Flyer (steamboat 1891)
Encyclopedia
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Flyer was a steamboat that served from 1891 to 1929 on Puget Sound
. During her last years, from 1918 to the end of her service, she was officially known as the Washington. The Flyer ran for millions of miles at high speed, more than any inland vessel in the world. This 1891 steamer Flyer should not be confused with the steamboat Flyer built on Lake Coeur d'Alene
in 1905, although the Coeur d'Alene vessel was inspired both in design and name by the success of the Puget Sound ship.
as well as the express passenger boat Fleetwood
. Flyer was built at the Johnson shipyard in Portland, Oregon
of Douglas fir cut in Oregon and prepared for construction by prolonged storage in salt water. Unusually for an express passenger boat, Flyer included a dining room, which eventually contributed to her great popularity.
. This proved to be a mistake. Neither boilers nor engines had been installed in Flyer before launch, and without their weight deep in her hull to act as ballast
, she simply flopped over in the water, and Captain Scott had to exit by climbing out a window. After that, another hull was built around her with the hope of making her a little less top heavy, but this was imperfectly sealed, so water sloshed around in between the hulls for the rest of the vessel's operational life. Surprising this did not affect the Flyers speed, although she did acquire a permanent list to port, or at least the hint of a list. Once finally completed, the company sent Flyer to Puget Sound and brought Bailey Gatzert around to the Columbia River
to run with the Telephone.
Flyer was powered by a triple compound steam engine
built by the Philadelphia firm of Neafie and Levy. It was a duplicate of one installed in J.P. Morgan's yacht Corsair
. The bore sizes for the three cylinders, from high pressure to low pressure, were 21¼ʺ, 33½ʺ, and 54½ʺ, all with 30ʺ stroke. The engine drew national attention at the time it was built. It rose above the passenger deck, and passengers used to look forward to a chance to watch the huge low pressure cylinder, almost five feet across, drive the vessel at high speed.
The original steel boiler
, built by Willamette Iron and Steel Works
, of Portland, Oregon, generated steam at 160 pounds pressure. It was 8 ft (2 m) long and 29 ft (9 m). The boiler was replaced in 1899 with a two-furnace locomotive boiler constructed by Freeman & Sons of Racine, Wisconsin
.
Flyer was originally a wood burner, consuming 24 cords of wood during every day of operation. Her firebox could hold two cords of wood at once. In 1906, she was converted to oil fuel, and was considered to be fuel-efficient, burning an average of 61 barrels (9.7 m³) of oil on a daily basis. Although her engine was capable of generating 2000 hp at 200 pounds steam pressure, at no time was she ever equipped with a boiler that generated more than 150 pounds of steam, thus her engine never could produce more than 1200 hp. H.D. Collier, worked on the Flyer qualifying for his engineer's license. Collier later became chairman of Standard Oil of California.
The future successful career of the Flyer was almost ended at midnight on June 14, 1892 by fire. This started when Flyer was taking on wood for fuel at the Commercial Dock in Seattle. Suddenly fire broke out. Within five minutes the fire had swept through the vessel. The fireboat Snoqualmie and all available units of the Seattle fire department, under Chief Gardner Kellogg, responded to the fire. They were able to get the fire under control before serious damage was done to the hull or machinery. However, all of the vessel's upper works were destroyed. Flyer was quickly rebuilt and returned to service by the end of the summer of 1892. She made four round-trips a day from Seattle to Tacoma.
In 1900, there appeared on the Sound the Imp one of the fastest steam launches every built to that time. Imp was just 50 feet (15.2 m) long, but could go 22 knots (43.1 km/h) with boiler that generated steam at the then extraordinary pressure of 400 pounds. Imp bested Flyer on the Tacoma run by eight minutes before she was shipped to Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho.
Flyer ran an average of 344 days a year, and was considered highly reliable by the population. In 1908 it was calculated that Flyer had completed enough trips from Seattle to Tacoma to go around the world 61 times, and had carried over 3,000,000 people, more than the population of New York City at the time, and this without serious injury to any passenger. This does not mean there were not accidents. Over the years, Flyer was involved in a number accidents, collisions and fires, including some serious ones which threatened the lives of those on board her or other vessels:
had purchased in the Great Lakes and brought round South America. One in particular, Indianapolis, was being placed on the Seattle-Tacoma run in direct opposition to the Flyer. Passenger traffic on Puget Sound was then very high. In 1907, so many people wanted to travel to Tacoma on the Flyer that they were turned away at the dock.
By 1910, the Puget Sound Navigation Company was well on its way towards achieving a monopoly on marine transport on Puget Sound, with the Flyer the only remaining major vessel still running against them. Flyer, although older, had a number of advantages over Indianapolis (then known as the Indian) and the other steel vessels.
, PSN's president:
at just before noon, disembarking passengers from Tacoma as several hundred people waited to board. Normally passengers boarded Flyer by a single gangway that extended from the waiting room of on the upper level of the pier structure. However, just a few weeks before, the steamer Alameda had collided with Colman dock, destroying a good part of it. As a result, passengers were no longer using the usual boarding method, but instead were using the freight gangways, located on the lower level of the pier. The freight gangplanks were large ramps 80 ft (24 m) and long 8 ft (2 m) wide. They were permanently hinged to the dock, and lowered down onto the steamer's deck, somewhat like a drawbridge
. On this particular Sunday there was an extreme low tide as the flyer approached the dock, and the freight ramp could not reach the deck of the Flyer. For this reason the Flyers own gangplank was extended out to the might the end of the freight ramp, which was supposedly held up with chains.
The gangplank of the Flyer was extended out to one of these freight loading slips. As the passengers were boarding, the slip locking mechanism gave way, the ramp collapsed into the water,and 50 people were tumbled into the sound. The captain of the Flyer saw the accident and immediately blew the emergency whistle. The fireboat Snoqualmie, which had come to the aid of the Flyer twenty years before, now again went to her assistance, as did the launch Skeeter, skipper Roy Lillico, and boat of the Rosalie
, in charge of mate Louis Van Bogaert. The captain ordered the crew to toss life preservers and anything else floatable to the people struggling in the water. Within ten minutes, all but two people, Mrs. G.V. Leonard and a baby, Carl Bruder, just one year old, had been rescued. Their tragic drownings broke the Flyer's long record of passenger safety.
. Flyers compound steam engine was still in perfect running order in 1929
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Flyer was a steamboat that served from 1891 to 1929 on Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
. During her last years, from 1918 to the end of her service, she was officially known as the Washington. The Flyer ran for millions of miles at high speed, more than any inland vessel in the world. This 1891 steamer Flyer should not be confused with the steamboat Flyer built on Lake Coeur d'Alene
Lake Coeur d'Alene
Lake Coeur d'Alene is a natural lake in the Idaho Panhandle, located in the vicinity of the city of the same name. It spans long, ranges from 1 to wide and has over of shoreline for boaters and vacationers to explore and enjoy.-Geology and geography:...
in 1905, although the Coeur d'Alene vessel was inspired both in design and name by the success of the Puget Sound ship.
Design and construction
Flyer was the first vessel ordered by the Columbia River and Puget Sound Navigation Company, a concern formed by Capt. U.B. Scott and others, which already controlled the fast sternwheeler Telephone on the Columbia River, and on Puget Sound, the then new and fast sternwheeler Bailey GatzertBailey Gatzert (sternwheeler)
The Bailey Gatzert was a famous sternwheel steamboat that ran on the Columbia River and Puget Sound from the 1890s to the 1920s. She was named after Bailey Gatzert, an early businessman and mayor of Seattle...
as well as the express passenger boat Fleetwood
Fleetwood (steamboat)
The steamboat Fleetwood operated in the 1880s and 1890s on the Columbia River and later as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.-Construction:...
. Flyer was built at the Johnson shipyard in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
of Douglas fir cut in Oregon and prepared for construction by prolonged storage in salt water. Unusually for an express passenger boat, Flyer included a dining room, which eventually contributed to her great popularity.
Failed launching
Flyer was designed to be the fastest propeller-driven vessel in the Pacific Northwest, and was very fine-lined, that is, tall and narrow. Captain Scott was so proud of his new ship that he rode on her as she was launched into the Willamette RiverWillamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...
. This proved to be a mistake. Neither boilers nor engines had been installed in Flyer before launch, and without their weight deep in her hull to act as ballast
Sailing ballast
Ballast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. Insufficiently ballasted boats will tend to tip, or heel, excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the boat capsizing. If a sailing vessel should need to voyage without cargo then ballast of...
, she simply flopped over in the water, and Captain Scott had to exit by climbing out a window. After that, another hull was built around her with the hope of making her a little less top heavy, but this was imperfectly sealed, so water sloshed around in between the hulls for the rest of the vessel's operational life. Surprising this did not affect the Flyers speed, although she did acquire a permanent list to port, or at least the hint of a list. Once finally completed, the company sent Flyer to Puget Sound and brought Bailey Gatzert around to the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
to run with the Telephone.
Propulsion
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
built by the Philadelphia firm of Neafie and Levy. It was a duplicate of one installed in J.P. Morgan's yacht Corsair
USS Oceanographer (AGS-3)
USS Oceanographer was a survey ship of the United States Navy during World War II that produced charts chiefly of passages in the Solomon Islands area of the Pacific Ocean. Upon transfer to the Navy, she had initially been named and classed as gunboat USS Natchez ...
. The bore sizes for the three cylinders, from high pressure to low pressure, were 21¼ʺ, 33½ʺ, and 54½ʺ, all with 30ʺ stroke. The engine drew national attention at the time it was built. It rose above the passenger deck, and passengers used to look forward to a chance to watch the huge low pressure cylinder, almost five feet across, drive the vessel at high speed.
The original steel boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
, built by Willamette Iron and Steel Works
Willamette Iron and Steel Works
Willamette Iron Works was a general foundry and machine business established in 1865 in Portland, Oregon, originally specializing in the manufacture of steamboat boilers and engines...
, of Portland, Oregon, generated steam at 160 pounds pressure. It was 8 ft (2 m) long and 29 ft (9 m). The boiler was replaced in 1899 with a two-furnace locomotive boiler constructed by Freeman & Sons of Racine, Wisconsin
Racine, Wisconsin
Racine is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 82,196...
.
Flyer was originally a wood burner, consuming 24 cords of wood during every day of operation. Her firebox could hold two cords of wood at once. In 1906, she was converted to oil fuel, and was considered to be fuel-efficient, burning an average of 61 barrels (9.7 m³) of oil on a daily basis. Although her engine was capable of generating 2000 hp at 200 pounds steam pressure, at no time was she ever equipped with a boiler that generated more than 150 pounds of steam, thus her engine never could produce more than 1200 hp. H.D. Collier, worked on the Flyer qualifying for his engineer's license. Collier later became chairman of Standard Oil of California.
Operations on Puget Sound
Flyer was placed on the run from Seattle to Tacoma. Her first master was Capt. Harry K. Struve (1866–1924), and her first pilot was Capt. Henry Carter (1858–1930). The run was 28 miles (45.1 km) long one way, and Flyer routinely completed it in less than 90 minutes. This was the beginning of many years of successful timely service, so much so that the Flyers advertising slogan became "Fly on the Flyer".The future successful career of the Flyer was almost ended at midnight on June 14, 1892 by fire. This started when Flyer was taking on wood for fuel at the Commercial Dock in Seattle. Suddenly fire broke out. Within five minutes the fire had swept through the vessel. The fireboat Snoqualmie and all available units of the Seattle fire department, under Chief Gardner Kellogg, responded to the fire. They were able to get the fire under control before serious damage was done to the hull or machinery. However, all of the vessel's upper works were destroyed. Flyer was quickly rebuilt and returned to service by the end of the summer of 1892. She made four round-trips a day from Seattle to Tacoma.
In 1900, there appeared on the Sound the Imp one of the fastest steam launches every built to that time. Imp was just 50 feet (15.2 m) long, but could go 22 knots (43.1 km/h) with boiler that generated steam at the then extraordinary pressure of 400 pounds. Imp bested Flyer on the Tacoma run by eight minutes before she was shipped to Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho.
Flyer ran an average of 344 days a year, and was considered highly reliable by the population. In 1908 it was calculated that Flyer had completed enough trips from Seattle to Tacoma to go around the world 61 times, and had carried over 3,000,000 people, more than the population of New York City at the time, and this without serious injury to any passenger. This does not mean there were not accidents. Over the years, Flyer was involved in a number accidents, collisions and fires, including some serious ones which threatened the lives of those on board her or other vessels:
- On August 20, 1896, Flyer was rammed by the steamer Utopia off Browns Point, near Tacoma. Captain John O'Brien was in command of Utopia which was then en route to Tacoma with a cargo of gold and silver ore. One of the crew of Utopia was killed, but no one on Flyer. Utopia took on Flyers passengers, and towed Flyer to Tacoma for repairs.
- On December 6, 1903, with Capt. William Williamson (1859–1930) in command, Flyer was involved in another serious collision, this time in Elliott BayElliott BayElliott Bay is the body of water on which Seattle, Washington, is located. A line drawn from Alki Point in the south to West Point in the north serves to mark the generally accepted division between the bay and the open sound...
with the steamer Bellingham (ex Willapa), which to make matters worse, was towing the steamer DodeDode (steamboat)Dode was a steamboat that ran on Hood Canal and Puget Sound from 1898 to 1900.- Construction:Dode was originally the schooner William J. Bryant. Prior to construction as the Dode, the Bryant had been one of a flotilla of Gold Rush ships sent to Alaska...
, bound for Whatcom for repairs. Captain Bergman was in command of Bellingham and with him on board was Captain Curtis, manager of the Bellingham Bay Transportation Company, which owned both Bellingham and Dode. Flyer just left the dock at the foot of Madison Street in Seattle when less than five minutes later Bellingham crashed into her. Fortunately both vessels were moving slowly on account of the fog, but even so the collision tore away a large section of Flyers port side near the engine room. Dode under tow and with no power to avoid collision, then also crashed into Flyer fortunately causing less damage. This wasn't the end, as Flyer was unable to avoid collision with the moored German ship Chile. The revenue cutter Manning launched boats, which took about 40 passengers off Flyer which eventually was got under control and managed to return to the dock.
Success against newer steel vessels
In 1906, Flyer had an extensive overhaul and conversion to oil fuel to allow her to compete successfully with the newer steel steamers that the Puget Sound Navigation CompanyPuget Sound Navigation Company
The Puget Sound Navigation Company was founded by Joshua Green in 1913. It operated a fleet of steamboats and ferries on Puget Sound in Washington and the Georgia Strait in British Columbia...
had purchased in the Great Lakes and brought round South America. One in particular, Indianapolis, was being placed on the Seattle-Tacoma run in direct opposition to the Flyer. Passenger traffic on Puget Sound was then very high. In 1907, so many people wanted to travel to Tacoma on the Flyer that they were turned away at the dock.
By 1910, the Puget Sound Navigation Company was well on its way towards achieving a monopoly on marine transport on Puget Sound, with the Flyer the only remaining major vessel still running against them. Flyer, although older, had a number of advantages over Indianapolis (then known as the Indian) and the other steel vessels.
- In those times before radar, knowing the boat's route well enough to run profitably day and night, in all seasons, in clear weather and fog, took extraordinary skill, using among other things, fixing the steamboat's location by the timing and sound of echoes from the vessel's whistle blasts, a skill that could only be reached with years and years of experience on the route. Flyers officers did not change much, with Captain Williamson and also Capt. Everett B. Coffin (1865–1950) acting as her masters for most of the time on the Seattle-Tacoma route, and there was a similar lack of turnover among her engineers.
- Flyer was faster than Indianapolis. Although steamboat races were by then officially forbidden by company officials, Flyers crews were continually challenging their counterparts to a race. Finally on the evening of July 28, 1910, the superior speed of the Flyer was firmly established, at least to her partisans, when on one of the rare occasions when the two vessels left the Seattle dock as the same time, Flyer beat Indian to Tacoma, unloading her passengers and departing for the fuel dock before the Indian had even arrived.
- Flyer had a ready source of passengers through a contract with the Northern Pacific Railroad to carry rail passengers by water from the railroad's terminus at Tacoma to Seattle.
- Flyer routinely docked without the aid of a tug. Her steel competitors could only do this with difficulty, and of course tug fees increased the cost of operations, so much so that the large Foss tug concern got its real start in docking these steamers.
- Flyer knifed through the water leaving very little wake, unlike the big steel ships which antagonized waterfront business by the big waves generated by their passage.
Buy-out by the monopoly
From 1907 to 1911 the competition between the Flyer and the Indian went on. This was pursued on both sides by a variety of tactics, including Flyers honoring the tickets of the Indians passengers just as the Indian was boarding. 'The Puget Sound Navigation Company became so desperate they even started calling their own Indianapolis the "white Flyer" in their advertising. That didn't work, as the public still preferred the real Flyer. Finally the Puget Sound Navigation Company, realizing they'd been beat, bought the Flyer on June 7, 1911. Said Joshua GreenJoshua Green (seaman and banker)
Joshua Green was an American sternwheeler captain, businessman, and banker. He rose from being a seaman to being the dominant figure of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet, then sold out his interests and became a banker...
, PSN's president:
Transfer to Everett route
A few days after the monopoly bought her, Flyer was placed on the Seattle to Everett route. She made a few trips under Capt. Charles Brydsen, and then Capt. Frank Clements, who'd been first officer on the Tacoma run under Captain Coffin, was appointed to her command. Flyer broke all records on the Everett run, just as she'd done on the Tacoma route. She could complete the entire run, including a 12 minute stop at Edmonds in one hour fifty minutes, making an average speed over the route of 18.5 miles per hour. Later, when the sternwheeler Telegraph had hit a snag on the Tacoma route, Flyer was put back on her old run until 1918 as a relief boat.Gangway accident at Colman Dock
On Sunday, May 12, 1912, Flyer was at Colman DockColman Dock
Colman Dock, also called Pier 52 is an important ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington. The original pier is no longer in existence, but the terminal used by the Washington State Ferry system, and is still called “Colman Dock”-Location:...
at just before noon, disembarking passengers from Tacoma as several hundred people waited to board. Normally passengers boarded Flyer by a single gangway that extended from the waiting room of on the upper level of the pier structure. However, just a few weeks before, the steamer Alameda had collided with Colman dock, destroying a good part of it. As a result, passengers were no longer using the usual boarding method, but instead were using the freight gangways, located on the lower level of the pier. The freight gangplanks were large ramps 80 ft (24 m) and long 8 ft (2 m) wide. They were permanently hinged to the dock, and lowered down onto the steamer's deck, somewhat like a drawbridge
Drawbridge
A drawbridge is a type of movable bridge typically associated with the entrance of a castle surrounded by a moat. The term is often used to describe all different types of movable bridges, like bascule bridges and lift bridges.-Castle drawbridges:...
. On this particular Sunday there was an extreme low tide as the flyer approached the dock, and the freight ramp could not reach the deck of the Flyer. For this reason the Flyers own gangplank was extended out to the might the end of the freight ramp, which was supposedly held up with chains.
The gangplank of the Flyer was extended out to one of these freight loading slips. As the passengers were boarding, the slip locking mechanism gave way, the ramp collapsed into the water,and 50 people were tumbled into the sound. The captain of the Flyer saw the accident and immediately blew the emergency whistle. The fireboat Snoqualmie, which had come to the aid of the Flyer twenty years before, now again went to her assistance, as did the launch Skeeter, skipper Roy Lillico, and boat of the Rosalie
Rosalie (steamship)
The steamboat Rosalie operated from 1893 to 1918 as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet, also operating out of Victoria, B.C. In 1898, Rosalie went north with many other Puget Sound steamboats to join the Klondike Gold Rush.-Construction:...
, in charge of mate Louis Van Bogaert. The captain ordered the crew to toss life preservers and anything else floatable to the people struggling in the water. Within ten minutes, all but two people, Mrs. G.V. Leonard and a baby, Carl Bruder, just one year old, had been rescued. Their tragic drownings broke the Flyer's long record of passenger safety.
Reconstruction and last years of service
In 1918, Flyer was reconstructed at Seattle, renamed Washington and called up by the Navy for wartime service. By this time she had steamed over 2 million miles. After war service, she was kept on by the Puget Sound Navigation Co. as a spare boat and also used for special excursions for about ten years. Despite the official change of name, apparently done to forestall rumors of unseaworthiness, the Washington continued to be known to her patrons as the Flyer. Every steamboat had a distinctive whistle, and people on the water or ashore knew by sound what vessel was near by the sound of the whistle. The Flyers whistle was preserved, and is now mounted on the only surviving Puget Sound wooden steamer, the Virginia VVirginia V
The steamship Virginia V is the last operational example of a Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet steamer...
. Flyers compound steam engine was still in perfect running order in 1929
Burned for metal
Flyers last day came on June 12, 1929, when she was towed to Richmond Beach and burned for her metal. Of this, the Tacoma Ledger wrote:Further reading
- Carey, Roland, The Sound of Steamers, Alderbrook Publishing, Seattle, WA 1965
- Gibbs, Jim, and Williamson, Joe, Maritime Memories of Puget Sound, Schiffer Publishing, West Chester PA 1987 ISBN 0-88740-044-2