Steamers Shoo Fly (left) and Albany (right) at boat basin in Oregon City, circa 1873. | |
History | |
---|---|
Name | Albany |
Owner | People's Transportation Company; Ben Holladay |
Route | Willamette River |
In service | 1868 |
Out of service | 1875 |
Identification | U.S. # 1738 |
Fate | Wrecked near mouth of Long Tom River, Jan. 6, 1875 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | riverine all-purpose |
Tonnage | 328 gross tons |
Length | 127 ft (38.7 m) over hull (exclusive of fantail) |
Beam | 27 ft (8.2 m) over hull (exclusive of guards |
Depth | 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) |
Installed power | twin steam engines, horizontally mounted, each with bore of 16.5 in (42 cm) and stroke of 50 in (130 cm). |
Propulsion | stern-wheel |
Albany was a stern-wheel driven steamboat that operated on the Willamette River from 1868 to 1875. This vessel should not be confused with the later sternwheeler Albany (ex N.S. Bentley), which ran, also on the Willamette River, from 1896 to 1906, when it was rebuilt and renamed Georgie Burton . [1] [2] [3]
Albany was built in 1868 at Canemah, Oregon for the People's Transportation Company. [1] [4] Shipbuilder G.M. Stickler (b.1836) assisted in the construction of the Albany, as he had with other steamers, Dayton, Success, McMinnville, and Senator. [5] Albany was built at the same time as the Success. [6] Albany was reported to be a "very light draft steamer." [6]
Albany was 127 ft (38.7 m) long exclusive of the extension over the main deck, called the "fantail", on which the stern-wheel was mounted. [1] The steamer had a beam (width) of 27 ft (8.2 m), exclusive of the long protective timbers installed on the sides of the boat at the top of the hull, called the guards. [1] The depth of hold was 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m). [1] The official merchant vessel registry number was 1738. [1]
Albany was driven by a stern-wheel, turned by twin steam engines, horizontally mounted, each with bore of 16.5 in (42 cm) and stroke of 50 in (130 cm). [1] The overall size of the vessel was 328 gross tons, which was a measure of volume, and not weight. [1]
After completion, Albany was piloted by Capt. Aaron Vickers (d.1875) and, for a short time, by Capt. James D. Miller. [7] George A. Pease is also reported to have been one of the steamer's first captains. [8] Most of the time Albany was operated by captains Aaron Vickers and George Jerome. [8]
Albany was in operation by August 1868, running from Oregon City to Salem, Oregon. [6] During one trip in August, the low water period on the Willamette, a reporter on board wrote later that the steamer "actually navigated some parts like wet gravel. We have specimen stones thrown out of the bed of the river by her wheel, in our office." [6]
On September 1, 1868 the People's Transportation Company placed Albany on a schedule of running from Oregon City to Salem Oregon three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. [9] A connection was made at Oregon City with either of the sternwheelers Senator or Alert running daily (Sunday excepted) from Portland. [9]
Just after Albany was placed in service, in early September 1868, very low water in the Willamette River made it difficult for it and two other two boats then operating on the upper river, Success and Echo to make a connection between Canemah and Salem, Oregon. [10]
The Morning Oregonian said at the time: "The boats are all that could be desired, and the boatmen skillful and very energetic, but they can't run on dry land." [10]
On Monday, June 27, 1870, Albany called at Eugene, Oregon with a load of freight. [11] This was considered very late in the season for a steamer to reach Eugene. [11]
On the Monday before June 23, 1871, Albany came downriver to the city of Albany, Oregon "loaded to the guards with wool." [12] According to the Eugene Guard, on Albany's last call at Eugene prior to June 30, 1871, the steamer loaded 361 bales of wool, weighing a total of 59,311 pounds, or approximately 30 tons. [13]
On September 6, 1871, by vote of its shareholders, the People's Transportation Company was dissolved and all of its assets, including the steamer Albany, were sold to a company organized by the prominent businessman Ben Holladay. [14] [15]
At the end of July 1871, steamboat business had fallen off. The sternwheeler Fannie Patton , which had been running from Oregon City to Salem, was taken out of service, with the Albany taking its place. [16] Shoo Fly would take Albany's place on the run from Salem to Corvallis, Oregon. [16]
The small amount of downriver freight was said to have been caused by the high prices for wheat and wool in the spring of the year, which brought those commodities into the market, leaving not much left in the countryside to ship. [16] Upriver freight however was reported to have been good for season. [16]
In mid-February 1874, Albany hit a snag near Harrisburg, Oregon, and sustained three small holes in the hull. [17] Most of the cargo was taken off by Success, and Albany proceeded downriver. [17] The damage was thought to have been light. [17]
In March 1874, Albany departed once a week from Oregon City for Harrisburg, Eugene, and all intermediate points. [18] Albany was then owned by the Oregon Steamship Company, which also ran other steamers on the upper Willamette from Oregon City: Alice to Corvallis twice a week, Dayton, to the cities of Dayton, Lafayette, and McMinnville, all on the Yamhill River, and Fannie Patton, to Albany, twice a week. [18]
All these steamers made a connection at the boat basin in Oregon City with the steamer E.N. Cooke, which made daily runs on the upper Willamette, below Willamette Falls, departing Oregon City for Portland daily (except Sundays) at 7:30 a.m., and leaving Portland at 2:00 p.m. on the return trip to Oregon City. [18] John D. Biles was the agent for all of them. [18]
Albany was wrecked on January 6, 1875 at the mouth of the Long Tom River, and abandoned as a total loss. [1] [8] [19] The steamer had been proceeding up the Willamette River, with no cargo on board, and had just passed the confluence of the Long Tom, when it hit a snag. [20]
The initial report was that the captain managed to beach the steamer before it filled with water, the damage was small, and readily reparable. [20] When news of the incident reached, Oregon City, the sternwheeler Success was dispatched to go to the assistance of the Albany. [20] However the initial reports were incorrect, and it was not feasible to repair Albany.
In mid-January 1875, the boilers and machinery of Albany were salvaged and brought downriver to Portland by Success. [21] The Oregon Steamship Company intended to install the machinery into one of two new shallow-draft freight steamers it was planning on building, in the middle of March, 1875, for the upper Willamette trade. [22] The machinery from Alert would go into the other planned new sternwheeler. [22]
Captain Aaron Vickers, who was in charge of Albany at the time of the wreck, died at Oregon City on February 13, 1875, reportedly from the effects of exposure at the time of the sinking. [19]
Gazelle was an early sidewheeler on the Willamette River in what is now the U.S. state of Oregon. She did not operate long, suffering a catastrophic boiler explosion on April 8, 1854, less than a month after her trial voyage. This was the worst such explosion ever to occur in the Pacific Northwest states. The wrecked Gazelle was rebuilt and operated for a few years, first briefly as the unpowered barge Sarah Hoyt and then, with boilers installed, as the steamer Señorita. A victim of the explosion was D.P. Fuller, age 28, who is buried in Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.
Unio was a small sternwheel-driven steamboat which operated on the Willamette and Yamhill rivers from 1861 to 1869. This vessel is primarily remembered for its having been named Unio when built in 1861, in the first year of the American Civil War, and then having the name completed, to Union, by a new, staunchly pro-Union owner, James D. Miller. Union appears to have sunk in 1869, been salvaged, and then dismantled, with the machinery going to a new steamer then being built for service on the Umpqua River.
The People's Transportation Company operated steamboats on the Willamette River and its tributaries, the Yamhill and Tualatin rivers, in the State of Oregon from 1862 to 1871. For a brief time this company operated steamers on the Columbia River, and for about two months in 1864, the company operated a small steamer on the Clackamas River.
Shoo Fly was a sternwheel-driven steamboat that operated on the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the 1870s. Originally built as primarily as a freight boat, the vessel was used in other roles, including towing and clearing of snags. Shoo Fly inspired the name of another sternwheeler on the Willamette River, Don't Bother Me.
The Upper Willamette Transportation Line was a line of four inland steamboats that operated from the fall of 1859 to the summer of 1860 on the upper Willamette River in the state of Oregon, United States.
Enterprise was a sternwheel steamboat that operated on the Willamette River from 1863 to 1875. This vessel should not be confused with several other steamers named Enterprise which operated in the Pacific Northwest at about the some time.
Alert was a sternwheeler steamboat which operated on the Willamette River, in Oregon, United States, from 1865 to 1875. Originally built for and owned by the Willamette Steam Navigation Co., it was soon acquired by the People's Transportation Company, a steamboat line which held a near-monopoly on Willamette River transportation. This vessel was rebuilt in 1871, and ran until 1875, when it was dismantled.
Oregon was a side-wheel driven steamboat that operated on the Willamette River in the state of Oregon from 1852 to 1854. The steamer was not economically successful and became a total loss by sinking after a short career.
Alice was a stern-wheel driven steamboat that operated on the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the 1870s and 1880s. Alice was the largest vessel built above Willamette Falls and was considered in its day to be the "Queen of the River". This steamer was rebuilt after near-destruction in a fire at Oregon City, Oregon in May 1873. In 1876, it was withdrawn from the upper Willamette River and transferred to the Columbia River, where it was worked as a towboat moving ocean-going ships to and from Portland and Astoria, Oregon, near the mouth of the Columbia River.
Wenat was a stern-wheel steamboat that, under the name Swan, was built and operated, briefly, on the Tualatin River, in the state of Oregon. In 1858, Swan was sold, moved to the lower Willamette River, renamed Cowlitz, and placed on a route between Portland, Oregon the Cowlitz River.
Minnehaha was a sternwheel-driven steamboat which was built in 1866 on Oswego Lake, then known as Sucker Lake, in Oregon, United States. Minnehaha was later transferred to the Willamette and Columbia rivers where it operated for the first part of the 1870s.
Dayton was a steamboat which operated on the Willamette and Columbia rivers from 1868 to 1881. Dayton operated on the Willamette from 1868 to 1876, mostly upriver from Willamette Falls, including a route on the Yamhill River to Dayton, Oregon, after which the steamer was named. From 1876 to 1881, Dayton was employed on a run from Portland to Monticello, W.T., which was located on the site of what is now Longview, Washington.
Senator was a stern-wheel-driven steamboat which operated on the Willamette River in the state of Oregon from 1863 to 1875. Senator is chiefly remembered for its having been destroyed in a fatal boiler explosion in 1875 while making a landing at the Portland, Oregon waterfront in 1875.
Onward was a stern-wheel driven steamboat that operated on the Tualatin River from 1867 to 1873, on Sucker Lake, now known as Oswego Lake, from 1873 to 1874, on the Cowlitz and Lewis rivers. This vessel should not be confused with the similar sternwheeler Onward built in 1858 at Canemah, Oregon and dismantled in 1865.
Occident was a steamer that operated on the Willamette River and occasionally its tributary, the Santiam River from 1875 to about 1890. Occident was designed primarily for freight work, and did not have passenger accommodations. This Occident should not be confused with the smaller steam launch Occident, apparently propeller-driven, which operated out of Astoria, Oregon in the 1890s.
Active was a stern-wheel driven steamboat that operated on the upper Willamette River from 1865 to 1872. During its short operational life, Active was owned by several different steamboat companies. It was dismantled in 1872 at Canemah, Oregon.
George Anson Pease was a well-known steamboat captain in the Pacific Northwest region on the United States, who was active from the earliest days of steamboat navigation on the Willamette River in the 1850s. He worked in various roles until the early 1900s, commanding numerous vessels during that time. During a flood in 1861, while in command of the sternwheeler Onward, Pease rescued 40 people from a flood in the area of Salem, Oregon.
Fanny Patton was a stern-wheel driven steamboat that operated on the Willamette River, in Oregon, starting in August 1865. This steamer operated from 1865 to 1880 for various owners, and was a considered a profitable vessel. The steamer was named for the daughter of businessman Edwin N Cook, Frances Mary "Fannie" Cooke (1837–1886). Edwin N. Cook was one of the principals of the People's Transportation Company.
Manzanillo was a stern-wheel driven steamboat built at Portland, Oregon in 1881. Manzanillo was first run on the Columbia River route from Portland to Clatskanie, Oregon and way points along the river. The initial owner of the boat was the People's Freighting Company, but the Shaver family soon acquired control of the vessel, which became the first vessel of what is now Shaver Transportation Company.
Orient was a light-draft sternwheel-driven steamboat built in 1875 for the Willamette River Transportation Company, a concern owned by pioneer businessman Ben Holladay. Shortly after its completion, it was acquired by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. Orient was a near-twin vessel of a steamer built at the same time, the Occident.