❖ MOSQUITO FLEET RACING FOR TRADE ❖

S.S. VERONA
207675
112.9' x 22.8' x 7.3' 
Undated photo from the J.A. Turner Collection
S.P.H.S.©

"While Puget Sound history recalls dozens of spectacular steamer races, none could have been more heated that the rivalry between the HYAK and the VERONA about 80 years ago––near the end of the "mosquito fleet" era.
      The sleek HYAK, built at Portland in 1909, was the flagship in the Kitsap County Transportation Co.'s fleet of passenger and freight vessels, that served Bainbridge Island and docks of call beyond––including Poulsbo, settled by immigrant Norwegians in the early 1880s.
      The VERONA, built at Dockton on Maury Island in 1910, was acquired by a Poulsbo cooperative when travelers became dissatisfied with the Kitsap company's schedules and fares. Thus the stage was set for intense competition, and races between the rivals.
      In those days, numerous docks jutted out from shore in all Puget Sound waterways––flag stops, where passengers and freight embarked or disembarked.
      On the Seattle-Poulsbo route, stops were made at such points as Scandia, Keyport, Brownsville, Venice, Enetai, Gibson, Westwood, Crystal Springs, Pleasant Beach, South Beach, Fort Ward, Seabold, Agate Point and Port Madison.
      Especially on Saturdays, trade was brisk––with farmers along the route taking their produce to Seattle for sale in places like the Public Market. And frequently the farmers found time to see a show and do some shopping.
     

S.S. HYAK
206294
Built 1909 at the Supple Yard, Portland, Or.
134-ft, 195 t.
Triple expansion engine (12,18,32 x 18) with steam
at 225 lbs working pressure and developing 750 HP.
In McCurdy's Marine History, it is said she attained a speed of
c. 20 mph, at times, on her voyage up the coast.

S.S. HYAK
206294
Both HYAK original photos by J.A. Turner
Archives of the S.P.H.S.©

Accordingly, the first steamer out of the Poulsbo overnight stop skimmed off the cream of the trade––except that the VERONA, the "farmers' boat," had a popularity advantage over the big company's HYAK.

      Generally, the VERONA and HYAK left Poulsbo on the same early morning schedule and then raced to see which would get to Scandia first, and so on, from dock to dock.
      Capt. Alf Hostmark skippered the HYAK and Capt. Torger Birkeland was master of the VERONA, at that time. They were friends, yet determined rivals. On at least one occasion the two vessels collided while hustling toward a dock.
      To get maximum speed, safety valves on the steam apparatus were tied or braced down, and once the VERONA's stack got so hot she caught fire. (No serious causalities.)
      On weekends, the two vessels also carried commuters to their summer homes at such places as Crystal Springs and Westwood––and to a dance hall resort at Venice.
      The competition ended in 1923, when the KCTC bought out the VERONA's owners and the latter vessel donned the 'white collar' around her smokestack.
      Soon, though, shovel-nosed automobile ferryboats took over the trade. The building of roads and he automobile doomed the 'mosquito fleet––ending an exciting and picturesque era in Puget Sound transportation."
Above words by Ross Cunningham. Published by The Seattle Times. 25 May 1976.
Below from Steamer's Wake. Faber, Jim. 
"One of the Mosquito Fleet's key roles was that of serving as a farm-to-market highway for settlers. To farm women particularly it was a welcome role, one that introduced a measure of warmth and companionship into an often dreary rural setting. The steamers serving farms on Bainbridge, Vashon and Whidbey Islands and other stops, furnished bright swatches of color on market day in Seattle. Here produce houses, and by 1906 the Pike Street Farmer's Market, provided a bazaar within walking distance of Colman Dock and Pier 3 where most steamers docked. Writes Murray Morgan, co-author of The Pike Place Market:
      When the boat whistled its approach, the farmers or their wives would gather on the dock, bringing chickens dressed and wrapped in cheese cloth; butter molded into rose patterns, wrapped in butterpaper, and packed in wooden boxes; eggs nestled in straw baskets; root vegetables in burlap sacks; milk in galvanized cans; crates of fruit; bundles of rhubarb."

❖ U OF WASHINGTON CREW WINS GOLD IN BERLIN ❖

Very much in the good book news this year is the story of the University of Washington win in the 1936 Olympic games held in Berlin, Germany. The master craftsman, "Mr. Pocock", the coach, Al Ulbrickson, the amazing new 62-ft Western red cedar HUSKY CLIPPER, her tough crew, the supportive university, Hitler watching in the stands, and one talented writer, Daniel James Brown, all add up to an unforgettable story. As this post is being typed, the mail arrives at  the local wharf––the latest Wooden Boat magazine Number 233––with an 8-page touching article The Boat that Beat Hitler by Daniel James Brown, of Redmond, WA., author of The Boys in the Boat, published by Viking (2013). 

U of Washington sweeps the regatta with California.
UW won the Varsity, Frosh and Jayvee races on Lake
WA, to make a clean sweep of the annual regatta 
with U of Cal. The Huskies won all three races by
wide margins, setting new course records.
Photo shows the UW driving into the finish three lengths
ahead of the Golden Bears. Winners at left.
Photo dated 18 April 1936.
From the archives of S.P.H.S.©

Last home practice before heading east,
to the Princeton trials.
UW Crew, Lake Washington, 2 June 1936.

Only once in the years of association could the shell builder, Mr. Pocock, recall the coach, Al Ulbrickson showing any emotion.That was after his Husky crew defeated an outstanding Penn crew at the Olympic qualifying finals in New Jersey: 

"Al was as unemotional as ever during the race in which his crew won the right to represent the US at the Olympic Games in Berlin. Some time after the finish, he and I were walking back to the hotel. Suddenly he stopped, held out his hand and said, 'thanks, George, for your help.' Coming from Al, that was the equivalent of fireworks and a brass band." George Pocock.

After the UW victory at Princeton the team had one week before sailing on the steamship MANHATTAN, to Hamburg, en route to the Olympic Games. Their revered boatbuilder was with them.  

Photo above––crossing the line in first place is U of W.
1936 Summer Olympics, Berlin, Germany.
Al Ulbrickson's Gold Medal crew consisted of 

Coxswain, Bob Moch, 

Roger Morris, bow oar,

Charles Day, No. 2 oar, 

Gordon Adam, No. 3 oar, 

John White, No. 4 oar, 

Jim McMillan, No. 5 oar, 

George Hunt, No. 6 oar, 

Joe Rantz, No. 7 oar, 

Don Hume, stroke oar. 

UW Crew of 1936
At a 40th Reunion at Conibear Shellhouse, 1976. 

Empty place for the late Charles Day who pulled No. 2 oar.

Photo by Jerry Gay for The Seattle Times©
Original from the photo collection of the S. P. H. S.

✍ BOOK REVIEW
By 'Nagronsky' of Skagit Valley, WA, adapted from Amazon.
   
      "As a lifelong Husky fan, I was excited when I read the synopsis that this was about the 1936 University of Washington crew. I'd always been more familiar with the eight that won the 1948 World Championship over the USSR crew in Moscow but I love tales of 'small town' Seattle and the Great Generation, so I dove eagerly into it.

      Trust me, this is not a book simply about rowing, but also is about what the West, the United States, and Europe were going through in the mid-1930s, as Nazi Germany was flexing muscles. It also touches on class systems in the US and Great Britain. I was immediately strongly reminded of Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit: An American Legend and her Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, and the subjects of both books are so well-done that they almost read like novels, which is the case with this book, the Hillenbrands I mentioned, George McGoverns' The Great Coalfield War, and Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. Coincidentally, Egan and Hillenbrand are both cited in this book (as is the patron saint of Lesser Seattle, Emmett Watson.)
      Although I've seen many races through Seattle's Montlake Cut, I never knew until reading this that crew races were formerly staged over 3 miles (rather than 2000 meters) on Lake Washington (and the Oakland estuary and the Hudson River), or that they ran north of Sand Point all the way to Sheridan Beach, or that viewing trains ran along the course from University Station on what is now the Burke-Gilman Trail (the former Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway). I'd never known that the famous shell builder, George Pocock, had won the Thames boatman's race (Doggett's Coat and Badge) before emigrating to Vancouver and Seattle with his brother.
      I'd known for years (pre-'House') that actor Hugh Laurie had rowed for Cambridge, but was unaware that his father had also won his rowing Blue and rowed stroke oar there and on the 1936 England Olympic crew. Actually, Laurie didn't know until he found a medal among his father's socks. The coxswain on the Cambridge and England eight was John Noel Duckworth. When captured by the Japanese, Duckworth objected to his captors' treatment of his fellow prisoners who were wounded and offered that he himself be mistreated. He was a POW at Changoi Camp in Singapore, and then was moved to the Siam Railway project (think Bridge on the River Kwai). We Americans aren't the only people with a Greatest Generation.
      Brown chooses to focus on one member of the UW crew who he happened to become acquainted with Joe Rantz, and Rantz's childhood, adolescence, and struggles to pay tuition are almost worthy of a single book. Rantz was able to endure his mother's death, being abandoned as a teen by his father and new wife, and muscling a jackhammer (while dangling from ropes) working the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam.
      Once the UW crew and the Olympic team reaches Berlin, Brown gives more insights into life in and around mid-1930s Berlin, as well as into the disagreements between Joseph Goebbels and Leni Riefenstahl.
      I really can't recommend this book highly enough. While I loved Seabiscuit, I'm not a horse racing fan. With Louie Zamperini's spiritual redemption in Unbroken, I could care less about Billy Graham, but loved this book. As regards The Boys in the Boat, as I said previously, this is not simply about the sport of rowing, but is so much more."

THE BOYS IN THE BOAT book search

     

UW Crew, Winners of Gold at 1936 Olympics, Berlin
50th Reunion at team dock.
Space unoccupied by their late teammate Charles Day.
Photo by Alan Berner for The Seattle Times©.
 Dated 1 August 1986.
Original from photo collection of the S. P. H. S.

The HUSKY CLIPPER can be seen on display at the University. Hail to the cast, who have all rowed on.
      

For the best historical documentation of Mr. George Pocock, the premier racing shell builder in the world, Gordon Newell has written the classic Ready All! George Yeoman Pocock and Crew Racing, University of Washington Press, 1987. 
A new edition with a foreward by Dick Erickson including two cover photos from the Saltwater People Historical Society archives was published in 2015: 
READY ALL book search 

❖ Summer Sail Race ❖ of 1895

L-R: Race winner Charlie Fischer

 with Tyee YC Commodore Joe Williamson.

Photo dated 1951.
Photo by the Seattle marine historian/photographer Joe Williamson,
from the archives of the S. P. H. S.©

"Charlie Fischer's old yachting trophy, from which happy members of the old Elliott Bay Yacht Club drank to the great sport of sailboat racing one gala evening in 1895, has been brought back to Seattle from Fischer's Bainbridge Island home.
      The big silver cup was Fischer's prize for winning the yacht club's 1895 race over a 16-mile course. The race began at the club, which was on Elliott Bay near where the Union Oil Co. dock now is situated. The racers went to Four-mile Rock, then toward a buoy off West Seattle, and finished at the coal bunkers, which then were one of the most important installations on the waterfront.
      Fischer had built his boat himself and had launched her only two days before the race.

 DOLPHIN

Charlie Fischer and crew, 1895.
Original photo from Joe Williamson collection, 

from the archives of SPHS©

      The boat was named the DOLPHIN, and Fischer knew she was a good craft, but in spite of the boat and his racing skill he was in second place as he rounded the buoy and went into the home stretch. The wind was bad, and Fischer knew that common sense said to use a little caution.
      'But I decided to take a chance. I told myself, I'm going for a swim or I'm going to win. I won.'
      For more than half a century the cup which Fischer won has been a prized possession. He has shown it to anyone who has visited him at his home at Eagledale and has talked boats.
      One of the visitors whose interest in boats has never waned was Joe Williamson, a marine photographer and newly elected commodore of the Tyee Yacht Club. Williamson's wife, Evelyn, is Fischer's niece.
      On a recent visit to Seattle, Fischer handed Williamson the cup. 'I want to give this to someone who really likes boats. The cup is yours.' Fischer said.
      Fischer's life, incidentally, also has been linked to a vessel even more historic than the DOLPHIN, though not as high in Fischer's affection
      Fischer was born in Denmark. When he came to the US as a boy about 7-yrs old, he traveled in the Cunard Line's proud ship, the PARTHIA, which had been built at Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1870.

VICTORIA (ex-PARTHIA)
Shown a few years after Fischer purchased passage from Denmark to USA.
Original photo from the archives of the S. P. H. S.©

      That ship calls Seattle her home. She is now the Alaska Steamship Co's VICTORIA, the oldest active ship in the American merchant marine.
Writer unknown.
Seattle Times, 28 December 1951

❖ The Steamboat RACE ❖ 1945

Sternwheeler CITY OF ABERDEEN

Commanded by Capt. Gus Soderman.

Photographer unknown,

From the archives of the S.P.H.S. ©

"The steamboat story of early days of Puget Sound sprouted when your cruising correspondent casually mentioned to Fred Marvin, Port President, that he had conversed with old "Nick" Perring at Olympia. Exclaimed Fred:
      'Gosh all hemlock! Is Nick still alive? I am glad to hear this. You know, Nick is one of the greatest engineers Puget Sound ever had? A great steamboat man.'
      This fact was agreed to. It was added that this pioneer marine man had told a bit of the story of the famous race in which the CITY OF ABERDEEN had beaten the famous GREYHOUND in a trifle of a race between Seattle and Tacoma.
      'You can bet your life she did!' The ABERDEEN beat her. I saw the finish of the race. This was on Sunday afternoon in the very early 90s. I've got the date in one of my old log books at the ranch.'
      So the story of this Puget Sound steamboat race was authenticated by the port commissioner. This was one of the great steamboat races of the Sound. Private, to a great extent, the affair was held closely in the minds of those taking part.
      Nicholas C. Perring, 'Nick' to old associates, started his career on the Sound in 1878 on the sidewheel tug GOLIAH. In his time he served on many of the famous steamers, including the GREYHOUND.
      'That was quite a race. Old man Willey came aboard one day and asked me if I could best the GREYHOUND with the ABERDEEN. I told him I could, providing I was allowed to have the say in loading the ABERDEEN. She was a deceiving outfit when it came to speed. To run she had to be trimmed just right. I knew the GREYHOUND. She was fast and had a great reputation for speed.

Sternwheeler GREYHOUND,

Commanded on race day by Capt. Ed Darrington.

Original photograph from the Marine Salon

Archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

Preparing for the Race:
      'Well, we began to get ready for the run. I had the boys save the best of the fuel. We stowed in plenty of bark to fill up the holes in the firebox. Bark makes a terrific heat.
      The time of the race came and we went to it. I have forgotten who was engineer on the 'HOUND' or who was our skipper. The ABERDEEN hit it up at a good clip. When the boys passed the word back that the GREYHOUND's crew were heaving their cordwood overboard I knew we had them. We beat them into the dock at Tacoma by some distance--in fact, when we docked the 'HOUND' was nearer Brown's Point than the dock.'
      When questioned as to the excess steam carried in the boiler, if any, the veteran engineer parried:
      'Of course, the greater amount of steam carried will naturally increase the speed to an extent.'
      Reporting his observations, Commissioner Marvin said:
      'This race was a fixed affair between the crews of the steamers and several interests to settle the question of which of the steamers was the faster. The race was on the quiet so far as publicity went. There were not many passengers on board, but plenty of excitement. I think the ABERDEEN passed the 'HOUND' at Dash Point. But it's a fact you could hear them coming before you could see them. Both boats were wide open and the long exhausts sounded like a half dozen locomotives going up a hill. I guess the crew of this GREYHOUND lost their shirts and payrolls in that race.'
      The CITY OF ABERDEEN was built at Aberdeen, WA. The steamer was 127-ft long. The craft plied between Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia for a number of years. In later years the vessel was altered to a tug and operated out of Bellingham"
Above text by James Bashford
Tacoma Times, Sept. 1945.
"James O. Bashford was a 'roustabout' on the Tacoma waterfront, eventually becoming engineer on some of the boats plying the harbor about 1905. Apparently neither a professional reporter nor photographer, Bashford nonetheless put in a stint on the Tacoma Ledger and was ambitious in both capacities, leaving behind copious notes and photographs, many of which now repose in the C. Arthur Foss collection."
The above profile on the Ledger columnist Bashford 
by Gordon P. Jones 
Puget Sound Maritime Historcal Assoc. newsletter supplement Nov. 1966.

❖ Waterfront Pageantry ❖

VIRGINIA V, 

steaming into Elliott Bay, Seattle, WA.

Date between 1934-1939.
Original photograph from the James A. Turner Collection,

Saltwater People Historical Society©

 

"We were young and full of vinegar in those early years of Seattle's Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society [PSMHS]. Steamboat races, tugboat races, and pyrotechnics were frequently on our minds. Action we wanted and action we got--action mixed with history--a novel combination. Our first big endeavor was to race on Elliott Bay the last of the inland passenger steamers in an epic contest for the crown.

SIGHTSEER on Lake Washington, Seattle.
Dated 1936
Click image to enlarge.
Original gelatin-silver photo from the 
Saltwater People Historical Society.

SIGHTSEER (ex-VASHONA)
Original photo from the
James A. Turner Collection,
Saltwater People Historical Society archives© 

Pitted against each other were the venerable steamers VIRGINIA V and the SIGHTSEER, skippered by Captain 'Howling' Parker and Captain Harry Wilson, respectively. This led to the annual Elliott Bay tugboat races, sponsored by the PSMHS for many years and involving scores of tugs of all sizes and horsepower, coming here from as far as Alaska to the north and the Columbia River to the south, with a generous sprinkling of Canadian challengers as well. We started a nationwide show, one that was copied in several large American ports.

      Then came that featured race between the last of the sternwheelers--the SKAGIT CHIEF, SKAGIT BELLE, and W. T. PRESTON.

SKAGIT CHIEF,  SKAGIT BELLE, and W. T. PRESTON 
Churning up Elliott Bay 

20 August 1950.
The course of the Seafair event ran from 

Magnolia Bluff to the foot of Lenore Street.

Click image to enlarge.
Race sponsored by the 

Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society.
Photo by Larry Dion for the Seattle Times©.
Original gelatin-silver photograph from the archives of the 

Saltwater People Historical Society©

The black horse PRESTON took the honors. And when the annual Seafair rolled around, the destruction of Neptune's ship fell in our hands, and Elliott Bay was the scene of the fiery end of many worn-out hulls including the historic BELLINGHAM, the first ship of the Alaska Steamship Co., Black Ball Line, and Northland Transportation Co.

Photo by James A. Turner, Seattle, WA.
Date and event unknown.
Original photo from the archives of 
the Saltwater People Historical Society©

Those were rip-snorting days of fun and frolic, and we salty dogs and dock wallopers really lived it up.
Text by Jim Gibbs
The Sea Chest
Quarterly membership journal of the Puget Sound Maritime Society
June 1969