the
side of the MADISON during the fierce
70-mile an hour gale, taking a toll of 17 lives,
in the Puget Sound area.

One of the worst gales in many years swept the Puget Sound area on 21 October 1934; southwest winds up to 70 miles-an-hour causing damage in the millions of dollars to ships, buildings, and standing timber. The American Mail Line's liner PRESIDENT MADISON figured in another spectacular mishap at Seattle when she was torn from her moorings at the outer end of Pier 41 (now Pier 91) and went drifting across the harbor, crashing into the sternwheel steamer HARVESTER of the Skagit River Navigation & Trading Co and sinking her in deep water. She also collided with the steamship NORTH HAVEN of the Northland Transportation Co inflicting considerable damage to that vessel. 
         

The HARVESTER
After being righted, 12 November 1934.
Heavy cables were run under the vessel and carried
across the deck to the outer rail where they were made fast.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

      The HARVESTER was built in 1912, at Stanwood, WA, for Capt. H.H. McDonald for 30 passengers as well as greater freight capacity than previous vessels in this service.
      She was 638 t. / 152' x 36.2' x 6.8', a larger steamer than the GLEANER, built by McDonald in 1907. She was of shallower draft and was able to navigate the shallow Skagit and Stillaguamish Rivers more successfully than her elder running mate.
Above text: H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Gordon Newell, editor. Superior (1965.)  

Ship model of the sternwheeler HARVESTER
with Mrs. Anna G. Grimison.
Her son, "first mate" Harry E. Grimison, is the suspected builder.
Location of this fine model???
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

      President of the Skagit River Navigation Co, Mrs. Anna G. Grimison was at the helm of the line for almost forty years. The line was started by her father, Capt. H. H. McDonald. Her last two freight boats were the sternwheelers SKAGIT CHIEF and SKAGIT BELLE. Mrs. Grimison, who made it clear she did not want to be compared to 'Tug Boat Annie,'  retired in 1962 and passed away in Seattle in 1964.

❖ LIBERTY SHIPS––FROM MODEL TO LAUNCHINGS ❖

Henry J. Kaiser, Sr, and his wife, Bess.
They inspect a Liberty Ship model in the early 1940s. 
Henry J. and his son, Edgar, local industrialists built
Libertys for the US government in three yards in Portland, OR. 
Some 30,000 workers helped launch as many 
as four per week.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

West Coast Shipbuilder
Henry J. Kaiser
Used a model in a demonstration of how his
yards launched a 10,500-ton Liberty ship
in 4 days, 15 hours, and 25 minutes.
Original photo dated 13 November 1942 from
the archives of Saltwater People Historical Society©

Liberty Ships was the name given to the EC2 type ship designed for Emergency Construction by US Maritime Commission in WW II. They were nicknamed 'Ugly Ducklings' by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
      The first of 2,711 Liberty Ships was the SIR PATRICK HENRY, launched on 27 Sept 1941. Altogether 2,710 were completed as one burned at the dock.
      The 250,000 parts were pre-fabricated throughout the country and welded together in c. 70 days. A Liberty cost $2,000,000. A group that raised $2 million in War Bonds could suggest a name for a Liberty Ship.

The President visiting the Kaiser yard;
Kaiser-Vancouver built ten EC2s at their Portland Yard.
Roosevelt attended the launch on his President's
Tour of the Nations Defense Installations and War Plants.
original undated photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"Camera in the Kaiser Shipyard"
Launching of the first of three Liberty ships within 24 hours.
Night shot taken at the shipyard with flash and yard lights.
7 April 1944.
Photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

Richmond Shipyard Launching of the last Liberty Ship,
BENJAMIN WARNER
Liberty hull #2700
Henry J. Kaiser, head of the shipyard.
Lita B. Warner, daughter of Sam Warner of motion picture fame.
The vessel was named after the sponsor's grandfather.
Bess Kaiser is at the right.
Dated 1 July 1944.
Original Acme photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

HENRY J. KAISER
Viewing models from his shipyards.
Back stamped 25 September 1946
Acme Telephoto.
Original photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

Henry J. Kaiser, West Coast industrialist, looked over his exhibit of ship models as he prepared to testify 23 September before the House Merchant Marine Committee which was probing wartime shipbuilding profits. In defense of his wartime operations, Kaiser contended that he saved the nation nearly $500,000,000 on war contracts and more than two years of precious time in the construction of Liberty ships. 

To read more about the dimensions, crew, builders, names of the Liberty Ships without listening to me, please see US Maritime Commission.

      Edgar F. Kaiser, native born Washingtonian, who took over the helm of the industrial empire from his founding father, Henry J. Kaiser was the general manager of the three Kaiser shipyards in Portland. He also played major roles in the building of Hoover, Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams. 
       Edgar received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his efforts to increase the availability of low and moderate income housing.  
      The Kaiser Family Foundation purchased the Four Winds Camp in Deer Harbor, Orcas Island, to keep it alive and well after the retirement of Director Ruth Brown, who founded the youth camp in 1927.   

❖ New Seattle Museum and New Ship Model 1976 ❖

Model Maker George Burke
with BEAR
for the new Coast Guard Museum/NW.
Courtesy of Kitsap Magazine 1976.

Bainbridge Island resident George Burke put the finishing touches on a scale model of the famous icebreaker BEAR. The model has become one of the chief attractions of the Coast Guard Museum, which opened in the summer of 1976. Burke took four years to build the supermodel, crafted entirely by hand with plans from the Smithsonian Institution.
      The special display was unveiled at a dedication ceremony of the new museum, located at Pier 36, Seattle in August 1976. Included in the ceremony, attended by c. 100 dignitaries from the maritime community around Puget Sound, was a special award presented to Burke by the Port of Seattle Commission in recognition of his donation.
      Burke learned a lot about the historic ship while constructing her replica. It took many hours of research for pictures, details and historical data before the actual building could begin.
      According to the Kitsap article by Judy Hall, the BEAR called Seattle her home for 41 years.
      Burke said at the time, his model has been valued at over $6,000.
      Historian, US Coast Guard Museum NW volunteer Capt. Gene Davis, Ret'd of Seattle has kindly photographed the model for inclusion here.

Model of the famous BEAR
1976
Coast Guard Museum NW, Seattle WA.
Thank you, builder, George Burke and Capt. Davis.

There is a 'Skipper' Calkins piece on the life-size vessel BEAR, which can be viewed on our site here.

San Juan County connection: Capt. Francis Tuttle who retired to his farm on Orcas Island, a friend of Robert Moran, was in command of the BEAR on the famous mission to rescue eight whaling vessels caught in the ice near Pt. Barrow.
(The late Jane Barfoot Hodde, of Olga, was the person to educate this writer about the Orcas link to that maritime event.)
      The BEAR had just arrived home to Seattle from a six-month cruise in the north but outfitted immediately with supplies and all volunteer officers and crew. Ten months later they came home with the crews of the wrecked whalers.
That report of the 27 Nov. 1897-13 Sept. 1898 expedition has been published by the US Gov't Printing Office, entitled: The Cruise of the US Revenue Cutter BEAR and the Overland Expedition viewed here.
      This year of 2015 celebrates the 100th anniversary of the "Act to Create the United States Coast Guard."
To read more about that and view the work of the Coast Guard Museum at Pier 36, Seattle, here is their site.

For more than forty-two years the Bear patrolled the waters of the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. In addition to routine work, the Bear became celebrated for many dramatic rescues of whalers trapped in Arctic ice. When gold was discovered in Alaska her role became one of law enforcement. The story of the Bear is that of a historic era of seamanship and is also a unique insight into the explorations of then unknown regions of our world.
Book search here––The Great Ice Ship BEAR

❖ SAILING SHIPS ❖ Whatever Our Age

OLE ROEBECK
age 84, Seattle, WA., Sept. 1966
Norsk-American ship's carpenter.

Click to enlarge.
Original photo from the archives of the S. P. H. S.

Sailing ship models of Ole Robeck, a ship's carpenter who worked on the Seattle waterfront for more than 60 years, was part of a Norwegian exhibit at the Nordic Festival in the autumn of 1966. The exhibit was on display in the Flag Plaza Pavilion.
      Robeck's models included the MAUD, of Oslo, that polar explorer Roald Amundsen sailed, and the RESTAURATIONEN, the first Norwegian immigrant ship that Robeck calls "the second MAYFLOWER."
      "The RESTAURATIONEN brought Norwegians to this country in the early 1800s, taking 100 days to make the trip with 53 persons aboard," Robeck said.
      Robeck, a ship's carpenter, was "born and bred in a shipyard" on an island off the Norwegian coast.
      "All there was were ships and water; I learned my trade there," he said.
      He came to Seattle in 1902, and went into semi-retirement in 1958.
      Along with his trade, Robeck's love of sailing ships and making models goes back to his boyhood.
      "I guess I was born with the love of ships. It's been my life and I can't get away from it," he said.
      At the time of this interview he was living in an apartment with his ships models, paintings and prints, as his companions. He also had a cabin on Bainbridge Island.
      "I am never very far from the sea," he said. 
Above text by Marjorie Jones for The Seattle Times; 27 September 1966
There is a post on this Log about MAUD passing through Seattle, that can be viewed here
Do you know if Mr. Robeck's models are in a public historical collection?
      

❖ CAYAFAS––A REAL SAILOR ❖ (Updated with photo added.)

Nick Cayafas, age 90.

At his annual sprucing up and rigging,
atop his 47-ft mast, 1987.
Photo by George Carkonen
 From the archives of the S. P. H. S.

The PERPETUA, a trim two-masted sailing vessel, has long been a familiar landmark at its offshore mooring near Duwamish Head, midway between Harbor Island and Alki Beach.
      For 25 years, the ketch-rigged, white sailboat has been home to Nicholas Cayafas, a mustachioed Greek fisherman who, at 89, still climbs to the top of the 47-ft mast, and sails the 36-ft ketch single-handed.
      The elderly bachelor and his neatly kept boat are almost an anachronism in today’s jet age, virtually the last vestige of Seattle’s once colorful colony of Greek-born fishermen.
      The PERPETUA, for instance, has a miniature chapel in the forward compartment, complete with votive lights and Greek icons, an old-world custom that was commonplace in the days when the city’s Greek fishing fleet included 30 or so boats.
      For many years a Greek crucifix also adorned the PERPETUA’s topmast, but the cross was lost when hoodlums stole the boat several years ago and apparently knocked off the crucifix while going under the Spokane Street Bridge.
      Nick Cayafas is a Seattle old-timer. He came here from Astoria, OR, in 1908. For many years, he and his brother, Chris, who died five years ago, were partners in a long series of fish boats, mostly purse seiners with names such as IKAROS and IKAROS II, NICK C and NICK C II, TWO BROTHERS, CHRIS C––12 boats in all, and they fished from Alaska to the Golden Gate.

Cayafas' NICK C II, August 1949,

at WA Fish and Oyster Co, Pier 54, Seattle, WA.
She picked up ocean-caught salmon from smaller boats 

at Neah Bay before delivering to the city

 every Tuesday and Friday.
Here she is offloading 30,000 lbs of salmon.
Original photo from the archives of the S. P. H. S.©

TWO BROTHERS, 
Seattle, 1977.
From the archives of the S. P. H. S.©

      Today, despite his 89 yrs, Nick doesn’t wear glasses, even for reading, and he stands up to row the dory that takes him from ship to shore, just like his ancestors who fished the Aegean Sea.
      The colorful old-timer with his sweeping mustache and immaculate boat lead an old-world touch to the Harbor Avenue Southwest waterfront.
      George Carkonen, a Seattle Times photographer, whose family has known Nick more than 50 years, recalled when he was a youngster and Nick and other Greek fishermen would take families from Seattle’s Greek community aboard their flag-bedecked boats for Sunday outings to Port Madison, Blake Island, and other places on Puget Sound.
      

Nick Cayafas, born in Ikros, Greece.
With some of the boats he has made since 
he first went to sea. The model on which he works 
represents a ship he crewed at age 14.
At the time of this photo, he was living on W. Orleans, Seattle,
in a house shared with brother Chris, where they had a view 
out over Puget Sound from Tacoma to Whidbey Island. 
Photo by George Carkonen, March 1952.
Original from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

      “Spiro Koutinas, whom we call ‘Sam’, has a Columbia River double-ender and still fishes for salmon, mostly around Blaine. And as for me, I manage to catch a few rock cod but I haven’t done much serious fishing since the government took over my big boat, the Nick C II, an 80-footer, shortly after the outbreak of WWII”, said Nick. Today, Nick is one of the last of the Greek fishermen.
      “I got her back, after the war and did some sardine fishing, also halibut, but by then I had bought the PERPETUA and she has been my home ever since.”
      During recent years, however, Nick makes his home during the winter in a small brick bungalow he owns on 49th Ave S. W. On cold winter mornings, he grins, “it’s more comfortable than the boat.”
      Nick has rigged his boat so that he can sail it by himself, seldom leaving the tiller or cockpit. Mostly he makes short trips, seldom venturing beyond the San Juan Islands.
      “Nick is very self-sufficient,” said Carkonen. “Why should he buy food when there are so many clams, oysters, cod, and red snapper right in our own backyard? He makes a real good clam chowder.”
      “Are you a pretty fair cook?” I asked the elderly bachelor.
      “I manage not to burn the pots,” he replied modestly.
      Most persons, meeting Nick for the first time, are astonished by his happy disposition and almost youthful enthusiasm. Probably because of his stern visage, impressive mustache, and big, work-calloused hands, they mistakenly figure the grizzled, old fisherman as a gruff or crotchety man.
      Actually, Nick is a jolly oldster––an old Nick full of “the old Nick.”
Above text by Glen Carter for The Seattle Times, October 1966
“The families would bring picnic baskets of food, jugs of wine, mandolins, and other musical instruments, and we would barbecue a whole lamb on the beach,” Carkonen said. “The kids would swim all afternoon, while the older folks gossiped, talked politics, argued, and otherwise enjoyed themselves. For the trip home, the fishermen would lash their boats together side-by-side. Sleepy children were put to bed in bunks out of harm’s way, and the older folks would dance Greek dances on the afterdeck or sing the old Greek songs.

      I can still remember the music and laughter drifting over Elliott Bay on a summer night as the boats made their way across the Sound to their home port in the Duwamish Waterway. It was great fun, the unsophisticated era before automobiles became popular and changed people’s habits and customs…”

The next year:
       "The PERPETUA, with an unusual rigging of wishbone-type gaffs which carry her triangular canvas inverted with the wide base at the top of her two masts. She wears no booms. Before Nick was hoisted aloft by Melvin Miller, close friend, West Seattle automobile salesman and sailing enthusiast, Cayafas said:
      "I've been sailing since I was 11. Last night when I went to bed I knew I'd have to decide when I woke up whether I was going to get out of bed and sit in a rocking chair or come over here to the moorage and swing in a bos'n's chair. So here I go."
      Watching with admiration was Curtis Hitchings, operator of the Riverside Marina. 
      "That's Nick for you, Hitchings said. Everybody loves him. He's a wonderful, gentle, thoughtful man who loves to sail and loves his independence.
       I've been trying to buy the PERPETUA for six years from him. It'd be easier to buy a man's right arm.
      He's always said he was going to give her up and quit sailing next year. But he's never been very definite about which next year, and here he goes again."
      Once Nick was aloft and out of earshot, Miller added:
      "He's the kindest, sailingest, hardiest man I've ever known. He's lost none of his admirable Greek heritage.
      There are no mattresses aboard. He sleeps on a bear skin and wraps up in a couple of goat skins. His lights are all kerosene.
      He has her rigged up so he can handle the jib, the staysail, the mainsail, and the spanker all by himself from the cockpit. 
      He's a real sailor."
Bottom text by Robert A. Barr for The Seattle Times, 5 May 1967.

❖ A Ship for Captain Louis Van Bogaert ❖

Captain Louis Van Bogaert
Original 1957 photo
from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"Captain Louis Van Bogaert, who retired in 1957 after 54 years on Puget Sound vessels, had a special fondness for one boat, the ROSALIE.

      He had gone to work on the ROSALIE as a watchman in 1910, later he was second mate, then first mate, and finally, in 1914, her skipper.
      So the captain was especially happy about a gift that he took back to his home in Alhambra, CA, after a visit in Seattle.

Ralph C. Hitchcock
Ship model maker, 1965, Lopez Island.
Original photo from the
archives of the S. P. H. S.

      It was a bottle with a scale model of the ROSALIE in it.
      The model was the work of Ralph C. Hitchcock, a retired Boeing engineer. In retirement he became a professional model builder, producing 22 models, most all of museum quality. Mr. Hitchcock and his wife lived on Lopez Island for several years and bestowed 3 ship models to the collection of the Lopez Historical Museum. His work also went to the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, the WA. State Hist. Museum and the Smithsonian.
     Hitchcock and his wife, Eva, had driven from CA to Seattle with Capt. Van Bogaert and on several occasions Van Bogaert had wanted to stop and look for a bottle with a ship model in it. But Hitchcock always found an objection.
      'I'll get you a bottle,' Hitchcock kept saying.
      But Van Bogaert was surprised when the bottle turned out to have a model which Hitchcock himself had made.
      Hitchcock made the model of the famous Puget Sound passenger ship the FLYER which is in the aforementioned State Museum at Tacoma, but the ROSALIE is the first model he ever assembled in a bottle.
      'And it only took twice as long to make as I thought it would,' he said. That made it an 85-hour job.
      The model was in 34 pieces before Hitchcock began assembling it inside the bottle, which has a neck with a diameter of only three-quarters of an inch across.
      The ROSALIE, 136 ft, was built in Alameda, CA in 1893. She carried passengers between San Francisco and Oakland when it cost only a nickel to make the trip.
      The ROSALIE came to Puget Sound, but when gold was discovered in AK she was put into service between Seattle and the North. Among her skippers, while she was owned by the Alaska Steamship Co was Capt. Johnny (Dynamite) O'Brien.
      Much of the ROSALIE's service was in the San Juan Islands as part of the Puget Sound Navigation  Co. fleet. That was where Van Bogaert served aboard her.
      ROSALIE's career came to an end 22 June 1918 when she caught fire while tied to a pier on the Duwamish Waterway and was a total loss."
The above text from The Seattle Times. 1965
Ralph HItchcock recorded that he had made 22 ship models up to this date.

 

Steamer ROSALIE, 

West Sound, Orcas Island, WA.

The captain left his Orcas home 

in 1903 to sign on the  

shrimper VIOLA. 

He worked on the water for 54 years.

When a passenger asked him if he knew 

where all the rocks were on his route--

he replied--'No, But I know where they aren't."

Photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©