❖ STAR OF Bengal 1898--1908 ❖

STAR OF BENGAL 
Courtesy of the State Library of Queensland.

"The ship tragedy that shook the world was the loss of the Star of Bengal. This vessel was originally built of iron at the Harland & Wolff yard at Belfast, Ireland in 1873. She measured 262 feet in length and was 1,877 tons. After trading worldwide for several years she was transferred to the flag of Hawaii and from 1898 to 1900 traded the islands and California under the J. J. Smith house flag. In 1900 the Bengal received U.S. registry and six years later was purchased by the Alaska Packers Assoc. Her awful demise came on 20 September 1908.
      Though the details surrounding the tragedy have never been made clear, it appears from the facts that there was a gross miscarriage of justice as an outcome of the hearing into the matter.
      

Captain Nicholas Wagner
and his author/daughter Joan Lowell.
He was master of the Star of Bengal
when she was lost in 1908.
Original photo from the archives of
the Saltwater People Log©.
Click image to enlarge.

In Joan (Wagner) Lowell’s best-selling but controversial book, The Cradle of the Deep (1929,) Captain Nicholas Wagner who was master of the Star of Bengal, is believed by some to have used his daughter’s book as a sounding board for his account of what actually happened. Though he took the full brunt of the blame and had his papers removed, a portion of justice was restored when he received amnesty several months later and returned to sea.

           His cause, however, was not necessarily aided by the book; it was the story of the captain's daughter who was reputedly raised aboard her father's schooner from the time she was a baby until the full bloom of youth at age 17. So authentically was it written that no sailor could have initially denied that there could have been a possibility of deceit. But as it turned out, Joan Lowell like any other young lady had spent most of her childhood in her hometown (Berkeley,) receiving the usual education through high school. She must have sat at her dad's side for endless hours hearing of his experiences as master of the schooner Minnie A. Caine and the ship Star of Bengal. Based on fact but mixed with a generous seasoning of fiction, salty cuss words and sex, the book was released by the publishers as purely non-fiction and was sold with that understanding. When the author was exposed by local residents a few months later, the whole thing blew up like a firecracker, the book had already gone through several printings, the cry of "foul play" forced the publishers to offer the money back to any disillusioned purchaser. The added publicity only tended to promote the book more and it was the year's best seller. 

      The generally accepted true account of the wreck as told at the hearing follows:

      The Alaska Packers Association bark Star of Bengal was en route back to San Francisco from Wrangell when the tragedy occurred on Coronation Island on 20 September 1908. She was commanded by Captain Nicholas Wagner with Gus A. Johnson as mate. The iron-hulled vessel departed from Wrangell with about 50,000 cases of salmon in her holds and carried scores of cannery workers being brought home from the company canneries in Alaska. They were mostly Orientals.

      The steam tenders Hattie Gage, Captain Dan Farrer, and the Kayak under a Captain Hamilton, handled the towing hawsers as the vessel was led through the dangerous Alexander Archipelago toward the open sea where she was to drop her lines and spread her canvas.

      Captian Farrer was in overall charge of the two tugs, which were actually cannery tenders owned by the APA. As long as calm weather prevailed they encountered no difficulty with the Bengal but at midnight when a brisk wind arose and turned into a gale two hours later, the trouble began with a capital T. The Kayak which had little draft aft caused most of the strain to be placed on the other tender. The Kayak soon became completely unmanageable and the tugs were working against each other instead of together. Convinced that to keep up the strain would have meant outright disaster for all three vessels, the tug skippers ordered the lines cut and made a run for it, leaving the laboring Bengal at the mercy of the storm.

      Before the tenders abandoned the scene, Captain Wagner, in desperation, had let the anchors go to thwart the drift toward the desolate island. The bark brought up in about ten fathoms, 50 feet from the beach. The tugs had sought shelter at Warren Island some 12 miles away, where temporary repairs were made, after which the Hattie Gage steamed back to Wrangell seeking assistance from the government cable ship Burnside.

      In the terrible blow, the Star of Bengal and her terrified company waited in miserable solitude. Straining on her cable the ship was fully open to the storm off exposed Helm Point of a lee shore with precipitous cliffs.

      Four courageous men, Henry Lewald, Olaf Hansen, and Fred Matson, able seamen, and Frank Muir, a cannery cook, volunteered to get a line ashore. Their boat was smashed to bits in the surf but they succeeded in gaining the beach and making the line fast. In the interim, the straining Star of Bengal parted her cables and struck the rocks. Within the hour the vessel broke up, only her mizzen topmast marking the spot of the grave. As the hull split open the steady flow of salmon cases and heavy steel drums were swept into the voted interspersed with the b bodies of struggling humans. The giant walls of water combed the devastating scene of man's losing b battle against the sea. It was mayhem.

      Later Captain Wagner who was among the handful of survivors gave this official account:

      "When the final shock came, the Star of Bengal appeared to heave up her entrails in three sections. As I was thrown into the water I saw the amidships beams of solid iron come out in a tangled mass. The force necessary to produce this is scarcely conceivable. So strong had been preceding gusts that a five-inch iron davit was snapped short off. After I was thrown into the water, any attempt to swim appeared ridiculous. As I struggle only to keep afloat, I was hurled toward shore among a thousand cases of salmon and hundreds of metal drums that constituted our cargo. I was practically unconscious when I reached the  beach."

      Though there has been some controversy as to how many were actually aboard the Star of Bengal most accounts placed the total at 132. Only 22 survived and they were picked up many hours later by the errant Kayak after the storm abated. There were reputedly 74 or 75 Orientals aboard and all but two perished. The Caucasians that drowned were mostly the ship's crew.

      Captain Wagner was extremely bitter, charging criminal cowardice on the part of the tug skippers, who insisted that they would have accomplished nothing but the destruction of their own vessels and crews by hanging on longer. The inspectors of the Alaska district agreed with them apparently, for they were not censured, while Captain Wagner who was in no way responsible for the tragic episode had his license suspended, as an unjustifiable act which was later rescinded by chief inspector Bermingham at San Francisco."

 Jim Gibbs. Pacific Square-Riggers.      

❖ GOING FOR GOLD ❖ By Sail San Francisco to Alaska

Schooner FRED J. WOOD
121109
Built in 1899 by George H. Hitchings,
Mathews Yard, Hoquiam, WA
181' x 38.1' x 14'
681 G.t. 601 N.t.
Preparing for castoff from San Francisco,
July 1923.
Click image to enlarge.
Original photo from the archives of the
Saltwater People Historical Society©

"After chasing the golden rainbow, and finding no bag of gold at the end, seven modern Argonauts, including Capt. Nicholas Borgeson, members of a gold-seeking expedition which sailed from San Francisco 6 July, returned to Seattle from the Seward peninsula district of Alaska aboard the Alaska Steamship Co liner VICTORIA.
      Many men, women, and children were in the party which voyaged to the northland where they expected to find gold on the shores of the Bering Sea, but ill-fate ended their adventure and they returned disillusioned and determined never again to seek the rainbow's end.
      Just as they were ready to land on what they had been told were the 'golden beaches of Port Clarence Bay,' their ship, the schooner FRED J. WOOD, was wrecked in an 80-mile gale and they were left destitute on the barren shores of Alaska.
      Fortunately, they had been shipwrecked near an Alaska missionary station and were taken in by Elmer Dahl, who lives at this isolated spot on the coast. For 3 weeks the stranded Argonauts lived on the shores of Port Clarence Bay, and then the power schooner BOXER, Capt. S. Whitlam of the US Bureau of Education, hove in sight. She was a welcome rescue ship and the gold seekers were soon aboard the government vessel bound for Nome. All those who arrived in Seattle aboard the VICTORIA were members of the crew of the FRED J. WOOD. The other members of the expedition are aboard the steamship DUFORD of the Alaska-Siberian Navigation Co and are due in Seattle next week.
      Members who arrived are, Capt. Nicholas Borgeson, master, Mrs. Borgeson, Karl Klenke, mate, H. Anderson, Joseph Conley, John Stuth, and J. McDay, sailors.
      On 27 Sept we anchored in Port Clarence Bay to await lighters when a great storm arose. It was soon blowing 80mph and although we anchored two miles offshore, we were driven on the beach. The ship went ashore dragging her anchors, so fierce was the gale.'
      A.H. Moore of Los Angeles, head of the expedition was formerly an expressman at Nome. He went to San Francisco and Los Angeles to organize the expedition. They were all stockholders in the venture. Moore told the members that he had 50 miles of beach and 5,000 acres of gold-bearing sands and a large dredge on the bay which would net at least $40,000 per day. There were 105 adults and children in the expedition. The FRED J. WOOD was equipped with radio, phonograph, games, and carried a cow, sheep, horses, an airplane, and an automobile.
Above text; The Seattle Times 7 Nov. 1923
      
1902, 30 July: Capt. Jorgen J. Jacobsen, age 43, well-known shipmaster was stabbed to death while in command of FRED J. WOOD on the high seas on a voyage from Astoria, Oregon, to Kau Chow, China. The mixed crew of French, Portuguese, and Norwegians bestowed upon the captain their asseveration that he was unusually kind towards his men in both language and actions.
      The murderer, the ship's Japanese cabin boy, Tanbara Gusaburo, was held in custody and delivered to the authorities upon the schooner's arrival at Honolulu. Mrs. Jacobson and the crew on watch at the time of the crime were also left as witnesses, the vessel continuing her voyage in charge of the mate Henry Meyers. 
1902, 14 August: Tanbara was hanged at 12:30 for the murder of Captain Jorgen J. Jacobsen. A reprieve was granted by Gov. Dole to allow an appeal to Washington but President Roosevelt refused to exercise executive clemency. 

H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Gordon Newell, editor. p. 85.
Hawaiian Star. 6 August 1902. Condensed from a gruesome full-page report.

❖ HOSTMARK AND THE HATTIE ❖

HATTIE HANSEN
O.N. 96233
Built 1893 at what was known on her US
documentation papers as Pontiac, WA.
Ordered by Capt. W.K. Curtis but sold before completion
to Capt. John L. Hansen.
HATTIE was later renamed SECHELT
by last owners in B.C., Canada.
71' x 15.7' x 6.6'
113 G.t. / 77 N.t.
Click image to enlarge.
Original photo collected by J. Williamson; from the
archives of the Saltwater People Log©

"Between the day that the Annie Gray went into service, and the night the Rosario was taken out of it, Hostmark saw cross-sound transportation develop. His career was linked closely with the companies which built up the routes, fought each other bitterly in the days of competition, and gradually brought about an integrated system. One of the transportation pioneers was Capt. John L. Hansen of the Hansen Transportation Co. One of his boats was the Hattie Hansen, named in honor of the captain's daughter.
      Alf Hostmark loved both the girl and the boat. In 1897 he married the daughter and became the skipper of the boat named for her.
      In 1907, when the Kitsap County Transportation Co., was formed, Hostmark was one of its organizers, along with W.L. Gazzam and H.A. Hansen, a skipper, and O.L. Hansen, an engineer, sons of Capt. John J. Hansen.
      Those were the days of rugged individualists, with no holds barred as skippers and their boats fought for passengers, freight, and sea room. Races between the boats were common, and collisions frequent. 
      One bitter rivalry was between Capt. Hostmark, then on the steamboat Kitsap, and Captain Chris Moe of the Monticello. Eventually, their two boats crashed.
      Capt. Hostmark, righteously indignant, charged that Captain Moe deliberately had him run down. 
       Steamboat inspectors, more tolerant of such things than their successors are now, decided that the accident wouldn't have occurred "had the masters been on friendly terms," and the best thing to do was forget it.
      Both men could laugh about it later. They became fast friends."
Source: The Seattle-Times, 30 December 1951. 

CAPTAIN ALF HOSTMARK
Dated June 1951.
He started sailing Puget Sound in 1889
when he family arrived from Norway.
His father Capt. Adolph Hostmark operated
the post office where Poulsbo was later established.
Capt. Alf commanded the HATTIE HANSEN,
the HYAK, and was skipper for the Black Ball Line
until the merger with Puget Sound Navigation Co.
When WA. State Ferries took over, the captain
was in command of the Fauntleroy-Vashon
run until a heart attack slowed his course in 1953.
Original photo from the archives of the
Saltwater People Historical Society©


 

SECHELT (ex-HATTIE HANSEN)
March 1911:
The SECHELT began running on the Victoria-Sooke route (with her new name) although most Victoria shipping men considered the narrow little craft unfit for service in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and prophesy of trouble was frequent.

24 March 1911: Near Race Rocks, lost with all hands, 18, crew and passengers.
      There is some incorrect information posted on a Seattle website accessed recently. There were no survivors.
      Because of the loss of life, there was a huge BC government investigation. This is posted on Library and Archives Canada regarding the steamer SECHELT  and her quick plunge 40 fathoms down in a south-west gale. 
       The crown examined a Surveyor for Lloyds Register of Shipping, a senior lighthouse keeper, a steamboat inspector, chief engineer, a surveyor, long-time ship masters, a superintendent of the marine railway, a boiler & machinery inspector, dock agent, wharfinger, a hull inspector, examiner of masters & mates, the lone eye witness and one of the two owners who was not on board for the trip. There were inquiries into the depth of hold, the term shade deck, scupper gates, mean draft, cargo ports, belt combing, broken sea at Race Rocks, an eddy wind, hand deck pump, reserve buoyancy, the character of the mate, dimensions of the hatch, the contents of the freight, where it was stowed, how much it weighed, the lines of the vessel and much more, I am still reading the 400+ pages.
H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest; Gordon Newell, editor. Seattle, WA., Superior Publishing. 
Library and Archives Canada
List of US Merchant Vessels of the US. 1901. p. 250.
      

❖ WRECKS ❖ SHIPS R-S ❖

WRECKS

Ships R - S

Work in progress (1)

SAINT FRANCIS

O.N. 115835

Built 1882
Lost 14 May 1917
Capt. J.A. Rosengren
1 mile south of Middle Point (now Sennett Point)
Unimak Island, AK.

SAINT FRANCIS
231'
1,898 G.t. / 1,757 N.t. 
she departed San Francisco on 21 April 1917 bound 
Kvichak, Bristol Bay with a crew of 17.
Click to enlarge.
Original photo from the archives of
the Saltwater People Historical Society©

Saint Francis was a downeaster built in Bath, Maine. The square-rigger spent most of her career on the Pacific. After a long term of duty with the Alaska Fisherman's Packing Co, according to the Marine Digest, she passed to Libby, McNeill & Libby when she was lost.

USCG Report of Casualty, 15 May 1917:
"At night and dark, fresh SW, misty, moderate.
1 mile south of Middle Point, missed tack, in veering vessel, went ashore. Unable to do anything. Steamers NORWOOD and GOLIAH stood by and rescued people –– took all on board. Total loss." Captain J.A. Rosengren

The FRANCIS was carrying a cargo of 1,500 tons of general merchandise and cannery supplies valued at $150,000. The ship was valued at $75,000. Both were insured for ? amount.

Source:
Marine Digest. Number 50, August 14, 1965.
Alaska Shipwrecks website.

❖ BUILT AT BALLARD: LOST TO BARROW ❖

Schooner TRANSIT
145607
547 G.t. 508.50 N.t.
165.2' x 37.1' x 13.1'
Launched 1891, Salmon Bay, opposite Ballard, WA.
Builder T. H. Petersen is front row, 2nd from the right,
Mrs. Petersen is at the left.
The schooner was built for E.P. Nissen, a merchant from
San Francisco, CA. where the TRANSIT
was documented in 1892.
Click image to enlarge.
A low-resolution scan of an original photo from
Saltwater People Historical Society©

The schooner TRANSIT, one of the last ships built by Thomas Heinrich Petersen was built at this location on Salmon Bay, in 1891.  
      Petersen was a native of Denmark who left in 1856 when he was 21. He had served a 4-yr apprenticeship in a shipyard and earned certification as a carpenter's mate. 
     Those papers opened doors for the young man; he continued a lifelong career designing and building boats in several yards on the west coast of the US after he left his ship in San Francisco in 1857. Thomas constructed vessels at Mendocino, Little River, Whitesboro, Navarro, Cuffey's Cove, Eureka, Gardiner, OR, Florence, Port Orchard, and Deadman's Island at Port Madison, before he arrived at Salmon Bay in 1890. 

Fishermen's Terminal,
Seattle, WA.
Click image to enlarge.

He was moored there until Commodore Way cut through his property, according to Seattle historian Lucile MacDonald researching some family papers that were donated to the Puget Sound Maritime Society, Seattle, in the 1950s. 
      

A great bronze tribute to a man who quietly
went about his work until he was 70 years old.
This is placed on the Fish Ladder Landing
at the Ballard Locks, Seattle, WA.
Photo by Donna Gordon in 2009 and
recently submitted to Saltwater People.
Thank you!
Click image to enlarge.

      According to Seattle maritime news journalist R.H. "Skipper" Calkins, the schooner TRANSIT was purchased by the John Backland family in 1908. She was commanded by the well-known Arctic trader, Captain John Backland Sr., delivering heavy shipments to government schools and isolated stations in the Bering and Arctic regions at the time of her loss. She was crushed by ice and lost near Cape Smythe, in 1913. The TRANSIT was departing Barrow bound Seattle with 11 officers and crew aboard along with 100 tons of general merchandise valued at $8,000.
      From the US Customs Wreck Report of 27 Sept. 1913 at Nome, in the words of Capt. John Backland:
      About five miles SSW of Cape Smyth struck lee, filled with water and was beached. Crushed by ice. Strong NW gale with heavy snow and frost. Sails close reefed and vessel got underway but ice crowding in rapidly leaving no room for navigation. 120 natives came on board and both the steam and handpumps were manned but to no avail. The vessel was in the ice from 6 Aug to 25 Aug 1913 and continually using every effort to get out. 
      The TRANSIT had a value of $10,000 with the damage to the vessel listed as $7,500. Her cargo posted a loss of $5,000. The vessel had no insurance but the cargo was fully insured. No loss of life. 
The Customs Wreck Report is courtesy of Alaska Shipwrecks.com
More on the vessels in the life of Thomas H. Petersen for another day. 
      The late Louis A. Hough, the author of A Fleet Forgotten, did an excellent, in-depth  10-page article on the barkentine THOS. P. EMIGH, published by the Puget Sound Maritime History Society for the membership journal, The Sea Chest, September 2014. The THOS. P. EMIGH, launched at Tacoma in 1901 was designed by T.H. Petersen.
Book sourced: Hal E. Jamison Along the Waterfront. 26 Sept. 1912, regarding details of the TRANSIT loss in the ice.
  Another Saltwater People post on the Captains Backland can be viewed here.    
      

❖ The S.S. PACIFIC ❖ Remembered by Capt. Oscar Scarf (updated.)

Captain Oscar Scarf, a boy at Otter Point

SIDEWHEELER PACIFIC 
lost off Cape Flattery, Washington in 1875.
Click to enlarge.
Original photo from the archives of the
Saltwater People Historical Society©

"A native Victorian among the early Thermopylae Club members was Oscar Scarf, who was born in Esquimalt in 1864 and spent all his life on this coast and the adjacent waters.
      In this yarn, he tells of a marine tragedy that once stunned Victoria. It was on 4 November 1873, that the steamship PACIFIC, loaded with nearly 300 passengers, set out from Victoria bound for San Francisco. A few hours later she was seen by a boy from the beach at Otter Point, and yet another few hours and she, and all but two aboard her, were lost, victims of a glancing blow from a sailing ship which after the collision, sped into the darkness unaware that the damage she had inflicted was more than minor character. It was, in fact, to prove fatal.
      For the sail-powered ORPHEUS indeed the main need seemed to be to attend to her own repairs, wasted effort as it turned out, for a few hours later she too became a total loss near Cape Beale on the west coast. However, fate was kinder to her for not a life was lost.
      In Victoria the next day relatives and friends of the hundreds on the PACIFIC went peacefully about their business, unaware that those to whom they had yesterday waved goodbye were already corpses.
      A storm 6 Nov may have given them concern but then surely the PACIFIC must be well off the coast.
      To the boy at Otter Point, the storm meant the chance of finding some flotsam on the beach, and so it was that the news of the wreck that was to shock Victoria was started on its way by a beachcombing ten-year-old boy—a boy who was later known as Captain Oscar Scarf, sealer.
      Probably no other member had memories that stretched so far back into the history of this coast as did those of Oscar Scarf. Even by the time, the big square riggers that brought White and McDonald to Victoria in the 1890s had sailed up the strait, Juan de Fuca had been for him familiar waters. Here from the decks of sealing schooners he had gazed up at many ships, including probably even the THERMOPYLAE herself.
      But by 1905, after eleven harsh years in the North Pacific, he was ready for amiable waters and moved to boats coasting around lower Vancouver Island and down to CA. He was also, for a time, on the Dunsmuir yacht DOLAURA.
      Last of all 'my boat' meant to Oscar Scarf the little launch in which he carried the mail across Brentwood Bay to Bamberton. By now it was the 1930s and he was also a member of the Thermopylae Club and spinning yarns. The story of the PACIFIC follows immediately."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"In the late summer of 1872 I left Esquimalt with two white men and some Indians in a large Indian canoe like the TILIKUM and, after some delay on account of headwinds, landed on the beach at Otter Point, 33 miles west of Victoria where the late Mr. Tugwell, with whom I lived, had a cabin and owned the land there.
      I was just eight years old and did what little I could to help the men to build a new house one mile further west. There I spent most of my time for the next ten years. It was while living there that with a friend, Indian Jonnie, we would look out to sea and wonder what could be at the other side of the great body of water, little dreaming of the strange things that were to happen to both of us on the other side and among the strange people we had never heard of at that time.
      It was also while living there that I saw something that I shall never forget.
      On 4 November 1875, the steamer PACIFIC, outward bound with mail and nearly 300 passengers and crew, and the steamer SALVADOR, inward bound, passed, as many steamers did, about a mile off in front of our house. Each ship blew three whistles as they passed out of sight towards Cape Flattery, not thinking of course that of her passengers and crew few would see the lights of another day.
      That night the PACIFIC sank following a collision with a sailing ship off Cape Flattery. Only survivors were a Mr. Jelly who was found floating in a trunk and a Mr. Henley on a small raft sometime later [see photo.]
      Though misty it was not bad weather but two nights later we had a very heavy storm and, as usual, after a storm, I went to the beach soon after daylight to pick up some pieces of timber that came up on the beach and might be useful on the farm. I was surprised to see a large ship’s deck-house and part of a ship’s deck breaking up in the heavy surf in front of our house.
      I at once notified Mr. Tugwell who, after seeing the wreckage, sent a man on horseback with a letter to Mr. Michael Muir, the postmaster at Sooke, who in turn sent word of the wreck to Victoria.
      The three-mile beach from Otter Point to Muir Creek was covered with doors, buckets, and life belts plainly marked SS PACIFIC. We also found the golden eagle, a large gilded wooden eagle that the PACIFIC carried on her pilot-house. We sent it to Victoria and it was given to the owners of the wrecked vessel.
      On the beach at Otter Point, strange to say, no bodies from the PACIFIC were ever found though some were found near Victoria and San Juan Island."
Ursula Jupp. Home Port Victoria. Pp 62-65.

Captain Neil O. Henly
Photo dated July 1942.
Veteran sea captain, survivor of the
wreck of the PACIFIC, off Cape Flattery
in 1875.
Photographer unknown.
Original photo from the archives of
the Saltwater People Log©

      Charles A. Kinnear wrote to Seattle journalist C.T. Conover that Neil Henly came to Seattle in the 1870s as a boy of 10 when the wreck of the steamship PACIFIC was the sensation of the day. Henly managed to clamber into a lifeboat containing 15 women and seven men. As the little boat plunged and careened, it struck something and all aboard were thrown into the sea.
      Henly lived in Steilacoom City 69 years. He was an organizer and the first president of the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce. He told his story of this disaster to the Pioneer Association of Washington at the Ice Arena in 1942. Two years later he passed away at age 88, with a wife, and five sons and 2 daughters who survived him. 
      Ursula Jupp was born on the Scilly Islands, where no one lives more than a mile from the sea. Memories of a sailing-ship grandfather and many other relatives closely connected with the sea and ship-building lie behind her deep interest in all that pertains to the world of ships and sailors. She was one of the first women to join the Thermopylae Club [Victoria, BC.] when, in 1954, it began to sign on female crew members.

❖ ABLE SEAMAN A HERO IN THE COLD ALEUTIANS ❖

Heroes of a North Pacific disaster
safely back on their ship the PRESIDENT MADISON.
This shows members of the lifeboat crew who rescued
James Thorsen, cadet officer from Portland, OR.,
Lucena Decancey, ordinary seaman, Manila, 

and Fritz Dewall, able seaman,
only survivors of the freighter NEVADA.
The liner PRESIDENT MADISON
arrived in Seattle, 5 October 1932.
The third officer, E.J. Stull who commanded the lifeboat,
is seen standing in uniform.
Eddie Blomberg is in the center of the back row
without a life preserver.
Click image to enlarge. 

Photo by Acme News
from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

EDDIE BLOMBERG

The able seaman from the

American Mail Line's, PRESIDENT MADISON

who swam a line around his waist, through 

the whipping surf to the rocky shore 

of Amatignak, Alaska to rescue

three survivors of the wreck of 

the freighter SS NEVADA.

He is shown after arriving Seattle,

8 October 1932.

Photo by Acme News

from the archives of the 

Saltwater People Historical Society©

The American Mail Liner PRESIDENT MADISON arrived in Seattle on 5 October 1932 with three survivors and the lifeboat crew who rescued James Thorsen, Lucena Decancey, and Fritz Dewall. They were the only survivors of the ill-fated freighter NEVADA, wrecked on the rocky shores of Amatignak Island in the Aleutians. Thirty-four were lost.

      The steel steam screw NEVADA, Master T. W. Johanson had stranded at Amatignak, AK. She departed Longview, WA., 15 Sept. 1932 bound Yokohama, Japan. Carrying a 6,648-ton cargo of lumber, flour, and general merchandise. 

      SS OREGON MARU responded to radio distress signal; proceeded to wreck but the seas prevented the rescue of men who had washed ashore. SS PRESIDENT MADISON arrived 29 Sept and rescued the 3 crew members from Amatignak Island. The USCG HAIDA arrived on scene 4 Oct. and continued the search of vicinity without results. The NEVADA and cargo were total losses. Value of cargo unknown. Vessel value was $255,000.

This medal was awarded to the officer
ELMER J. STULL (1887-1975), seen in the photo on the
deck of the rescue ship the PRESIDENT MADISON.
In World War II he commanded the Liberty Ship
SS SAMUEL PARKER, that was able to limp
home from the war to Seattle, WA in 1943,
full of holes, but victorious
and the first Liberty Ship to be
awarded the GALLANT SHIP AWARD.
These last two photos are courtesy of his
great-grandson Patrick Danforth. He has
more bio on Capt. Stull worth a visit HERE

S.S. NEVADA (ex-WEST NIGER)
O.N. 219522
Lost, 27 September 1932
Location, 51 16 N 179 06 W
Chart, 16460
Tonnage, 5,645 G. 3517 N. 
Age, 12 yrs.
Owner, States Steamship Co., of Portland, Oregon.

Source, USCG Report 18 October 1932 at Portland, OR;
AlaskaShipwreck.com; and Saltwater People Historical Society.
Two photos from Patrick Danforth.
List of the lost mariners to be added.

❖ FROM SCOTLAND FOR ROBBI BURNS DAY

S.S. CATALA
1925-1965.
1,476.83 G.t.
Built by Coaster Construction Co of Montrose, Scotland. 
 She was designed for Union Steamships, Ltd,  
steaming to work on the B.C. coast by 7/12/1925.
Photo postcard from the Clinton H. Betz collection,
archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

S.S. CATALA operated passenger and freight service from Vancouver to Ocean Falls and Bella Coola. With other vessels of the Union Steamships the tramp steamer served many ports on the northern B.C. coast, stopping at logging camps and canneries. 

1962: After her long career she was purchased by Catala Enterprises, organized by the MacPherson real estate interests of Seattle & Gray's Harbor, WA. After a thorough refurnishing and interior renovations to 52 staterooms, a restaurant, and lounge which made her more luxurious than at any time in her long career, she was towed to Seattle arriving in April as the first of the hotel ships. Returns were disappointing and all 3 vessels withdrew before the end of the fair.* The CATALA was sold to California owners for use as a floating resort, but payments were not maintained.
1963:  She was reclaimed by MacPherson and returned to the PNW, being moored as a fisherman's hotel at Ocean Shores development on Gray's Harbor, her last stop.
Above text from H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Newell, Gordon, editor. 

The old and the new at the Ocean Shores Marina.
Photo by Kyle Smith.
From the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

On New Year's Eve in 1965, with 70-mile-an-hour winds, 
the good ship was driven ashore. She filled with sand  
and water and was a picturesque wreck. 
In 2001, the late historian Gene Woodwick reported that 
"a storm exposed the keel and frames of the CATALA so 
she could resume her service as a maritime relic."
Click to enlarge this photo by Dale Swanson.
Original photo from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

* According to the Gene Woodwick, all three ships acting as hotels for Seattle's World Fair stayed for the duration of the Fair with the CATALA being the only one to earn a profit.
Thanks to reader K Pool, click on this link for more information about this vessel.

❖ HOME WITH FURS, IVORY, & WHALEBONE

PATTERSON
Wooden oil screw 224220
Launched in 1884 for a US Coast & Geodetic Survey ship.
Here she is in service as an Arctic Trader
Photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

September 1938:

"ARCTIC TRADER ENDS HER FIRST TRIP FOR A NEW LINE
      With a cargo of furs, ivory, curios, and strange Eskimo ceremonial apparel, the motorship PATTERSON was in Seattle yesterday after a trading cruise to the Arctic. 
      After an eventful voyage to Point Barrow, the famous Arctic trader PATTERSON was in Seattle with a cargo obtained from Eskimos who swarmed out to meet the vessel in skin boats as she approached their villages on the far-flung coast of Northern Alaska.
      The two-master, of a picturesque rig and large crow's nest, used when she was operated as a whaler, was dogged by heavy weather during most of her cruise along the Arctic Coast.
      At Wainwright, on the northbound voyage, her master, Capt. Walter Tinn, a veteran of the northern seas, became seriously ill and Capt. A.J. Hartland, chief officer, took command of the vessel. At Nome, Capt. Tinn was placed in a hospital and later brought to Seattle in the Alaska Steamship Co liner DENALI, which was returning from a cruise to Arctic Siberia. 
      The cargo of the PATTERSON included Eskimo ceremonial maks, mukluks, bows and arrows, spears, snowshoes, carved ivory, native baskets, Eskimo combs, fossil ivory, parkas, miniature kayaks, and a bright red reindeer coat. 
      The PATTERSON was at Point Barrow three days putting ashore 400 tons of supplies needed for the long winter. There was much ice in the roadstead and along the shore. She was the only commercial vessel to call at Point Barrow this year. 
      With her arrival in Seattle, the PATTERSON completed her first voyage for Motorship Patterson, Inc, a new company organized to operate the trader. She was purchased recently in San Francisco from Capt. C. T. Pedersen, a veteran of the Far North.
      Officers of the new company are Charles Gilkey, president; Walter Gilkey, vice president; George T. Stickney, secretary-treasurer, and Elmer Leader, assistant secretary-treasurer."
Above text: Seattle Times news clip. September 1938.

1883: Ordered at the yard of James D. Leary, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Cost: $100,000.
Installed Power: Cross compound vertical steam engine, cylinders 17 and 31 inches x 28-inch stroke, 215 HP, replaced by 325 HP diesel in 1924.
Propulsion: 8-ft screw.
Sail Plan: Barkentine
Boats & landing craft carried: 7
Crew: 12-13 officers, 40-46 crewmen.

1884, 15 January: Launched and named for Carlile P. Patterson, Superintendent of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
1918: Renamed FORWARD and transferred to US Navy for a patrol ship during last months of WW I.
1919: Sold back to the US Coast & Geodetic Survey because she was no longer strong enough for offshore use and regained her original name. She was out of service for several years and finally sold by WA tug & Barge Co to C.K. West of Portland.
1925-1937: Owned by Northern Whaling & Trading Co. When the motor ship PATTERSON arrived in San Francisco in 1931, with Capt. C. T. Pedersen in command, her cargo of white fox, ivory, and whalebone was valued at $300,000. (1931 prices.)
1937-1938: Sold to Alaska Patterson Co.

MOTORSHIP PATTERSON
224220
Captain H.H. Bune, Seattle, WA.
Wrecked 11 December 1938
Near Cape Fairweather, AK.
Photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

1938, December 11:   
"The most serious loss of life during 1938 resulted from the stranding of motorship PATTERSON, owned by Alaska Patterson, Inc. on the surf-lashed shore at Cape Fairweather, near Sea Otter Creek, Gulf of Alaska. Capt. Gustaf F. Swanson, first mate, was washed overboard and lost trying to launch a lifeboat. James Moore, winchman, was drowned in a swollen creek while attempting to rig a lifeline to get the crew ashore. The other 18 survivors were marooned on the rugged shore for some time, supplies were dropped to them by air. 
      Sheldon Simmons, "mercy flier" rescued two crew who arrived in Seattle in time for Christmas. Two USN planes from Sitka flew out seven crew and USCG HAIDA the remaining men. Both groups were rescued at Lituya Bay where the men hiked 30 miles through storms with guide Nels Ludwinson, left by Simmons' plane. Ludwinson was a local trapper who had been jailed for drunkenness and let out early for the job. 
The vessel had been bound from Kodiak for Seattle, was pounded to pieces in the surf."
Wreck notes from the N.Y. Times published 25 December 1938 
H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the PNW. Newell, Gordon, editor. 

❖ WITH A BONE IN HER TEETH ❖ Schooner Gertrude L. Thebaud 1930-1948

Schooner GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD of Gloucester.
The BLUENOSE of Lunenburg defeated the THEBAUD
by 3 minutes, 50 seconds to win the
International Fishermen's Trophy, 26 October 1938.
Here the THEBAUD is seen with young Sterling Hayden
up the main mast just before the final race,
near the Coast Guard Cutter CHELAN.
Click image to enlarge.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"Summer, 1948. It was learned from official and reliable sources that the erstwhile Queen of the Gloucester Fishing Fleet and Last of the Flying Fishermen, had been abandoned as a total loss. The famous craft, the Gertrude L. Thebaud, was shipwrecked on the Venezuelan Coast and all hope of conducting salvage operations had been given up as too costly.
      While at anchor in a storm, the 18-year-old craft was rammed by another vessel, parted her moorings, collided with a seawall and subsequently foundered. She laid half-submerged in a seaport called La Guaira, on the Venezuelan Coast. Very little chance was seen of the black-hulled, magnificent white-winged racer ever again spreading her lofty white wings, as of old, in her glorious racing and fishing days, as a fisherman out of Gloucester, MA. 
      At the time of her tragic and untimely loss, the craft was owned by Mr. William H. Hoeffner of New York, flew the flag of Venezuela, was equipped with a powerful Diesel engine and carried a reduced rig, a three-sailed, stem head rig and a modified top hamper. The magnificent, grand old stager has left her bones on a hard lee shore, on a distant foreign strand, far from her native Gloucester home.
      The Thebaud was one of the most famous of all Gloucester fishing schooners, having been, in her time, a participant in the International Fishermen's Races in 1930, 1931, 1938, and, in 1933, carried the official representatives of the Gloucester fishing industry to Washington, DC, for a meeting with President Roosevelt. In the summer of the same year, the vessel voyaged to the World's Fair at Chicago as the rep and proud exhibit of the Bay State. In 1937 she voyaged to the far north, under the supervision of Capt. Donald B. MacMillan, the arctic explorer, and on the expedition west to Frobisher Bay. During WW II, the Thebaud saw active service as flagship of the Corsair Fleet of the US Coast Guard. 
      In 1944 the schooner was sold by her first owner, Capt. Ben Pine of Gloucester, to William H. Hoeffner of New York. She was converted to freighting and sent to the West Indies waters.
      We must now, although reluctantly, set down the final word of the picturesque, historic saga of a famous deeply mourned sailing craft, that has come and gone in our time. For the beautiful, 18-year-old craft has found her grave in Venezuelan waters. The sea has claimed her. The Thebaud has crossed the finish line for the last time; Gloucester's queen will never wet her bobstay again. She was the scion of a once large fleet of splendid, redoubtable American fishing schooners and with her passing, we sadly note the absolute vanishing point of a long line of speedy schooners of the engineless era and the T Wharf days; also the end, perforce, of International Fishing Schooner Racing. She represented the last vestiges of the era of the sailing fishermen. 
      In the spring of 1921, the drawing board of Mr. William J. Roue of Halifax, NS, produced the phenomenally speedy, extremely able, engineless Canadian fishing schooner Bluenose. Lofty and black-hulled, the Bluenose was an indescribably handsome craft. From the first day she spread her symmetrical white wings on the waters off her quaint old home port, Lunenburg, NS, the Bluenose proved herself a work-boater and met and defeated many fine schooners. The rise of her reputation was meteoric and she became known as the Flying Nova Scotian and The Pride of Lunenburg. 
      Yankees decided to build a suitable opponent for the Nova Scotia speed king, and the schooner Gertrude L. Thebaud was built. The craft was expressly designed by Frank C. Paine of Boston and constructed from selected material at the Arthur Dana Shipyard, Essex, MA. She bore on her bow, inscribed in golden letters, the name of her sponsor's wife, and across her shapely transom, the name of her home port, Gloucester, MA.
      To those present at her launching, 17 March 1930, the shapely semi-knockabout presented an unforgettable appearance, for the general sharpness of hull design and long knifelike underbody suggested great potential driving power. She represented an investment of approximately $80,000. The following were her principal measurements; 135' LOA, 98' L on sailing waterline; 25' beam and 14.8' draft.
      The vessel proved to be a true sailing champion in her own right as well as a bona fide fishing schooner. She carried a tremendous spread of sail and when in racing ballast hoisted eight sails, namely the four lowers, jib, jumbo fores'l and mains'l, as well as four light sails. These later were called balloon, fore gaff tops'l, fisherman's flying stays'l and main gaff tops'l. Under a billowing cloud of new, thrumming canvas she flew through the water with the speed of a torpedo and displayed prowess as a prospective challenger for the tall-sparred racer from Lunenburg.

CAPTAIN BEN PINE
The famous skipper of the schooner
GERTRUDE L. THEBAUD
was splicing a line after lack of wind forced
postponement of the second race in the
Championship Series with the
Schooner BLUENOSE.
13 October 1938.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

      In her many tussles on the open sea, under the command of Capt Ben Pine and against Capt Angus Walter's Bluenose, she proved herself a sailing champion in her own right. These two superlative crafts staged many a spectacular contest.
      The Thebaud will be remembered by all who knew her as she appeared in the last of her racing days, sailing a fine race in all weathers, from a gentle zephyr to a whole-sail breeze and in a four lower breeze and a genuine snorter, real fishermen's weather, as we say. When ghosting in light winds, with the wind dead aft and her fores'l and mains'l swung out, with their sheets out to the knots, she carried her stays'l "scandalized" (changed about throat for clew), and with its sheet led to the end of the long man boom. The tops'ls were "sheeted home" to the gaff ends and the head sheets flowing, the working canvas distributed in a matter reminiscent of the double-jointed wings of an albatross.
      When sailing with started sheets and the wind quarterly, Thebaud sailed magnificently as this was her best point of sailing. Aye, she carried a bone in her teeth and churned the water at the forefoot to a smother of foam. 
      The Thebaud has tragically terminated her unique, eventful and dramatic 18-yr life and has seen the last of her glorious sailing days. Who knows what ghosts of the bygone crews who once manned her may revisit the grand old stager's tradition-shrouded grave, on languorous tropical nights, when gentle zephyrs whisper along the shore and the harbor lights shimmer on the peaceful, starlit waters?"
Text by Edward F. Moran, an essay from––Yankees Under Sail. Heckman, Richard, editor. Yankee, Inc. 1968.