Snoqualmie (fireboat)
![]() The Snoqualmie at her moorings in 1920
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Name | Snoqualmie |
Builder | Pacific Coast Engineering |
Launched | 1891 |
Out of service | 1935 |
General characteristics |
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The Snoqualmie was Seattle's first fireboat.[1][2] She was the first fireboat on North America's west coast. She was launched in 1891, as a 98 feet (30 m) long, wooden-hulled, steam-powered vessel.[3] She was taken out of service, and rebuilt when Seattle completed its second fireboat, the Duwamish, in 1909. Her coal-fueled boilers were replaced with oil-fueled ones. The retrofit included altering her profile. She had a new superstructure, and the replacement of her boiler meant replacing her original single smokestack with a pair of smokestacks. Built by Pacific Coast Engineering.
She was replaced, in front line service, by the more powerful, gasoline powered
According to Alaska Shipwrecks: 1750 - 2010, the Snoqualmie was destroyed by a fire, in Kodiak, Alaska, on March 6, 1974.[4][5] It stated that, after her retirement from Seattle, she had been re-used for a variety of purposes. Prior to the fire she was being used as a shrimp hauler. A coast guard vessel towed her away from a Kodiak re-fueling dock, to a point where she could be left to burn out without posing further danger. Observers said she burned for 36 hours.
References
- ^ a b
Richard Schneider (2007). Seattle Fire Department. ISBN 9781439634332. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
- ^ a b
"Alki fireboat: The History". Archived from the original on 2015-08-10. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
In 1927 Seattle's third fireboat, the Alki, measuring 123 feet in length with a pumping capacity of 12,000 gallons per minute, replaced the aging Snoqualmie fireboat.
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Joan Dodd (2014). Cow Woman of Akutan: An Extraordinary, Compelling Story of a Unique Alaska Adventure. ISBN 9781594334801. Retrieved 2017-03-21.
Then in 1909 the boat was considered worn out and unseaworthy, was replaced by a larger, steel-hulled vessel. But in 1910, the Snoqualmie got an overhaul, and was converted from coal-fired to oil-fired power.
- ^ a b
Glen Carter (1974-03-06). "Fireboat comes to a flaming end off Kodiak dock". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2017-03-21.
She was retired in 1932. She was sold for scrap for $1,888 in 1935. But she helped build the Mercer island floating bridge in 1939-40, then went into obscurity.
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Captain Warren Good (2016). Alaska Shipwrecks: 1750 - 2010. ISBN 9781329876859. Retrieved 2017-03-21.
External links
Media related to Snoqualmie (ship, 1891) at Wikimedia Commons