❖ The Nootka Sailer with Author Archie Binns ❖ 1962

Archie Binns and his Nootka Sailer, 

February 1962
Photo by Roy Scully for the Seattle Times©.
Original photo from the S. P. H. S.

"A capital ship for a sailing trip is the Nootka Sailer––a jaunty dinghy designed by Archie Binns, a Seattle writer, and Edwin Monk, Seattle Naval Architect.
      They based the design of the craft on the dugout canoes developed by the Nootka Indians. The canoe was so good that Indian tribes copied it all the way from Vancouver Island to Tillamook, OR, Binns said.
      'What we've tried to do is to give the marvelous lines the Indians developed a chance with modern materials and techniques,' Binns said.
      The sleek dinghy has a long curving prow that arches up proudly from its narrow, flat bottom, giving it somewhat the appearance of a Viking boat. It is 4-ft wide and 12.5-ft long.
      Binns built his first Nootka-type boat with the help of his son, Richard, 8. Called the Nootka Sailer, she came through the test of rigorous use with flying colors.
      'I think one of the significant things about the Nootka Sailer is that it is the first modern boat that is indigenous to the Pacific Northwest,' said Binns, who writes about Pacific Northwest history. 'The Nootkas developed the boat through trial and error, to suit the particular conditions here.'
      The Nootka Sailer was used last summer [1961] by the Henderson Camps for Children on Lopez Island. Howard S. Eddy, sailing master of the camps, wrote Binns of the dinghy:
      'She is fast, able, and seaworthy––an ideal sailing or cruising dinghy––her sea-keeping is far superior to any comparable dinghy with which I am acquainted.'
      Eddy suggested some alterations in the design which were incorporated in a second boat just completed by Binns.
      Binns gives the Nootka Indians most of the credit for the design.
      'Anthropologists say the Nootka canoe is the most perfect one of primitive design ever made,' Binns said.
      Unlike the Nootkas, Binns and Monk weren't limited to a hollowed-out tree in constructing the new boat. The frame is of laminated Alaskan yellow cedar and the planking is laminated of two thicknesses of African mahogany. The guard is of oak.
      Fiberglass in the bottom of the craft will withstand scraping on the beach. All the fastening was done with bronze, and the tiller extends through a port, so it won't jump out of its slot.
      The second boat has an 18-ft cat-rig mast of airplane spruce. Binns expertly rounded the two glued halves of the mast with a hand plane.
      Binns pointed to the rudder and centerboard, which are designed to fold up when the craft is beached. Another feature of the boat is its dryness and comfort. Binns explained how the curving prow and top of the boat throw off waves so that no water is taken aboard even in the roughest weather.

Archie Binns and his NOOTKA SAILER

February 1962 Photo by Roy Scully,

for the Seattle Times©

Original from the archives of the S. P. H. S.

       He did all of the building with hand tools except for an electric drill.
      The Nootka Sailer showed excellent buoyancy when the Binns' took their four children sailing in it.
      "It's an excellent boat for a couple of adults or an adult and a couple of children to sail in". I particularly wanted to work out a boat that would be safe with children. This is about as stable a one as you could get."
      Binns said the Nootka boat is the only primitive one that stood up to whaling. The Makahs used it for whaling at Neah Bay.
      The daring Makahs had so much confidence in the boat and in their prowess that sometimes, for sport, they would harpoon a killer whale in sort of a 'bull-fighting' contest, the writer said.
      Binns said the Indians first powered the boat with oars, but later began using sails woven of cedar board or made of thin bands of wood."
     Text by Matt Miletich for the Seattle Times, 11 February 1962

Archie Binns (b. Port Ludlow,WA 1899-d.1971)
Graduated Stanford 1921.
Published c. twenty books.
Taught creative writing at U of WA, Western Washington University and Skagit Valley College.
Retired to Sequim, WA in 1964.

❖ NOOKSACK Tribe Wins the INTERNATIONAL CUP ❖ 1935.

Ten tribes of the Pacific Northwest
 start for the International Cup Race.

Coupeville, Whidbey Island, WA.
Dated 12 August 1935.
From the archives of the 

Saltwater People Historical Society.

On this Log we have included the University of Washington crew winning their 1936 Olympic race in Berlin, here. 
      The two photos today depict the racing scene in Washington State, the previous year.
       Husky paddlers representing ten Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest vied for the International War Canoe Championship at Coupeville, Whidby Island, WA. The eleven man boat QUESTION MARK representing the Nooksack tribe won the three mile race. 

A large waterfront gallery cheers 

Coupeville's two-man canoe race, August 1935.

Thousands lined the racing course in Penn's Cove
for the Water Festival canoe events.
The TACOMA looms large among the many small craft;
she was packed with an excursion crowd from Seattle.

Click image to enlarge
Photographer unknown.
From the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society.

Below text from the Anacortes American, 10 July 1890

"The canoe race by Indians in the afternoon over a two-mile course was the exciting and interesting feature of the aquatic sports and witnessed by nearly the entire population. 
      Each boat contained eleven oarsmen and as the light canoes flew through the water and bounded over the waves like things of life, the excitement increased, which was only subdued when the race was won and the swarthy braves who occupied the winning boat jumped out on the gravelly beach to receive the caresses of their faithful klootchmen, some of whom were so overjoyed that they fell upon the necks of their warriors and wept for joy."

Klootchmen––Chinook term for woman or women. 
As listed in Almost Out of the World by James G. Swan; Washington State Historical Society, 1971.

New Life for Lightship No. 83 ?

Vintage Photo of Lightship No. 83
Columbia River Bar, WA.

The 10 July 2013 Seattle Times newspaper brings an account by Jack Broom and photos of Northwest Seaport plans for preservation of Lightship No. 83, now called the SWIFTSURE.
Here is a link.

From the Seattle Times 10 July 2013.

❖ 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 

❖ "Privateers" on the Schooner GRACIE S ❖ 1949

Pilot Schooner GRACIE S 

O.N. 86275

New home port, Seattle, WA.

Also known to flirt with mariners in the San Juan Islands.

Dated 1949 photo by Kenneth G. Ollar©
Original photo from the archives of the S. P. H. S.

"Wanted––able lads between the ages of 14 and 18––to sail on schooner GRACIE S––leaving 20 June for unknown ports to westward."
      Find a lad whose heart wouldn't be captured by such an advertisement appearing in this day and age. However, that's no imaginary ad. That very sign appears in the window today of the downtown business establishment of E. Edison Kennell, Jr.
      And, 20 June, the 97-ft schooner GRACIE S. will shove off from the Seattle Yacht Club with a crew of teenage lads. There will be no timetable. For two weeks they just go where the wind blows.
      Only a few years ago the most venturesome lads found their big thrill in running off to sea on a sailing ship. Such storied vessels have all but disappeared from the high seas, yet this thrilling adventure is to be born again, here in Seattle.
      Kennell recently purchased GRACIE S, for 50 years a pilot schooner off San Francisco Bay, and refitted her as a sea-going school for lads 14 to 18 years of age.

GRACIE S
Courtesy of John Kennell©

      It's an adventure that Kennell will thrill in as much as will the boys, for GRACIE S is a perfect replica of the old traders. She is one of the most seaworthy vessels afloat, and though everything aboard her has been kept old fashioned for atmosphere, she has all the modern conveniences––a big Diesel engine, steam heat throughout, showers, an electric galley, and complete radio equipment, consisting of a transmitter and receiver and radio-direction finder, bringing a lad as close to his parents as the nearest telephone.

Privateer Ted Rogers, age 14,
at the helm of the famous Schooner GRACIE S.

 William Donley, aft, the nav instructor.

Strait of Juan de Fuca, 1949.

Photo by Kennell-Ellis©

Original photo from the archives of the S. P. H. S.

      The ship's company will consist of Kennell, the skipper; Mrs. Kennell, who will take care of the menu, as well as sew on the occasional button; James (Doctor) Tuohy, the cook; William Donley, navigation instructor; Dave McCrea, engineering officer; Amos Levitt, Jr., mate, and 14 "Privateers", as the lads will be known.
      Any boy between the permitted ages, who can swim and has a love for the sea, is eligible to take part in one or more of the five two-week cruises scheduled for this summer. The only cost is sharing the expenses of food, fuel, and the cook's wages.
      Monday, 20 June, GRACIE S. will leave for her first cruise––to Princess Louisa Inlet. Every other Monday another two-week trip will be leaving, visiting Barkley Sound and Hot Springs Cove, Butte Inlet, a trip around Vancouver Island and a visit to Knight's Inlet, all in British Columbia waters.
      Drills and schooling will occupy the first few days of each cruise. Then the "Privateers" will sail into the ocean, then back to the coast, and the particular destination of that trip. Almost every night the hook will be dropped and the lads will go ashore and beach comb and fish and visit many coastal BC communities.
Above text by Bob Sutton for the Seattle Times, 17 April 1949.

July 1949:

Ed Kennell, Jr. and the privateers on GRACIE S stopped off at the Lopez Yacht Club on their two-week cruise through the islands en route to Princess Louisa Inlet, BC.
Orcas Islander Newspaper, 7 July 1949

November 1964: 

Fate: 
Sadly, WANDERER (ex-GRACIE S.) wrecked when she struck a reef off Rangiroa Island, 200 miles northeast of Tahiti in November 1964. She was en route to Panama. All hands were rescued. Her last owners were Omer Darr and Joe Price of Bartlesville, OK.