Seiner and homemade cable cranes at AMCCO. The one in the foreground is built on a 1911 Mack truck frame. Not sure the vintage of the engine, an enclosed overhead cam straight 4.
Columbia River gillnet boat Alki, a dusty jewel tucked far up in the north haul-out way of the senescent Astoria Marine Construction Company. I am documenting boats boats of this type for the Columbia River Maritime Museum. More about this project will be posted here soon. In the meanwhile, you can follow local coverage.
Plans for USN Minesweepers from WWII. Kept in a vault at Astoria Marine Construction Co, with an armed guard during the war. Naval minesweepers were built of wood for many years, since sub-sea mines are often magnetically detonated. The door is open, now, but the plans haven’t moved.
Pushing the lifeboat from Lightship 83 back into shape, from being hogged and flowering. Strongback under the keel, wedges under the turn of the bilges. There is also a brace board under the seat rails, with wedges pressing down on the keel. Drill rod pulling the sides back towards the stem. It’s a stout boat, just been hung up wet. It is also being soaked in Stockholm tar, because we’re old-fashioned.
Ownership organization Northwest Seaport is undertaking an extensive rehabilitation of the Lightship over the next few years. The RFP for phase one has just been issued. For more on this or to watch the progress, see here.
At speed on Lake George. The boat is a very early single-step racing hydroplane built to the plans of the Margaret III, designed by Christopher Columbus Smith, founder of Chris Craft. Plans were drawn for the 151 cubic inch class and published in Rudder magazine. The original boat had a 3 cylinder Pierce-Budd engine; this one has a turbocharged Ford Pinto.
At about 50 mph, in the company of a replica of the 1935 design 225 class hydro Ednandy III (left) and the original 1937 Gold Cup boat Juno (right).
From WoodenBoat #65.
Built in the Everett Camp boathouse.
Built in the Everett Camp boathouse.
Launching day at Lake Ozonia.
Twilite, a replica of J.H. Rushton’s Vesper model sailing canoe, built by the Everett Boat Works in 1976.
Photo of the boat underway copyright Benjamin Mendlowitz.
Her deck, once red with heroes blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
or know the conquered knee;-
The harpies of the shore shall pluck,
The eagle of the sea!
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
or know the conquered knee;-
The harpies of the shore shall pluck,
The eagle of the sea!
– Oliver Wendell Holmes, from “Old Ironsides,” a poem written to galvanize the public to save the USS Constitution from the wrecker’s yard in 1830. Though the object of the poem is preservation, it seems also to imply the dangers of reducing a vessel that once held such power to a mere shoreside attraction.
A leisurely paddle with music was a popular date on the Charles River in Boston in the teens and twenties. Don’t remember where this glass plate negative came from.
Courting canoes can still be had, though. Stop by Ross Bros for an antique, or have the Schoelzel family at Salmon Falls Canoe knock up a new one for you.
As the screwdriver lifted cleats, steps, windshield panels and rub rails from the motorboat, I imagined the old machine had a presence of its own. Did the boat know I was a novice? Did it trust me? Was it afraid? Perhaps it was grateful that there are people like Everett, Josh and Bill who believe in restoration, even though anyone could build a new boat that would perform better with a far smaller investment of time and money.
– Bonnie Obremski Rowan, working on a 1940s Hutchinson utility at the Everett Boat Works. Bonnie is co-craftsmen on the restoration of the S/V Edward D. Rowan and author of the blog of same. Follow the progress at svrowan.wordpress.com.
Monticello’s flag, cotton and wool bunting.
Monticello’s Flag, Raiment of the Mosquito Fleet
While sorting artifacts for Northwest Seaport the other day I came across a box of red and blue wool bunting. It turned out to be an 8’ flag with the word “Monticello” on it. The letters are in white on a red field with blue borders, the flag is swallowtail shape.
A quick google search turned up three US Navy ships of that name, the first of which was a screw-steamer that served with distinction in the Civil War. Digging a little further, though, I came up with the steam ferry Monticello, which was the flagship of the Monticello Steamship Company and operated in Puget Sound in the early 1900s, a prominent member of the ‘mosquito fleet’ of passenger ferries. A friend at Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society confirmed the find and filled me in on the boat’s history.
She was built by Crawford & Reid ship builders of Tacoma in 1906, measured 125’ long and 21’ in beam. She served all over Puget Sound but primarily on the Port Blakeley run. The boat changed hands several times, and was owned by Moe Brothers, Port Blakeley Mill Co., and Puget Sound Freight. The steam engines went out and it was converted to diesel in 1936 and rebuilt as the freighter Penaco. She changed owners and industries a couple more times, and finally went down with her boots on off the Aleutian Islands as the crab boat Sea Venture in 1962.
Pictured above is a locally famous scene, when Monticello ran out of steam and had to be towed in (or pushed, as it turns out) by the gas tug Klickitat. “End of the age of steam” and so-forth. On the bow, it seems likely, is the flag.
Monticello has a wikipedia page. Image credit goes to University of Washington Archives.
Crashing a Sunday CYA cruise on Lake Union. Winifred, a lengthened Lake Union Dreamboat, as seen from Rita, “The loveliest Monk ever built.”
"Her deck, once red with heroes blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
or know the conquered knee;-
The harpies of the shore shall pluck,
The eagle of the sea!"
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
or know the conquered knee;-
The harpies of the shore shall pluck,
The eagle of the sea!"
"As the screwdriver lifted cleats, steps, windshield panels and rub rails from the motorboat, I imagined the old machine had a presence of its own. Did the boat know I was a novice? Did it trust me? Was it afraid? Perhaps it was grateful that there are people like Everett, Josh and Bill who believe in restoration, even though anyone could build a new boat that would perform better with a far smaller investment of time and money."
Monticello’s Flag, Raiment of the Mosquito Fleet
