Eppleton Hall Revived:
Eppleton Hall , July 5, 1976. All photographs by William E. Burgess, Jr.
A Restorative Day aboard a unique Grasshopper-engine, Paddlewheel Tyneside Tug, Steaming, Wheezing and Clunking Round San Francisco Bay
By William E. Burgess, Jr. President Friends of the Eppleton Hall Society San Francisco Maritime Museum Bill Burgess had no experience of the sea, besides dri ving across the Golden Gate Bridge, until, he says, he wandered one day into the San Francisco Maritime Museums exhibition building to get a drink of water. He got ... oceans. Wandering among ship models, assailed by relics artfully welded up by the same Scott New hall who saved the Eppleton Hall (and is, today, president of the Museum), he fe ll victim to an old, but not altoge ther incurable disease: sea fever. The patient is still alive, certainly his heart beats strongly, but clearly, as th is narrative suggest, he has fou nd no cure for his ailment. The Eppleton Hall lies alongside the ta ll square-rigger Balclutha, in whose service Burgess had originally volu ntee red. This sto1y, and some notes on the aftermath, sho ws what happens to volunteers.
Today, July 5, 1976, "The Friends of the Epple ton Hall Society" take her on a to ur of San Francisco Bay. Eppie was constructed in the United Kin gdom in 1914. Her grassho pper engines were patented in the 1820s. Originally used to tow ships up the Wear River to collieries, she ended her working days as a harbor tug o n the Tyne Rive r until she was sold for scrap in 1968. She is the last of her kind. Bo ught from th e wreckers and re paired . she steamed 11 ,000 miles in a six-month voyage from Newcastle , England , to San Francisco in 1969-1 970. The nine men and three wo men from age 67 to 11 who se rved as crew say this was a dangero us, frightening , gripping, hilarious, and inspiring voyage . The cranky tug left
SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1977
England as a registered yacht. Fuel o il was stowed in barrels stashed on deck . To help push her along and add stabi lity, her foremast was square-rigged. A mizzenmast was added to ho ld a spanker. Staysails were rigged for-andaft. Up to that time no o ne had any idea what fuel consumption would be. Between Dove r, England , and Lisbo n, Portugal, she ran o ut of fuel a nd the British freighter Cervantes came to her rescue. After a deep-water party for the crew of bo th vessels, she steamed o n her way. She was the last sidewheeler to cross the Atlantic. TheEppie is o ne hundred and five feet long with a thirgy-seven a nd a half foot beam over the paddleboxes. Her power plant, two massive return flue o il-fired boilers, deliver low-pressure steam to a
pair of single cylinder side-lever engines. A pair of feathering paddlewheels straddle her sides amidships. Raw seawater feeds her boilers. Three men are on the bridge . Our skipper is Scott Newhall, publisher of the New hall Signal in Newhall , California. He is on the board of the San Francisco Maritime Museum. In 1969 he purchased and rebuilt the Eppleton Hall and captained her on the voyage from England. Overseeing the operation with pride are two other buffs: Harlan Soeten, retired captain, curator of the Museum , and Karl Kortum, who sailed in the square-rigger Kaiulani during World War II delivering munitions to South Pacific naval bases, the Museum director. Karl built the Museum from a ship model showcase to a wealth of
Imperturbable First Mate Kortum strides bridge as Hall gets under way.