REVIEW WINTER 1974
VOL.2
16TH & EXCHANGE STREET, ASTORIA, OREGON 97103
AERIAL VIEW OF MUSEUM SITE AND SURROUNDINGS
On a clear Saturday afternoon in September, the Director accompanied professional photographer Hugh Ackroyd on an aerial mission to photograph the container vessel Sea/,and Producer as she steamed down the Columbia River following an extensive refit in Portland. While in the air over Astoria, Ackroyd took the above photo, which clearly demonstrates the strategic location of the new Museum site and the progress toward beginning of construction. The view is from directly over the main ship channel,
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PHOTO: ACKROYD
looking south southeast. In the foreground, outlined in white, is the property where our new building will soon be underway. The Coast Guard cutter Yocona and the Museum's lightship Columbia are moored alongside. One block to the westward and uphill is the present Museum building, circled. The Astor Column, atop Coxcomb Hill, stands out in the center of the picture, while Saddle Mountain looms above the Coast Range in the distance. Both are familiar landmarks for ships entering the Columbia River.
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EUROPEAN TOUR OFFERED
This summer the Museum will again co-sponsor a specialized European tour. The 1975 odyssey is entitled "A Journey through the Seafaring Nations of Northern Europe ." The tour will visit Norway and Denmark, viewing the many remnants of the Viking age. Thence by private motorcoach to Northern Germany, where visits will include Schleswig and the old "Queen of the Hanseatic League", Lubeck; from Lubeck by express train to Frankfurt. After sightseeing in the Rhine Gorge, the tour will follow the Moselle River to Trier and Luxembourg, then visit the champagne country en route to Paris. Leaving the "City of Light", the tour will depart for London, where visits will include the world-renowned National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and the HMS Victory at Portsmouth. In addition to being an opportunity to visit some of Europe's most notable maritime museums and sites, this will also be a wine and gourmet tour. Wine tastings will be held in the Rhineland, along the Moselle and in Champagne. Special meals will be arranged along the way. Opportunities for tour members to meet local personalities in the maritime field will be arranged. Plentiful free time is provided for shopping, individual sightseeing and relaxation. The tour will begin on June 16 and last three weeks. The cost will be approximately $1,875 including round trip air fare from Lhe Wesl Coasl, firsl class accommodations, meals, all transport, sightseeing, guides, etc. For further information, contact the Museum or Mr. Brian Medcalf at Commonwealth Tours, 235 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California 94104 .
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QUARTERDECK REVIEW The Board of Trustees and the Museum staff join in wishing you Happy Holidays, Good Health and a Prosperous New Year! A most unusual year is drawing to a close as we go to press. Certainly it is one in which we join a considerable array of enterprises feeling the confounding and unpredictable price rises. The Board of Trustees has decided we will proceed at "full ahead ." Construction can begin on our new quarters as soon as elevations and engineering are completed. Driving of piling can then be followed by paving of the concrete slab on which the long-awaited building will rise. This will all take time and patience and perhaps some weather . During the year we have enjoyed receiving more and finer additions to our present and comtemplated exhibits. It has also brought solid recognition from many visitors who have this year, more than in any previous, heard of the Museum from friends and publicity and made it a must on their travel itinerary. WP. look forward with high hopes that economic changes will take place for the better and overtake us with the balance needed to complete the strategic and dramatic home for our collection of historic nautical memorabilia. Rolf Klep, Director
• SUBMARINE PERISCOPES ACQUIRED
of the Navy Department. Also acquired from the Rasher, through the Navy and Schnitzer Industries, were a MK 18 exercise torpedo and an interior watertight pressure door. The periscopes are fully operational, with the top of the sub's conning tower and support sleeves intact. They will eventually form a "live" exhibit, providing Museum visitors with a submariner's view of the Lower Columbia .
Another major Navy-related exhibit planned for the new building moved closer to reality last month when periscopes from the World War II submarine Rasher (AGSS 269) were delivered to temporary storage facilities at Tongue Point. Removed from the sub during scrapping by American Ship Dismantlers in Portland, they were transferred to the Museum through the Naval History Division
• SUNSET AT THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER IN THE DAYS OF SAIL
BURKHOLDERS PRESENT MODEL OF VETERAN TUG
An important addition to the Museum's fleet of models was made last month when Mr. and Mrs. Robert Burkholder of Portland presented a replica of the John A. Shaw, an 83-foot steam tug built for the Hammond Lumber Company in 1913 by the Wilson Brothers shipyard, Astoria. The Shaw was designed for towing log rafts on the Lower River. She boasted a 250 h.p. steam engine, and was among the first tugs built with the "Wilson stern", a feature which prevented fouling of the propeller when the vessel backed against a log boom. After 16 years of service around Astoria, the tug was purchased in 1929 by Smith Towing Co. of Rainier and renamed Smithy. In 1930 Smith was bought out by Shaver Transportation Co. of Portland. Repowered with a diesel engine, the big tug served for thirty years under the PHOTO: ]OHN THOMPSON
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TuG JOHN
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SHAW AT STELLA, WASHINGTON CIRCA 1917
name Klickitat. She is still afloat today, as a houseboat on the Willamette River in Portland. For Burkholder the Shaw has special significance. His father, the late Captain Nathan B. Burkholder, was master of the tug during her first fourteen years. Between the ages of four and six the younger Burkholder lived on board with his parents in the spacious quarters abaft the pilothouse. He vividly recalls the excitement of life on the river for a lad growing up during the early twenties. The 20-inch replica, built by Lloyd McCaffery of Oregon City, represents the Shaw as she looked in 1922, when the family made their home on board. It is complete and accurate to the smallest detail, including the potted plants kept by Mrs. Burkholder in a windowbox on the upper deck, and a dishpan hanging outside the galley door. The model was donated to the Museum in memory of Captain Nathan Burkholder. It is a permanent exhibit.
A CHRISTMAS TALE
Captain S. A. Hoyt of Seattle has a fund of experiences to draw from when he wishes to while away an hour. He recently told the following tale: "The approach of Christmas always reminds me of the December that I spent on an ice ship. Never heard of one? Well they are unusual. I was master of the little brig Holly, and along about the first of November we were wrecked away down south of the Horn. The ship went on an ice floe and was battered all to pieces. We did manage to save some tools and food and part of the cargo. "I put the crew to work to cut off a large pinnacle of the berg. Then I set them all to work with axes, and we shaped it into a graceful ship's hull. After that we hollowed it out inside, making cabins and everything like a regular ship, and with some of the timber saved from our vessel we rigged her as a bark, sidelights and everything, even going so far as to paint her and name her the
Holly. She was a fine craft and floated like a duck when finally launched. We spent Christmas on board her and had a great time. I loaded a part of the wrecked Holly's cargo in her, and then we started for Callao, which was our destination. "The ice ship sailed fine and was as good a sea boat as any in which I sailed. This was only, however, when we were down south in cold water. The nearer we got to the equator the lighter became our vessel, and I finally discovered that our ship was melting beneath us . Another two days and we would have been in the water, when a steamer picked us up and also saved the cargo. This paid for the loss of the vessel, which was also insured, so the owners came out ahead in the end." The foregoing story is quoted from the Astori,a, Daily Budget of December 2, 1907. We cannot vouch for its author's veracity.
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SHIP ST. NICHOLAS
BOAT SHOW EXHIBIT PLANNED
During the early decades of the 20th century, when tramp steamers and low freight rates were driving the sailing vessel from the seas, dozens of square riggers found a last refuge in the Alaska salmon trade. The legendary "Star" fleet of San Francisco's Alaska Packers Association comes immediately to mind, but there were "cannery ships" out of nearly every seaport on the West Coast. The St. Nichol,as was typical. Built in Bath, Maine in 1869, she was purchased by Columbia River Packers Association of Astoria in 1902. Every spring the old Downeaster made the 2,000 mile voyage to Bristol Bay laden with fish boats, nets, tin plate, lumber, staple food supplies, and men-everything and everyone needed to maintain and operate a cannery for an entire season. Except for the captain and one or two mates, she did not have a regular crew; the ship was worked by the fishermen on board. The passage to Alaska took an average of 30 days. On the run down to Astoria in the fall, loaded with men, gear, and a season's pack of salmon, the old ship averaged three weeks sailing time. In 1922 the St. Nicholas was replaced by the steel ship Chillicothe. A few years later she met her end. Like hundreds of other once-proud windjammers, she was beached and burned for recovery of her metal fastenings.
Part of the Museum will go to Portland in mid-January to participate in the 1975 International Boat Show, to be held at Memorial Coliseum. Selected artifacts will be displayed in the Museum's booth, and information on activities, programs and membership will be available from Museum staff. This is one of a number of efforts being undertaken to create greater awareness of the Columbia River Maritime Museum. We are looking forward to many new members and friends among the boating and sport fishing communities as a result of this foray.
QUARTERDECK REVIEW OF THE
COLUMBIA RIVER MARITIME MUSEUM ASTORIA, OREGON 97103
• LOWER PRICE FOR CHARTS
The newly-reissued McBean "ship,.vreck chart" of the Columbia River entrance is now available from the Museum-and at a lower price than was originally anticipated. An exact reproduction of the 1936 edition, the new chart is printed on heavy paper with wide margins. With an overall size of 22 by 24 inches, it is suitable for framing without a mat. The chart makes an ideal gift. It's definitely a good buy at $3.50 (add $.75 for mailing in a sturdy tube).
Non-Profit Organization U.S. POSTAGE
PAID Astoria, Oregon Permit No. 209