General Miles
Ilwaco , some time between 1882 and 1889.
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History | |
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Name | General Miles, later Willapa, Bellingham, and Norco |
Owner | Canadian-Pacific Nav. Co.; Bellingham Bay Trans. Co.; Inland Nav. Co.; Thompson Steamship Co.; Puget Sound Nav. Co.; Straits Steamship Co.; Northland Trans. Co. |
Route | Columbia River, Grays Harbor, Coos Bay, Tillamook Bay, San Juan Islands, Puget Sound, Vancouver Island, Inside Passage, Strait of Juan de Fuca. |
Launched | June 15, 1882[3] |
In service | 1882 |
Out of service | 1950 |
Identification | General Miles: US registry #85370;[1] Bellingham: #81313, flag signal letters KDJN.[2] |
Fate | Scrapped and deliberately burned |
General characteristics | |
Type | Coastal vessel |
Tonnage | as built: gross: 127;[1] 1st rebuild: 333 gross, 249 regist.[2] |
Length | As built: 100 ft (30.48 m); rebuilt: 136 ft (41.45 m), later 140 ft (42.67 m) |
Beam | 22 ft (6.71 m) |
Depth | 10.5 ft (3.20 m) depth of hold |
Decks | two (2) |
Installed power | steam engine; as of 1891 reported as compound, cylinder bores (high pressure) 16 in (40.6 cm) and (low pressure) 32 in (81.3 cm); stroke 32 in (81.3 cm); semi-diesel engine was installed. |
Propulsion | propeller |
Sail plan | Schooner, 1879-1882; sailing barge (unknown rig) 1919-1922. |
Capacity | As built: 125 passengers; 150 tons freight.[1] |
General Miles was a steamship constructed in 1882 which served in various coastal areas of the states of Oregon and Washington, as well as British Columbia and the territory of Alaska. It was apparently named after US General Nelson A. Miles.
Originally a sailing schooner built in 1879, the General Miles was extensively reconstructed in 1890 and renamed Willapa. In 1903 the name was changed again to Bellingham. After a conversion to diesel power in 1922, the vessel was renamed Norco. The vessel is notable for, among other things, for having been first a sailing vessel from 1879 to 1882, a steamship from 1882 to 1918, a sailing barge from 1919 to 1922, and a motor vessel (diesel-powered) from 1922 to 1950.
Construction
General Miles was built in 1882 for the Ilwaco Steam Navigation Company.[3] The vessel was a rebuilt sailing schooner which had been originally built in 1879.[5]
The ISN had been organized in 1875 by Lewis A. Loomis, Jacob Kamm and two others, for the purpose of developing transportation to, from, and on the Long Beach Peninsula, located on the north side of the mouth of the Columbia River.
The company's first vessel was the General Canby, a 110 ft (33.53 m) steam tug built in 1875 at South Bend, Washington. ISN organized steamboat routes both on Willapa Bay, on the east side of the Long Beach Peninsula, and also on the Columbia River, on the south side of the peninsula.[1]
By the early 1880s, demand on the Columbia river route, which ran from Astoria, Oregon to Ilwaco, Washington, was increasing beyond the General Canby's legal passenger capacity, which was 75 in summer and 40 in winter.
For this reason, ISN had a new steamer, the General Miles, constructed in Portland, Oregon. Completed in 1882, General Miles was a near sister ship to the General Canby.[5] The General Miles was capable of multiple uses, being equipped with towing bits for tugboat work as well as being designed to accommodate 125 passengers and handle 150 tons of freight.[1]
Early career
The company placed the General Miles in service right away running with the General Canby, so that two trips a day could be made between Astoria and Illwaco. This improved steamship service helped popularize the Long Beach Peninsula as a destination resort area for Portland, Oregon, which was then growing rapidly in population. ISN also employed the General Miles on occasional trips to Tillamook and Coos Bay, Oregon.[1]
The first commander of General Miles was W.P. Whitcomb (b. 1848), who had previously been in charge of the General Canby. His brother, George H. Whitcomb (b. 1854), also served on the General Miles.[3]
Capt. John Henry D. Gray (b. 1839), who was the grandson of explorer
Reconstruction as Willapa
Capt. Herbert F. Beecher (b. 1853) purchased General Miles.
Willapa was returned to Portland in 1890, where, in work completed in 1891, the vessel underwent a substantial reconstruction. The hull was cut in two, and an additional section 36 ft (10.97 m) was inserted in the middle, with the resulting hull being 136 ft (41.45 m) long.
In 1894, Willapa was leased by the Hastings Steamboat Company.[3]
Alaska service
On January 21, 1895, the Alaska Steamship Company was organized by a group of Seattle business and steamboatmen.[5] At that time, the Alaska trade was dominated by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. The first vessel purchased by Alaska Steam was the Willapa, which, following an extensive overhaul and refitting, departed on her first Alaska trip from the Schwabacher Brothers wharf on March 3, 1895, returning two weeks later on March 17. Willapa carried 79 passengers, 23 horses, and several hundred tons of cargo. A rate war then ensued with the Pacific Coast company, forcing Pacific Coast to cut its rates by more than 50%.
British Columbia service
On March 19, 1897, at 2:30 a.m., bound for Mary Island, Alaska, Willapa was proceeding in a heavy snow storm in Seaforth Channel, a part of the Inside Passage, when the vessel struck ground on Regatta Reef. The passengers were removed without casualty by a schooner and local canoes manned by First Nations people. Much freight was also salvaged, but several head of horses could not be rescued and were therefore shot. Although originally considered a total loss, later Willapa was purchased from the underwriters by Canadian interests, removed from the reef, and repaired.[5]
Subsequently, Willapa came into the control of the
Return to American ownership
In November 1902, Capt. C.E. Curtis in association with the Bellingham Bay Transportation Company, acquired Willapa from the Canadian-Pacific Navigation Company, and renamed the ship Bellingham.[5][10][11] During 1903, the rapidly growing Puget Sound Navigation Co. acquired Bellingham Transportation Company, but Dode and Willapa did not go to PSN operational control until the spring of 1904.[11]
It is also reported that Canadian-Pacific sold Willapa to the Thompson Steamship Company before the vessel came into the ownership of Puget Sound Navigation Co.[1] Thompson Steamship was a Port Angeles concern run by the Thompson brothers, including John Rex Thompson.[12] John Rex Thompson was a business ally of C.E. Curtis. A news report from late 1902 stated that Willapa was to be purchased by a syndicate headed by John Rex Thompson.[13] In May 1904, allegations were made in court of financial malfeasance and breach of trust by C.E. Curtis, causing Bellingham Bay Transportation Co., a company owned by local farmers, to become financially insolvent.[14]
Puget Sound service as Bellingham
On return to Puget Sound, Bellingham was placed on the Seattle –
On December 6, 1903, in heavy fog, Bellingham was towing the steamer
When, in 1903, the Puget Sound Navigation Company purchased Thompson Steamship Co., Bellingham became the flagship of the PSN fleet.[1] This ship, when rebuilt and in service as Bellingham in the early 1900s, was reported to have a "ghost whistle" which was described as a low moaning sound heard when the vessel was working through a heavy sea.[5]
In 1908,
In 1909 Bellingham's principal owner was listed as the Straits Steamship Company.[2]
Conversion to sailing barge
By 1918, the boilers on Bellingham were considered too worn out for the vessel to be of any further service as a powered ship. The fittings and machinery were therefore removed and scrapped by the firm of Neider & Marcus. In March 1919 Bellingham was sold to H.C. Strong who was doing business as the Sunny Point Packing Company. The powerless vessel was taken to the
Conversion to motor vessel
In 1922 Bellingham's owners determined that the vessel could be put to better uses. The vessel was taken to the
Destruction at Seafair
From 1941 to 1946 the vessel was owned by Ketchikan Cold Storage, and then was purchased by Otis Shively. The vessel then was presented to the
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Feagans, Railroad that Ran by the Tide, at pages 17, 135, and 137.
- ^ a b c U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, Bureau of Statistics, Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States (for year ending June 30, 1909), at page 41.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wright, E. W. (1895). Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Oregon: Lewis & Dryden Printing Co. pp. 234, 293–94, 296–97, 298, 388.
- ^ Turner, Pacific Princesses gives engine dimensions as 26 in (66.0 cm) and 32 in (81.3 cm); stroke 28 in (71.1 cm), but this appears to be at least in part an error, as the high-pressure cylinder is much too large.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Kline and Bayless, Ferryboats, at 17–21, 23, 25, 28, 208 and 229.
- ^ Known as Queen after 1890.
- ^ Marshall, Oregon Shipwrecks, at 128 and 132.
- ^ Gibbs, Graveyard of the Pacific, at pages 169-171 and 274.
- ^ Capt. Herbert F. Beecher was the son of the famous clergyman Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887).
- ^ a b c d Turner, Pacific Princesses, at 32, 33, 34, 35, 39, 40, 79, 92 and 234.
- ^ a b c Newell, H.W. McCurdy Marine History, at 15, 32, 77, 87, 96, 110, 135, 179, and 200.
- ^ Rogue-publishing.com, “Thompson Steamboat Company” (accessed 05-13-11)
- ^ Port Townsend Daily Leader, “Given American Register Steamer Willapa is Given Permission to Again Fly American Flag”, December 17, 1902, page 1, col. 4.
- ^ Port Townsend Daily Leader, ”Report Filed by the Receiver Airs Affairs of the Bellingham Transportation Co.”, May 21, 1904, page 1, col.3. (accessed 05-13-11)
- ^ Faber, Steamer's Wake, at 136.
- ^ Lange, Greg, "Seafair -- Beginnings", Historylink.org,, Essay #1470 (July 8, 1999) (accessed 05-14-11).
References
- Faber, Jim, Steamer's Wake, Enetai Press, Seattle WA (1985) ISBN 0-9615811-0-7
- Feagans, Raymond J., The Railroad that Ran by the Tide—Ilwaco Railroad & Navigation Company of the State of Washington, Howell-North, Berkeley, CA 1972 ISBN 0-8310-7094-3
- Gibbs, James A., Pacific Graveyard, Binford & Mort, Portland, OR (1964)
- Kline, M.S., and Bayless, G.A., Ferryboats—A legend on Puget Sound, Bayless Books, Seattle, WA 1983 ISBN 0-914515-00-4
- Lange, Greg, "Seafair -- Beginnings", Historylink.org,, Essay #1470 (July 8, 1999) (accessed 05-14-11)
- Marshall, Don, Oregon Shipwrecks, Binford & Mort, Portland OR (1984) ISBN 0-8323-0430-1
- Newell, Gordon R., ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, Superior Publishing Co., Seattle, WA (1966)
- Newell, Gordon R., Ships of the Inland Sea, Superior Publishing Co., Seattle, WA (2nd Ed. 1960)
- Port Townsend Daily Leader, ”Report Filed by the Receiver Airs Affairs of the Bellingham Transportation Co.”, May 21, 1904, page 1, col.3. (accessed 05-13-11)
- Port Townsend Daily Leader, “Given American Register Steamer Willapa is Given Permission to Again Fly American Flag”, December 17, 1902, page 1, col. 4. (accessed 05-13-11)
- Rogue-publishing.com, “Thompson Steamboat Company” (accessed 05-13-11)
- Turner, Robert D., The Pacific Princesses, Sono Nis Press, Victoria, BC (1977) ISBN 0-919462-04-9
- Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1909.