Making the Cut: From Creek to Canal....a First Hand Look

In 1975 Ralph Waldo Johnson wrote two articles for the Puget Sound Maritime publication The Sea Chest: “Memory Digs a Canal –The Creek” followed by “Memory Digs a Canal – Concluded.” Nancy Dulaney of Rainier Valley Historical Society previews these articles which are now available digitally as a combined PDF file – highly recommended reading for all those interested in the history of the canal and the locks. This is one of an occasional series of essays commemorating the centennial of the Ballard Locks and the Ship Canal.

Ralph Johnson photo of the remains of the Lake Union dam, 1914.

Ralph Waldo Johnson wrote of Congress authorizing a survey for the canal in 1890 with the route approved in 1891. Born in 1895 on Dravus Street in Seattle, with the creek running along the front of the lot, Johnson had a front row seat to early ship canal developments. His own family home was moved in 1902 to Etruria Street at the south end of the Fremont Bridge as the creek and surrounding properties were appropriated for the future ship canal.

In his younger years, when the tide was right, Ralph enjoyed the diluted salt water swimming hole near Bertona Street along with the other small boys (where were the girls?).  Ralph also identified two shallow areas along the creek where boys liked to dip their hot feet in the cool water, locations later covered by 30 feet of water.

As Ralph began school, his father took him to the creek to watch the salmon coming up to spawn. Soon Ralph got big ideas about catching salmon at the spillway and selling them for some “easy money” – ten cents a fish -- that is until the game warden showed up one day to enforce the no gaff‑hook regulation and Ralph’s mother heard about it.

In March 1914, the wooden dam at the Lake Union outlet washed out and Ralph watched as the old Fremont Bridge worked its way into collapse, leaving only the street car tracks and a few ties swinging above the creek, an image which Ralph captured with his camera.

The Seattle Star newspaper reported on the fate of Lake Union dwellers after the water fell some six feet: “…several score of houseboats, mostly occupied by poor people, leaned lakeward on their front porches. Gas, electric, water and sewer connections were broken when the houseboats, straining at their moorings, slid down the incline as the water fell.” (March 14, 1914)

Ralph’s boyhood adventures ran concurrent with the development of the ship canal and locks, and he memorializes both in The Sea Chest articles. His July 4, 1917, Lake Washington Ship Canal dedication day photo must have been taken not long before he left for his World War I service in France.

Ralph Johnson’s memories of the time period during which the creek became the canal are an historian’s delight. His photographs are an added bonus -- I wonder where they now reside.

Interested parties may wish to check out Paul Dorpat’s 2010 article featuring Ralph Johnson, which gives background on his interest in photography and includes pictures of the family home on Etruria Street, the neighborhood and, if you scroll down far enough, early images of the ship canal, some of which are in The Sea Chest articles. 

Dorpat also gives us a look at the Lake Union dam washout in a 2014 essay. 

-- Nancy Dulaney, Rainier Valley Historical Society
   rainiervalleyhistory.org

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.

Making the Cut: The Yesler Mill at Yesler

The Lake Washington Ship Canal was constructed 100 years ago bringing change, both positive and negative, to Puget Sound waterways. A number of historians and educators are working on plans for commemorating this watershed event and looking deeper into the effects on the communities touched by the canal. This is the first in a series of glimpses into our efforts which we call "Making the Cut."

This is a work in progress! For more on the history of the second Yesler Mill, see our blogpost: Yesler Mill on Union Bay.

In 1888 Henry Yesler and friends built a small sawmill on the north shore of Union Bay on Lake Washington. A small company town called...what else?...Yesler grew up behind the mill and up toward the tracks of the Seattle Lake Shore and Eastern Railway (now the Burke Gilman Trail). A wharf extended into the bay on a point of land roughly where the Urban Horticulture Center now stands west of Laurelhurst. Logs were floated in to the mill run and processed into lumber and later shingles which were shipped out by train. Maybe, probably, still working on that angle.

The Yesler Mill survived at least two fires (typical for mills of the era), but the lowering of the lake caused by the cutting of the ship canal in 1916 left its wharf high and somewhat dry and the mill pond only slightly damp. While some lake mills may have benefited from access to the big steamers that the cut afforded, the Yesler Mill, on a shallow bay, was already too low in the water to make that leap. At attempt was made to dredge a channel into the bay in order to make the mill run viable again. This last ditch effort must have had only limited success because by the mid-1920s the mill was gone.

The mill's loss was the U Dub's gain. All the mill acreage, as well as most of the newly exposed wetlands at Union Bay, was acquired by the university with new uses in mind. That is a story for another day.

The dredged mill run can be seen about center top in this aerial from 1937. Even after the mill closed, neighbors attempted to keep the run open for boat launches. The area that is now the University Village can be clearly seen laid out in farming plots, lower right. University of Washington Special Collections.

The historian regrets that the era of the mill is well below the horizon for useful oral history. However, memories survive in unexpected places. In 1971 not-yet-famous author Ivan Doig wrote a piece for The Seattle Daily Times* based on the reflections of his neighbor, Bill Lozott,. Born in 1907, Lozott still lived on the street where he grew up on the hill behind University Village in an area called Exposition Heights, no doubt for the AYP Expo that took place on the grounds of the University in 1909. Lozott remembered the old neighborhood well. Some snippets from Doig's article:

"Around the mill and its wharf sprouted the village of Yesler, a going little community now vanished almost with a trace except in the memories of Bill Lozott and a few others."

"Another attraction: immense mounds of cedar sawdust which, come summer, would ignite in spontaneous combustion."

"The water level receded until a flat triangle of land appeared down the hill to the west of the Lozott home [now University Village.] About 1924, as Bill remembers it, 'a Japanese family dug ditches and drained it to develop a lettuce farm.' Young Bill harvested lettuce there for 25 cents an hour. 'Then we'd go down to the old mill channel' -- trenched from Union Bay to the Yesler shingle mill after the drop in the late level -- 'for a swim to wash off.'"

* Ivan Doig, "The home-town boy," Seattle Daily Times, April 18, 1971, p. 139.

Excellent information about the Town of Yesler can be found in Christine Barrett's A History of Laurelhurst, 1981, Valarie Bunn's blogpost  From Yesler to Wedgwood, and on the website of the Friends of Yesler Swamp. Much more needs to be dug up on the workings of the mill itself.

--Eleanor Boba

Maritime Tourism: The Los Angeles Maritime Museum

Maritime museums often seem to be an endangered species these days, yet they still have a lot to offer. We plan to drop anchor at selected maritime museums this year, beginning with the Los Angeles Maritime Museum.

The museum is housed in a Streamline Moderne building on the San Pedro channel at the Port of Los Angeles. This architectural style appropriately mimics an ocean liner. Built in 1941, the building was originally a ferry terminal for passengers traveling between San Pedro and the naval and cannery facilities on nearby Terminal Island. Today it showcases the history of the port that is one of the largest container facilities in the United States.

Ship models make up a large share of the exhibits at the museum. This is a model of the double-ended ferry Islander which served the San Pedro-Terminal Island run from 1941 until 1963 when completion of the Vincent Thomas Bridge ended the need for ferry service. The label informs us that the ride lasted three minutes and cost 10 cents.

A model of the famed English tea clipper Cutty Sark, launched in 1869. The original is on display in Greenwich, England. Not all the models currently on display at the museum relate to Los Angeles history. This situation may change.

The Chinese junk Ning Po does have associations with Los Angeles. Reportedly built in 1753, the storied boat became a fixture and tourist attraction along the coast of Southern California beginning in 1911. In 1938 the Ning Po caught fire and went down off Catalina Island where it remains.

Perhaps the most famous ship model in the museum's collection is not  of a real ship. It is the Poseidon, star of the movie Poseidon Adventure (1972). The model is based largely on the blueprints for the RMS Queen Mary, a real ocean liner berthed nearby in Long Beach, which was used for filming many scenes in the film.

The museum is home port for a real boat. The Angel's Gate tug, built to serve the war effort in 1944, now provides excursion sailing in the harbor. The tug was featured in a 2015 episode of the TV series "Agent Carter."

Finish up your tour of the museum in the gift shop "Sea Chest" or on the outdoor viewing platform where you can see the USS Iowa, the Vincent Thomas bridge, Terminal Island, and the occasional sea lion.

Eleanor Boba

A Pretty Good Spread: Shipboard Menus from the Puget Sound Maritime Collection

Menu covers of the S.S. Homeric of the Italian Home Lines cruising to the West Indies from Europe in 1957.

Cruise ships and passenger liners have a tradition of fine dining. Menus in the care of Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society bear witness to this tradition. We have well over 1,000 menus in a collection donated by J.A. Gibbs and inventoried by Hal Will. We are pleased to present a selection of these in this web essay.

Ships menu covers often included original artwork evocative of the ships destinations. A series of menus from the passenger liner Denali, in the service of the Alaska Steamship Line, feature Husky and Malamute dogs, a sure crowd pleaser. 

Mother and daughter artists Nina and Josephine Crumrine were commissioned by the steamship line to create artwork for their ships. Full size prints decorated ship offices. A number of their original paintings are in the care of museums and archives. Most of the dogs are named leading us to believe they were painted from life models.

This 1929 menu from the S.S. Dorothy Alexander, en route from Ketchikan to Sitka, converts into a convenient postcard to send to your friends. The Pacific Steamship Company has kindly included contact information should the recipient be interested in cruising. The romantic, tropical imagery would seem to have little to do with the ship's destination; however, the company also served the palmy communities of San Diego and Los Angeles.

This cover from a 1930's shipboard menu reflects the Arts and Crafts aesthetic of the period. Malahat Drive is a scenic highway on Vancouver Island, a part of the Trans-Canada Highway. The ship was the SS Princess Patricia in service of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Dinner on the Princess Patricia included steamed deep sea cod, prime rib, jelly omelette, whatever that is, and princess ice cream.

The S. S. President Jefferson was one of five liners operated as the Admiral Oriental Line, a concern of shipping magnate Robert Dollar. A Thanksgiving menu from 1930 -- The Captain's Dinner --  included a "Sayonara to our Japanese Passengers," leading us to guess that the liner was about to make port in Yokohama or Kobe. A handwritten note at the bottom reads "I thought this a pretty good spread."

 Robert Service poem graces a summer cruise to Alaska menu, 1979.

Maritime Halloween Trivia

MONSTERS OF THE DEEP

Amateur cartographer William L. Taylor added sea monsters to his rendering of the Yukon River Delta as part of a collection of papers in the possession of Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society -- The "Fragmentary Records of The Custom House of St. Michael, Alaska, 1894-1917."

Fantastic sea creatures are an enduring part of maritime legend and lore. Test your knowledge of these beasts and spirits!

1. I matched wits with a peg-legged sea captain, driving him insane. Who am I?

2. I destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Ferry Building, and parts of the Embarcadero with some help from special effects master Ray Harryhausen. What manner of beast am I? 

3. I lure sailors to destruction with my beauty and song and, sometimes, with the smell of coffee. What type of creature am I?

4. I'm a sea witch who gave my name to an atmospheric condition that causes seafarers to see mirages. Who am I?

5. I'm a sea deity discovered by horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Extra points if you can spell or pronounce my name. Who am I?

If you haven't been scared off yet, revisit our trivia contests from past years.

Nautical spooks and ghost ships

1. What ghostly mariner starred in a Disney movie long before Pirates of the Caribbean?

2. What spectral sea captain starred in both a romantic movie (1947) and a television series (1968-70)?

3.  On Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins and company come upon the skeleton of a pirate. What is the "point" of the skeleton to the story?

4.  Which of the following is NOT a portent of bad luck in sailing tradition or literature: a woman on board, setting sail on a Friday, a black cat, the black spot, bananas on board.

5.  Who is associated with the ship Queen Anne's Revenge?

6.  Who captained the Black Pearl?

7.  In the Movie, The Fog, what manner of men crew the Elizabeth Dane?

8. Who is The Flying Dutchman?

9. And finally, what scene from history was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recalling when he described

The Somerset, British man-of-war,

A phantom ship, with each mast and spar 
Across the moon like a prison bar, 
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified 
By its own reflection in the tide.

CLICK HERE FOR ANSWERS

Halloween Trivia Answers

MONSTERS OF THE DEEP

Here follow the answers, more or less, to our Halloween trivia questions, which may be found here.

1.  Herman Melville's great white whale, Moby Dick, may not have been mythological, but he certainly was monstrous.

2.  The monster in It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955) is a giant octopus somehow connected with H-bomb tests. Skip the rest of the movie and watch the last 20 minutes for Ray Harryhausen's stop motion monster in action. Fun fact: the studio couldn't afford eight arms for the octopus, so the creature has only six!

3.  A number of sea witches and mermaids have been blamed for luring sailors to their death; the two-tailed siren is the symbol of Starbucks. 

4.  The sea witch Morgana (or Morgan Le Fay) gave her name to the atmospheric condition known as Fata Morgana, in which distorted images of boats, islands, or buildings appear in the sky, causing confusion to mariners.

5.  Cthulhu is the center of a literary universe created by Lovecraft. Spellings may vary, and, as for pronunciation, good luck with that! We will also accept Dagon, a Semitic fish god who appears in some Lovecraft work.

Elephant fish painted on a church ceiling.

NAUTICAL SPOOKS AND GHOST SHIPS

1. Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) starred the incomparable Peter Ustinov as the notorious pirate.
2.  Captain Daniel Gregg is the titular character in the movie and TV show The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

3.  The murdered pirate has been arranged by Captain Flint to point to the buried treasure.

4.  Black cats (or any cats) are generally considered good luck on shipboard, probably because of their rat-catching abilities. As with all traditions, there are exceptions to this rule.

5.  The Queen Anne's Revenge was the last ship captained by the pirate Blackbeard, himself a spectre in Disney's 1968 movie Blackbeard's Ghost (see above). The Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground and sank off the coast of North Carolina in 1718; the wreck was located in 1996 and partially excavated. 

6.  The Black Pearl, a fictional ship starring in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, sailed under both Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa. And, frankly, maybe others!

7.  In John Carpenter's spooky film, The Fog (the 1980 original, please), the ghost ship is crewed by a group of angry lepers who were lured to their deaths while seeking a haven.

8.  Trick question. The Flying Dutchman is not a who but a what....a ghost ship doomed to sail the seas forever. Legends may vary.

9.  Longfellow cast a ghostly pall over the British ship guarding Boston Harbor at the time of The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. Paul Revere managed to avoid detection by the Somerset's sentries as he crossed the Charles River to warn the patriots of the coming of British troops searching for weaponry.

Engraving of Blackbeard, circa 1736.