Rise of Steam Navigation
In the 1860s and the 1870s, many new steamboats, most built of wood, were brought in to the area or built. One of the earliest, and most famous boats was the sidewheeler, Eliza Anderson. Her owners equipped Eliza Anderson with a steam calliope which blasted out a variety of tunes, including (to the irritation of Canadians when she operated north of the border) "Yankee Doodle" and "Star Spangled Banner." Other boats began to appear, and by 1864, J.B. Libby, Mary Woodruff, Pioneer, Alexandra and Jenny Jones had all appeared on the sound. Steamboat operations were still irregular and unsatisfactory to the general public, as shown by a newspaper commentary of the day:
| “ | It has been generally supposed by everybody that steamboating on this Sound was an unprofitable business, and that without mail subsidies and such like emoluments it was scarcely possible for even a single steamer to make weekly trips and pay expenses. ... We do know, however, that several steamers, large and small, are constantly plying the Sound, and even with their annoying irregularity and the competition among them, they manage to keep afloat, continue in trade, and the owners of some evince a degree of disrespect for popular favor very indicative of plenty of business and fat purses. ... The arrivals and departures of steamers at both ends of the route, as well as way ports, seem especially arranged to discomfort, rather than accommodate the public. Steamers come and go like a thief in the night, and no man knows the day or the hour. After spending a whole week of sleepless nights, waiting and watching for boats, passengers frequently have to make two-forty time, in their stockings and nightcaps, to reach the landings before the steamer shoves out. Though they take a whole week to make a twenty-four hour voyage, they hurry in and out of a way port as if the devil or a sheriff was after them, and the people generally are beginning to indulge the hope that one or the other of those persons may speedily catch and keep them. | ” |
In April 1866, the sidewheeler Cyrus Walker arrived in the Sound under Capt. A.B. Gove. Seattle residents, predominantly male and apparently hard-drinking, mistook her for the promised ship full of brides that Asa Mercer was supposed to be bringing from the east coast. Supposedly a tug, Cyrus Walker also carried freight and passengers; in those days on the sound, no firm distinction was necessarily drawn between steam tugs and other steam-driven craft. Eliza Anderson was still dominating the main route on the sound at the time, which was the Olympia to Victoria run. Slow but cheap to operate, the Eliza bested all competitors, including Josie McNear, New World, and the oddly designed (as a result of her steeple engine) Wilson G. Hunt
Read more about this topic: Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet
Famous quotes containing the words rise and/or steam:
“Thou gav’st me life, but mortal; for that one
Favour I’ll make full satisfaction:
For my life mortal, rise from out thy hearse,
And take a life immortal from my verse.”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
“A steam ran small and terrible and shrill;
it was so still;
the stream ran from the oak-copse
and returned and ran
back into shadow.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)