Making the Cut: Ships in the Locks (Photo Forensics 101)

Puget Sound Maritime researcher Joe Baar takes a second look at some photos associated with the Lake Washington Ship Canal. This is one of an occasional series of essays commemorating the centennial of the Ballard Locks and the Ship Canal.

Several early photographic images of vessels transiting the Ship Canal are well known and the captions commonly associated with them claim they were taken during the canal’s first day, or first year, of operation. Sometimes we must take such assertions with a large dose of salt.

In one example, the photo reproduced on page 262 of The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Gordon Newell, ed., 1966) shows the tug HORNET towing the freighter ss EASTERN MERCHANT eastbound out of the large lock; the caption purports EASTERN MERCHANT was the “...largest vessel to pass through the locks in their first year of operation.” That year would have run from August 1916 through August 1917. Lloyd’s Register of Ships tells us Asano Dockyard in Tsurumi, Japan, completed the 8,152-ton EASTERN MERCHANT in December 1919 to the order of the United States Shipping Board. As well, Merchant Vessels of the United States shows the tug HORNET was built in Seattle in 1920, so this photo could not have been taken earlier, belying the McCurdy caption. Much gratitude to Karl House for pointing out this inconsistency.

Confusion has resulted from the fact both locks were open to traffic by early August 1916, although the project’s official dedication and the celebratory maritime parade did not take place until July 4, 1917. By that date, shipping had been arriving in Lake Washington via this conduit for eleven months.

ss Roosevelt followed by mv Orcas at the Fremont Bridge, 7/4/1917;
 Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, Joe Williamson Collection

ss ROOSEVELT at the Montlake Cut, 7/4/1917;
Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, Joe Williamson Collection

The REAL First Transit

The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey ship GEDNEY, shown immediately below, most likely records the first transit of the Lake Washington Ship Canal by an ocean-going vessel. This event probably would have occurred during 1916. A jubilant note on one copy of the print’s reverse side informs us this trip was made with “No Pilot.” This notation lends credibility to the photo’s provenance because survey ships normally gather information about uncharted waters without using local guides. Also of interest is the absence of smaller craft visible in the image (aside from tugs), a certain indicator this trip was not the same one as the July 4th, 1917 transit led by the ROOSEVELT.

Survey ship USC&GS GEDNEY Eastbound from the Large Lock, c. 1916;
Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, Joe Williamson Collection

Survey ship USC&GS GEDNEY at Sitka, Alaska, before 1912;
Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, Joe Williamson Collection

-- Joe Baar

Joe Baar has been fascinated with ships since his childhood on Brace Point. His lifelong avocation has included stints with the Sea Explorers, small boat school courtesy of the U.S. Army, working on yachts on Lake Union, and amassing a large collection of maritime books.

Picnic Point Mystery Revisited

Several months ago we posted Joe Baar’s query about a mystery hull at Picnic Point. Since that time Joe has pulled together information from a number of sources to provide this likely solution to the mystery.

A lot of information has come in recently about the hulk beached north of Picnic Point. This vessel’s final name was MV PACIFIC QUEEN, official number 257731. Eight ships of this kind were built as “Auxiliary Rescue and Salvage” vessels (ARS) during 1942 and 1943. Three of these wooden vessels were originally authorized for construction under Lend-Lease contracts with Great Britain as “British Auxiliary Rescue and Salvage” ships (BARS) to help stem the rate of merchant ship losses due to U-Boat attacks in the North Atlantic. Other methods for preventing such losses proved successful more rapidly than the rescue and salvage vessels could be put into service, so all these lend-lease agreements were cancelled before any of the ships were completed. Anticipating a need in the Pacific Theatre, the U.S. Navy continued construction begun under lend-lease and obtained authorization for five more vessels of a similar design.

NOAA Chart showing location of the hulk.

Using tabular information collected from Silverstone’s US Warships of World War II, the U.S. Bureau of Customs’ Merchant Vessels of the United States, and NavSource.org on the internet, I was able to organize data about the eight ARS vessels to give what I believe is a definitive answer about the true origin of the hulk on Franzen Beach. My findings are summarized here.

Two ships were lost in 1945 due to accidents. Of the remaining six ships, three are positively identified in multiple published sources as having been sold into mercantile service after 1946. A fourth ship was transferred to the government of Denmark in 1947. Of the remaining two ships, only one was constructed with twin screws (two propellers). That ship was USS WEIGHT, ARS-35, ex-PLYMOUTH SALVOR, BARS-7. This exercise specifically rules out USS ANCHOR, ARS-13, as the original identity of MV PACIFIC QUEEN.

Pacific Queen after her rebuild by Puget Sound Boat Building Corporation in 1949.

 Courtesy Tacoma Public Library.

A number of rumors about this vessel have circulated since 1949, and need to be put to rest. First, the Tacoma News Tribune reported on 5/15/49 that the newly rebuilt ship was “formerly an Army tug,” which is only partly true in the generic sense that a salvage vessel can be used as a tug; and there is no record that any of these eight vessels ever operated under the auspices of the U.S. Army. Second, at least two otherwise reliable sources – Merchant Vessels of the United States and the Marine Digest contain information that this ship was built in Stockton, California, by Colberg Boat Works, but every source agrees that all three of Colberg’s ARS vessels were built to the single-screw design, and this hull definitely incorporates struts for twin screws. Finally, this vessel was never a minesweeper even though it has a wooden hull, whose heavy construction shows its suitability for a much different mission: ocean salvage.

The U.S. Treasury Department assigns official numbers only to yachts and merchant vessels, not to U.S. naval vessels, but documentation required to register the vessel and obtain an official number as a merchant vessel in 1947, ’48 or ’49 should link that number to the builder’s “Master Carpenter’s Certificate”, which will provide absolute proof of this hulk’s identity. Both Merchant Vessels of the United States and a photo of the vessel’s official number and net tonnage carved into her main beam, kindly sent to me by Karl Elder, have identified the hulk high on Franzen Beach as MV PACIFIC QUEEN. In addition, one of Karl’s relatives has recently measured the hulk at 173’-0’, which matches the length given in Merchant Vessels.

Photo, Everett Daily Herald. Date unknown.

Thanks to Karl Elder for supplying us with this image.

          

Whichever ARS finally became MV PACIFIC QUEEN, Kyle Stubbs and Karl Elder have both provided a wealth of information about the mercantile history of this ship. Karl is the grandson of Arvid Franzen, the final owner of PACIFIC QUEEN. Kyle has fleshed out some of the tabular information I’ve put together above. He reports the vessel was sold to Puget Sound Boat Building of Tacoma and they rebuilt her in 1947-49 as a refrigerated cargo ship. By 1950 Merchant Vessels shows ownership as Pacific Queen Fisheries of Tacoma, and one of the salvors, Dave Updike, informed the Marine Digest via Doug Egan that MV PACIFIC QUEEN remained in the Bristol Bay fishery as a fish packer and processor under this ownership. Thanks to Karl Elder for passing me his extract about this from the Marine Digest dated 2/14/1976.

On 9/17/1957 MV PACIFIC QUEEN sank at Tacoma’s Old Town Dock in about 30 feet of water as the result of a gasoline explosion and fire originating under the afterdeck. According to the Marine Digest, one crew member was killed in the conflagration. During 1958 the wreck was raised by Dave Updike and Jim Vallentyne, floated and towed to Lake Union in Seattle for removal of heavy internal items and the steel superstructure down to the main deck.

Photo,Todd Stahlecker, 8/1/2012.

Information about the sinking appears in Susan Hodges’ Cases and Materials on Marine Insurance Law (Cavendish, London: 1999). Two cases and appeals came before the United States Ninth District Court and all the issues raised were not fully litigated until late 1962. In Pacific Queen Fisheries v. Symes and in Pacific Queen Fisheries v. Atlas Assurance Company, the cases are summarized as follows:

PACIFIC QUEEN was a large refrigerated wooden hulled vessel which was engaged in freezing and transporting salmon catches from Alaska to ports in Puget Sound, Washington State. Unknown to the insurers, because PACIFIC QUEEN supplied fuel to the small fishing vessels operating with her, her [gasoline] carrying capacity had been enlarged from 3,000 gallons to 8,000 gallons. During the currency of the policy underwritten by the defendants, PACIFIC QUEEN suffered a violent explosion caused by the ignition of [this gasoline] and became a constructive total loss. The insurers refused to indemnify the owners for the loss. They contended [among other things] that (a) she was unseaworthy, and (b) she had been sailing in contravention of the Tanker Act.

The United States Court of Appeal [sic] upheld the District Court and ruled that PACIFIC QUEEN had been sent to sea unseaworthy with the privity of her owners; furthermore, as the owners had not exercised due diligence, the loss was not covered by the Inchmaree Clause. However, the Court specifically refrained from ruling the adventure illegal, as [this] was not the controlling issue of the case. It was not the Court’s wish to set a precedent until all the ramifications of the issue had been considered.

At the Coast Guard’s and Seattle Fire Department’s requests the salvors towed MV PACIFIC QUEEN’s light hulk from Lake Union and beached it north of Picnic Point at the burning grounds of Franzen Beach. Karl Elder reports he was 11 years old at the time and watched the tug labor to ground the wreck securely for hours before and after the high tide. This activity left a large prop-wash depression in the beach, which Karl says took several years to fill in. His story continues, “My grampa blew the hole in the port side to anchor the Queen. He paid Updike or Vallentyne $1 to get a receipt.” And finally, “My grampa told me he didn't burn it because they pushed it in too close to the hillside and he didn't want to set the woods on fire.” This is a beautifully clear and concise explanation why the hulk is still visible for us to ponder.

I am deeply grateful to Karl and Kyle for participating in this discussion.    

                       

-- Joe Baar     

Photos of the derelict vessel accompany a KOMONews.com webposting and my be viewed here. Note, that some details in the article, including the date of beaching, are incorrect.

Digging Deep: A Photo Research Case Study

Puget Sound Maritime volunteer researcher Joe Baar was given the assignment of identifying a number of stray photos unearthed during preparations for our recent big move. His analysis of this photo demonstrates the difficulties and rewards of engaging in photo forensics.

Photo courtesy of Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, for now....

The Photo

Our photo is a black and white matte print, approximately 14 x 10 inches, of a Japanese motorship maneuvering in a waterway on the U.S. Atlantic coast, just offshore from lighted buoy #30, with a Moran ship-assist tug alongside. PSMHS records give no evidence of the print’s provenance.

The Ship

Neither the ship’s name nor that of the tug is fully legible on the print. However, the shipping company is clearly identified by the ship’s funnel insignia and by lettering on its hull: “Mitsubishi Line”. The ship’s hull, superstructure and masting shapes place it at a time after World War II; the tug’s streamlined funnel shape contributes to this placement. A rough estimate of a ship’s size depends largely on the relative size of its visible components, their proportions, and how they compare to other, known, vessels. If a normal deck is about 10 feet high, then what multiple of this distance matches the height of the ship’s bow as it appears in our photo? Since the ship is positioned at an angle to the camera and its bow is farther away than its other parts, how much should we correct this height for perspective? All this information taken together yields an estimate of around 450 feet in length and probably smaller than 10,000 gross tons measurement – a slightly less boxy design than our World War II EC-2 Liberty ships, but similar in size.

Lloyd’s Register List of Shipowners for 1959-60 shows vessels belonging to Mitsubishi Kaiun Kaisha to include six 7,500 GRT motor ships built 1951-56 and three 8,400 GRT motor ships built 1957-58. Photographs of all nine of these ships, available on the internet, show the former class was configured with a “three-island”-type hull and the latter class was flush-decked with a forecastle. Inspection of the vessel in our photo shows it to be one of the three later vessels, either CALEDONIA MARU, GLORIA MARU, or OCEANIA MARU. Very close inspection of the name visible on the starboard bow allows a conclusive identification as GLORIA MARU.

The When

Japanese shipping lines underwent a consolidation in April 1964 (Chida and Davies, The Japanese Shipping and Shipbuilding Industries, Bloomsbury, 1990). In that month Mitsubishi K.K. transferred its vessels to Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Ltd.), whose funnel, hull colors and markings are entirely different from those of Mitsubishi, so our photo was taken between March 1958 when GLORIA MARU went into service, and April 1964. Lloyd’s Register also reflects this changeover.

A postcard sold in October 2014 on eBay shows GLORIA MARU in a view almost identical to the one in our photo. In general, the ship appears to be moving ahead slowly; a Moran tug is alongside the bridge superstructure moving ahead almost at full speed on what appears to be a parallel course. The card’s reverse side contains the following information:

NEW YORK HARBOR

The M.V. Gloria Maru, with a Moran docking tug at the bow, on its maiden arrival in the world’s busiest harbor. Photo from Moran.

This photo appears to have been taken less than five minutes later than the one in our print, adding significantly to our understanding of the scene. Lacking evidence to the contrary, for the time being we can accept this, and our own photo, as views of the ship on its first arrival in New York. 

EBay Postcard view of M.S. GLORIA MARU taken a few minutes later than our view.

The New York Times’ “Shipping -- Mails” news discloses 14 voyages GLORIA MARU made to the United States’ Atlantic Coast between March 1960 and June 1964. The first arrival occurred on 3/27/1960 from Japan via Cristobal, Panama, and that voyage departed New York on 4/9/1960 destined for Kobe, Japan. A similar pattern was in place for all the following voyages, with occasional intermediate stops, either inbound or outbound, in Hampton Roads, Philadelphia and Baltimore. GLORIA MARU’s Atlantic Coast service continued after June 1964 but since she came under NYK ownership and colors the previous April, information about these voyages is not germane to the identification of this photograph.

The Where

A foreground feature in our photo is lighted buoy number 30. The Moran ship-assist tug would seem to place the general location west of Sandy Hook and south of Orient Point, Long Island. The U.S. Coast Guard’s current Light List for the northern portion of the Atlantic coast discloses 29 red “30” buoys, of which four are lit. One of these is out-of-area in Maine and two have bells, one at Gowanus Flats in New York Harbor’s Upper Bay and one in Raritan Bay just south of Staten Island. The remaining R “30” buoy is in Arthur Kill between Fresh Kills Reach and Tremley Point Reach. The 1947 chart edition does not show any buoy at this location, and the 1966 edition shows this buoy just south of a relatively new pier and dredged dock at the channel’s bend between these two reaches. The surrounding land on both sides of Arthur Kill at this location is low and marshy, which corresponds to what our photo shows. Two chimneys north of Tremley Point, as noted on Chart 285 of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, are just visible in the distance on our print, ahead of the tug’s pilot house.

U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Chart 285, 1966, for the area covered by both photos, showing buoy R30.

The current Google satellite view shows the pier’s southwestern end collapsed into Fresh Kills Reach and the middle part of the pier is enclosed in what appears to be a steel-clad structure two or three storeys high, extending over the dock and supported on three large cylindrical caissons in Arthur Kill. The building extends inland some distance to at least 15 truck loading docks and the site includes baled material stacked on an associated hardstand and two loaded, uncovered barges moored at the remaining northeast pier. Google identifies this complex as the Pratt Industries Paper Division, whose own web site lists its activities as a paper mill for recycled corrugated cardboard. The whole complex is located just south of the Travis-Chelsea NRG Energy electricity generating plant, whose structures were first placed at this location in 1948 by Staten Island Edison. A road and conveyor system connect Pratt and NRG, making possible use of Pratt’s waste products as fuel for the power plant. Further research is needed to determine what the predecessors of the recycling facility were, in order to understand what cargo GLORIA MARU brought or took away in 1960.

In our photo GLORIA MARU appears to have just finished backing down and her engine has completed shifting to an ahead bell. Evidence for this activity is the flattening boil of propwash along her starboard quarter with a growing wash into the stream astern; and a dispersing cloud of smoke wafting toward the photographer. These ships were propelled by a single direct-drive 16-cylinder diesel engine, normally producing visible exhaust when revolutions are increased under maneuvering conditions. GLORIA MARU has backed out of her berth at Travis-Chelsea and is headed north toward Kill van Kull and New York Harbor. If the date is before April 8th then she’s bound for Norfolk; if it’s April 9, 1960 then she’s headed to Kobe, Japan via Panama.

The Why

The print in our collection lacked any material to substantiate its origin, either as notations on the print’s face or on its reverse side, or as an attachment. A search within the contents of all our Deeds of Gift might turn up a reference specific to this print, but such a search would consume far more resources than we have available. We are thus unable to determine where this photo should reside in one of our collections, but whether it should reside there is now easily answered: since our identification process has now placed the photo’s venue definitively on the Atlantic Coast, it clearly falls outside our area of interest and is most likely a candidate for de-accession from our collection.

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Joe Baar has been fascinated with ships since his childhood on Brace Point. His lifelong avocation has included stints with the Sea Explorers, small-boat school courtesy of the U.S. Army, working on yachts on Lake Union, and amassing a large collection of maritime books.