❖ SEATTLE SAILOR DWIGHT LONG (1913-2001) ❖ (Updated.)

Verso inscription reads, "Miles, Mother, Daddy 
saw a Dwight Long presentation 3 Oct. 1941 
when Miles bought this picture
and Long autographed it."
Miles McCoy, Orcas Island, kindly donated 
his childhood memento to the S.P.H.S., Aug. 2012 

"Some years ago a young man named Dwight Long got the idea that he would like to sail around the world. This is not an unusual idea, thousands of young men have had it before and since, but the difference was that Dwight Long, who was then 20, and in his junior year at the U. of WA, wanted to sail around the world and to sail in his own boat. Somehow, the young man raised enough money to purchase a second-hand ketch. He reconditioned her, bought provisions, and one autumn day, despite the fact that he had no sea experience, he set sail across the open Pacific bound for Hawaii.

IDLE HOUR
Dwight Long
Leaving Seattle, WA.

Dwight Long on 32' IDLE HOUR
getting advice from berthing master
Capt. Thompson at Southend-on-Sea, England.
Original photo dated 30 August 1937 
from the archives of
 the Saltwater People Historical Society.©

Dwight Long's 32-ft ketch IDLE HOUR
home safely to Seattle, WA, 1940.
Photo by Capt. Leiter Hockett
who inscribed the reverse
"Taken from my boatshop at the west side of the canal."
The original photo is a gift to the archives of 
the Saltwater People Historical Society©
from Capt. Miles McCoy, August 2012.

      For four years the IDLE HOUR with Long at the helm sailed the world's seven oceans. Some of the time he carried with him an extra passenger or crewman. One night when the IDLE HOUR was caught in a storm that carried away the mainmast and was nearly wrecked, his dog 'Hugo' was washed overboard and Long sailed on alone.
      By the time the IDLE HOUR and her captain dropped anchor in the Thames, news of Long and his incredible adventures was widespread.

      In London, he paused for a time to write a book of his adventures for Harper & Brothers Publishers. Seven Seas On a Shoestring, by Dwight Long, became one of the best sellers of seafaring stories.
      

Dwight Long, 1953.
Home after working for two years
on his film "TANGA TIKA."
The wood carving in profile was one of the
 trademarks for the film.

      Come WWII, Long found himself in a US Naval Aviation photography unit, assigned to an aircraft carrier. The pictures he took of the ship grew into the motion picture The Fighting Lady, which won the Motion Picture Academy Award in 1946. For his work in editing, photographing, and directing the film, he received the Legion of Merit award from the President of the US. When peace came to the islands of the Pacific, Long, like many a Navy man, yearned to go back. He dreamed of returning to Tahiti and making a motion picture that would show these islands and their people as they actually are. He went to Hollywood but found no picture company which could fulfill all of his wishes. With the same spirit that led him to start around the world in a 32-ft boat, Long once again sailed to Tahiti. His object was to make a feature-length motion picture to be directed, edited, and photographed by no one but himself. His bankroll was so small that the experts who knew the business said he could never do it, and some who didn't know the man they were dealing with ventured the option that his picture-making was only an excuse for a Tahitian vacation.

L-R: Dwight Long, age 21,
Hugo, and Jack Lowry.
This after their first leg, Seattle to San Francisco,
back stamped, 5 and 6 October 1934.
Original photo from the archives of Saltwater People Log©

      The difficulties that Long encountered in finding people for his cast, in shipping and processing his film, would make a book. But he persevered and finally parts of his film began to arrive in the US––some of the sequences so primitive and rare that they had never before been photographed. For two years, Long worked on his picture in Tahiti without ever seeing a foot of it, since it could only be processed in the US. But finally the job was done and Long, who had been working 18 hours a day and who had lost 30 pounds, came home jubilant. He had his movie.
      But two more years of work in cutting, scoring, and dubbing lay ahead before Tanga Tika was ready to be shown in American theaters. And because he was short of funds, Long had to do most of this himself.
      Tanga Tika, the movie that Hollywood said was 'impossible' to make is currently playing at the Blue Mouse Theatre, and is the latest in a long list of 'impossible' things that Dwight Long has done."

Endpaper art by Joyce Stephenson from 
Seven Seas on a Shoestring, 
Dwight Long, Harper & Brothers, 1938.
 Miles McCoy donated his book to
 the library of Saltwater People History Society, Aug. 2012.

Global Adventures

Above text by Bonnie Thornburg for The Seattle Times, 18 February 1954

IDLE HOUR

1922, November:  launched in Tacoma, WA., by professional boatbuilder Carl Rathfin for his own use.
IDLE HOUR was sold to two partners who used her briefly for fur trading in the Arctic.

1932: Dwight Long purchased her for $1,600.
32' L with 2" fir planking on 2" x 3" oak frames on 8" centers.

1934, 20 September: the date set by Long as the departure for his world cruise.
The tow out to the straits from Seattle, with tug ANDREW FOSS, was a gift from the Foss Tug Co.

The backside of a litho postcard published
and signed by circumnavigator Dwight Long.
From the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

1940: after 50,000 miles Long sailed IDLE HOUR home to be met by a boat full of photographers and TV cameramen.

1944:

IDLE HOUR
Maritime historian John Kelly, Seattle, reports:
"I took this photo of Lewis' boat in the Ala Moana 
Yacht Anchorage in Honolulu during 1944,
when my ship was in Pearl Harbor for repairs.
We met several times after the war when he 
was giving lectures and at his shop aboard the 
QUEEN MARY in CA. In 1972, we were 
shipmates aboard the Hudson's Bay Co 
NONSUCH along with the YANKEE CLIPPER 
Sea Scouts, out for a sail on the Sound."
J.K. Nov. 2015.

1992: The Seattle Yacht Club honored Dwight Long with a full page in their fine book.
Warren, James R. The Centennial History of the Seattle Yacht Club, 1892-1992. Published by The Seattle Yacht Club. 

✪ Builder Vic Frank ❖

Californian Gets Another Boat

The Seattle Times, 21 October 1968

L-R: Vic Franck, Ted Tate, George Carlson,
Bill Grandy, and Lynn Senour.
Dated 21 October 1968
Original from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

Ted Tate, president of Marlineer Marine, Pomona, CA, likes Seattle-built boats. So much so that he wouldn't stop getting them even when the boatyard burned down. 

       He merely changed boatyards.

      Over the years Tate had around 25 or 30 boats built by the Grandy Boat Co. They ranged from 32-ft to 60-ft. Tate has sold them in many parts of the world.

      Then, in August 1967, the Grandy plant was destroyed in a spectacular fire. Earl and Bill Grandy, the brothers in the company, decided not to rebuild.

      But Tate still wanted boats, and he wanted them from Seattle.

      So today another 60-ft is nearing completion for him, this one at Vic Franck's Boat Co, another yard specializing in fine pleasure craft. A 52-ft also is under construction for Tate.

      Three members of the team that used to build boats for Tate at the Grandy yard are still working on them.

      Lynn Senour, who designed the Grandy-built boats for Tate, designed those under construction at Vic Franck's. George Carlson, who worked for the Grandys, now works for Franck and is superintendent in charge of the present boats.

      And Bill Grandy is Tate's supervisor on the job, working, as he explains it, about an hour a day.

      The new 60-footer has four staterooms, three heads, and three showers.

      It carries 1,400 gallons of fuel and 400 gallons of water.

      There is a refrigerator in the galley and another in the bar. Together they provide 40-cubic space of refrigeration.

      The boat is triple screw.

      "This will make her very fast––maybe 26 or 28 knots,"  Tate said.

      And what will a boat like this sell for?

      "We don't know yet what it's going to cost. It will be upwards of a couple of hundred thousand dollars."

❖ The Old Cannery Dock (Revisted) ❖

Original photo by Levy Smith, undated.
From the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

The below text taken from the handwritten, unsigned inscription on reverse of the fish photo by Levy Smith.
Friday 26 July 1940;
"Arrived at San Juan Salmon Cannery at 7 AM where we stopped several hours to load 10,000 cases of canned salmon. Workmen were Filipino; we were able to follow the complete operation from the unloading by chain belt from the fishing boats outside to the loading of cases on the boat for Seattle where the labels are put on. The fish are flushed with a hose out of the hold of the fishing boat on to chain belt which carries them up to large bins on either side of an elevated runway in the cannery. As they come in, a man separates the different types of salmon directing them on the another belt to the proper bins. From these bins they are again flushed into the chutes leading to the worktable where they are laid in correct position to pass through the beheading and gutting machines, after which the inside is again scraped and cleaned by workmen and conveyed to the cutting and canning machines after which they pass inspection, where doubtful ones are weighed and additional pieces added where necessary. The cans are then topped by machines, air withdrawn and sealed, placed in metal racks in pressure retorts for about 1 1/2 hours. The cans are then cooled and packed for shipping."

❖ Exploration Ship MAUD Leaves Seattle (Updated with 5th photo) ❖

"Five of the ten who will be on the Schooner MAUD
when Capt. Roald Amundsen attempts his seven 
year drift through Arctic seas over the North Pole.
L-R: S. Syvertsen, marine engineer
Dr. H.U. Sverdrup, scientist
Capt. Oskar Wisting, navigator
G. Olonkin, marine engineer/wireless operator
Edward Eriksen, seaman.
All are on equal footing on the MAUD."
Photo dated 13 May 1922.
Original from the S.P.H.S.©

MAUD 
Seattle to Arctic Expedition

at Seattle, WA. 1922.
Original photo by James A. Turner

Archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"One of the big stories of Seattle's waterfront in which I had a part was the sailing of the Roald Amundsen exploration ship MAUD for the Arctic ice-pack in a history-making attempt to drift across the top of the world. It was a balmy day in June 1922 when I headed for the waterfront accompanied by a photographer to cover the departure of the famed explorer and his sturdy three-masted motorship.

      The voyage of exploration had been highly publicized and a great throng was at the Union Oil Dock to say bon voyage to Amundsen, his officers and crew.

MAUD
at Union Oil Dock, Seattle, WA.
dated 7 June 1922
Original photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.

      It was estimated that 5,000 persons saw the MAUD shift into the harbor and head down the Sound escorted by a flotilla of Seattle yachts.

      The MAUD was a strange-looking craft with long bowsprit, one tall, and two short masts. The tall mainmast and the foremast carried crow's nests for use by ice pilots; the hull was described as having the shape of an egg cut in half endways.

      The MAUD had as her chief officer, Capt. Carl M. ("North Pole") Hansen, who began his seafaring career as a lad of 11 years. The stocky son of the Vikings now is skipper of the powder boat DUPONT which serves Puget Sound and Southeastern Alaska. He is an active member of the Propeller Club of the United States, Port of Seattle, and is much interested in maritime affairs.
      Captain Hansen is one of Seattle's most colorful mariners. He was the mate of the motorship PATTERSON of San Francisco, trading for furs as far to the eastward in the Arctic as Herschel Island. He was master of the Swenson Company's Siberian fur trader NANUK, later used in filming "The Eskimo", a moving picture of the Arctic. Also, he was skipper of the Seattle purse-seiner PACIFIC QUEEN, which carried a party of scientists on an off-shore fishing expedition for the Peruvian government. The PACIFIC QUEEN visited the storied Galapagos Islands, 700-miles west of Ecuador where Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner played the role of 'Empress' over natives and shipwrecked sailors.
      Captain Hansen spent three and one-half years in the MAUD. Here is the story he told me some years ago of his experiences in the polar regions:
      'On 25 July 1922, we watched the Alaska shoreline fade away in the mists as the MAUD headed for the Arctic ice-pack in which we were to drift across the top of the world. We were in the ice 42-months--three and one-half years--and then gave up the venture.
      I never shall forget the four Christmas days we spent in the Arctic aboard the MAUD. The ship was surrounded by many miles of solid ice, displaying a rugged magnificence, made weird by the Northern Lights that blazed across the sky at night.
      We spent the first Christmas 200-miles northwest of Wrangell Island. It was dark all day except for two hours of dim twilight at noon. The temperature was 42 degrees below zero. Christmas was celebrated with a real Yule tree, candlelight, and a dinner of canned chicken, canned vegetables, several kinds of cakes, cookies, and plum pudding. Seven boxes of Christmas fare had been placed in the hold for seven Yule holidays the officers of the vessel expected to spend in the Arctic ice.
      The MAUD was built in Norway for the Arctic trip, but as a ship for sailing to the ice floes was not much of a success. She was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company soon after our return from the Arctic and operated for several years as a fur-trading schooner between Vancouver, BC and the Far North.
      Crushed in the ice, the MAUD sank in Cambridge Bay off Copper Mine in the Canadian Arctic. She settled on the bottom of the bay and the water over her rails. The grinding floes finished her in a few months.'

Capt. Oscar Wisting,
Navigator, MAUD
Original photo by Price & Carter of Seattle, WA,
from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©
Backdated 3 June 1922

      Capt. Oscar Wisting, the MAUD's skipper, who was master of the Amundsen exploration ship FRAM, used on a cruise to the South Pole, died in his cabin aboard the vessel in Norway. The FRAM had been converted into a floating museum and Capt. Wisting was her caretaker.
      Although the attempt of the MAUD to drift over the top of the world was unsuccessful, Amundsen in 1926 flew over the North Pole in the dirigible NORGE, accompanied by Lincoln Ellsworth, and a crew of 18. The NORGE left Kings Bay, Spitzbergen, 11 May, passed over the North Pole at 2:30 am 12 May and arrived at Teller, AK at 11 pm 13 May.
      Amundsen has been given up for lost since 1928 when he and five companions disappeared while making an airplane search for the lost Italian polar dirigible. In November 1941, a Rome report said Amundsen had been found living among Eskimos in a bay of the North Baffin Sea."
Above text from High Tide. R.H. Calkins, Seattle. Marine Digest Pub., 1952

Another view of MAUD, with Amundsen

preparing to castoff from Seattle, WA.,

for the Northwest Passage Expedition, June 1922.

Photo from the James A. Turner Collection

From archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©.

Underwater photos of the wreck of the Norwegian MAUD at Cambridge Bay can be viewed here.

Scroll down to 30 August 2012 log entry.

      

❖ Wild Flowers of Yellow Island ❖ with Schooner MORNING STAR

Schooner MORNING STAR
  May Day 2012.
Happily snugged in to Yellow Island.
(Yes, she's a schooner. Her main was being replaced.)

NOAA Chart 6379, dated 1972.
 Yellow Island is located on the crease of the folded paper,
nestled near to the inhabited islands of Crane, Orcas, and Shaw.
Click to enlarge this image. Out of date for navigational use.

These photos by Debra Madan are from May Day 2012. The cool spring altered the blooming pattern slightly so many of the species were in color at the same time this year. Here you can see Indian Paintbrush, Chocolate Lillies, blue Camas, Avalanche Lillies, Shooting Stars, Buttercups.... it was a riot of color, unmolested by browsing deer. The entire island, owned by  the Nature Conservancy, has a friendly, informative, live-aboard caretaker who requires visitors to stay on the foot path. They close at 4 pm.