Transfer To Puget Sound
As the O.R. & N completed its railroad line up the Columbia, the company management realized that this would put out of work most of their steamboats on the middle river, including the Idaho. The only near place where these boats could be employed was Puget Sound, and the company began to expand its operations there. First, in May 1881 they bought the Starr Navigation Company, thereby acquiring the largest steamboat fleet on the sound, including among others, the George E. Starr. Next they began bringing the redundant boats from their Columbia River fleet around the Olympic Peninsula to Puget Sound. Taking a shallow draft lightly built inland-vessel on this route was a difficult task. The storms and sea conditions in this area of the Pacific Ocean were so bad that it became known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. Just crossing the Columbia Bar was dangerous even to large seagoing vessels.
The first boat brought around was the sternwheeler Welcome, with Capt. George S. Messegee (1837–1911), in command. Welcome was taken up in August 1881 the tow of the tug Tacoma. Captain Messegee then returned to the Columbia River to take the Idaho around. Originally the company had planned to have Idaho towed around just as Welcome had been, but when the company learned the towing charges would be $1,000, they ordered Captain Messegee to take Idaho up under her own power. Messegee took command of Idaho on October 22, 1881, the day she was launched following her reconstruction. In case of engine failure on the trip to Puget Sound, Messegee rigged up a square sail and a jib on the vessel.
At 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, February 19, 1882, Idaho left Portland on her voyage to Puget Sound, heading down first the Willamette River and then the Columbia, reaching Astoria, Oregon at 3:30 that afternoon. The next day, Monday the 20th, Messegee tried taking Idaho out from Astoria and west to the mouth of the Columbia, but conditions were so bad that the bar could not be safely crossed, and the vessel returned to Astoria. On Tuesday, Messegee took Idaho downriver again, and pulled into Baker Bay, near the Columbia Bar and the town of Ilwaco. On Wednesday, February 22, at 6:00 a.m. a second attempt to cross the bar failed, and Idaho returned to Baker Bay at 8:00 a.m., where Messegee and the assistant engineer Reuben Smith disembarked and went up to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse to watch the sea conditions. At 11:00 a.m. they judged the seas to be sufficiently calm to allow the Idaho to cross the bar, so they returned to the vessel, and took her over the bar, encountering heavy seas as they did so. Once past the bar, Idaho ran fast on her own power, reaching Port Townsend the next day, February 23, 1882. This was the fastest time yet for any steamer brought around to the Sound from the Columbia River.
Read more about this topic: Idaho (sidewheeler)
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