Last Runs
The Georgie Burton was one of the last surviving steamboats on the Columbia River. She had been launched in 1906, on the same day as the San Francisco earthquake. Her last commercial run came on March 20, 1947. The trip was described in McCurdy as follows:
| “ | pulled away from her Portland dock ... her whistle being the traditional three blast farewell to sentimental Portlanders who waited on the riverbank to see her pass. At Vancouver, Washington, she tied up to take on a special crew of old-time river men. Capt. George M. Shaver, who had run the upper river to Big Eddy in the early days when the Shaver boats were on The Dalles run, was senior pilot. Veteran river masters took their turns at the wheel ... all great names on the river in the days of tall smokestacks and thundering paddle-buckets. ... All along the river, groups of school children, and grownups too, came out to watch the Georgie Burton pass. | ” |
Mills, an English professor when he was not writing books on history, used his full talent with the language to capture the occasion:
| “ | On up the Columbia the Georgie Burton sloshed along while the fog thinned and the sky brightened. She passed familiar places, the sights passengers watched for and remembered, like Cape Horn and Multnomah Falls. She reached the lower Cascades and entered the tall lock of Bonneville Dam. Slowly the lock filled and the Georgie Burton slid out into the slack water beyond, riding over what had been the awesome Cascades, now nothing more than a quiet pool. ... A captain pointed out where the Regulator had hanged herself on a rock, and another one remembered the Fashion. Here was where Hassalo went nearly a mile a minute through the rapids. ... Near Hood River, where the gorge widens, the Spencer had broken her back in the gale, and the big twin-stackers Oneonta and Iris had brought a touch of Upper Mississippi to the Columbia. | ” |
Georgie Burton was moored up at The Dalles, with the objective of turning her into a museum boat. Unfortunately the great Columbia River flood of 1948 broke her loose from her mooring and wrecked her.
The last steamboat race on the Columbia was held in 1952, between Henderson and the new steel-hulled Portland, both towboats. This was actually more of an exhibition than a race. The famous actor James Stewart and other members of the cast of the recently-filmed movie Bend of the River were on board the Henderson. The race was witnessed by Capt. Homer T. Shaver, who stated that as both were running fast for their design, as towboats, the speeds were not much compared to what he'd seen as a young man on the river. Again, the results were summed up by McCurdy:
| “ | It was, however, a stirring sight as the two paddlers, smoke pouring from their stacks and stately waterfalls at their sterns, re-enacted the glory days of steamboating on the Columbia. And this time the sentimental favorite, the old wooden Henderson, beat the new steel Portland. | ” |
In 1995, there was a "race" (again, more of an exhibition) between the steam-powered sternwheeler Portland and the diesel-powered excursion sternwheeler Columbia Gorge. The vessels picked up their passengers at the seawall in Portland, ran north about to the Fremont Bridge, then "raced" south down the Willamette. The images above show the boats passing under the lifting spans of the Burnside Bridge.
Read more about this topic: Steamboats Of The Columbia River
Famous quotes containing the word runs:
“When the artless doctor sees
No one hope, but of his fees,
And his skill runs on the lees;
Sweet Spirit, comfort me!
When his potion and his pill,
Has, or none, or little skill,
Meet for nothing, but to kill;
Sweet Spirit, comfort me!”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
“Anybody who runs is a VC. Anybody who stands still is a well-disciplined VC.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)