The Mary D. Hume was a steamer built at Gold Beach, Oregon in 1881, by R. D. Hume, a pioneer and early businessman in that area. Gold Beach was then called Ellensburg. The Hume had a long career, first hauling goods between Oregon and San Francisco, then as a whaler in Alaska, as a service vessel in the Alaskan cannery trade, then as a tugboat. She was retired in 1977 and returned to Gold Beach. In 1985 she sank in the Rogue River and has remained there ever since as a derelict vessel on the shoreline. The Hume is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Mary D. Hume was built of local timber at Gold Beach. The keel, measuring 10 inches (25cm) by 36 inches (91cm) by 140 feet (43m) long was described as the "largest stick of square timber ever floated down Rogue River."[2] The ship's knees were hand-cut from local Port Orford cedar roots. Planking was secured with wood pegs. The machinery was salvaged from the wrecked steamer Varuna. The Hume measured 150 tons, 96 feet (29m) long by 22 feet (6.7m) beam by 9 feet (2.7m) draft. She was originally rigged as a schooner.[2]
History
R. D. Hume was a pioneering businessman at Wedderburn and Gold Beach, then known as Ellensburg. By 1881, he had established a fish cannery and built Mary D. Hume, to support the cannery operation.[3]Mary D. Hume passed through several owners and a number of changes and reconstructions, and served as late as the 1970s, the oldest serving commercial vessel on the West Coast.
The Mary D. Hume in the Arctic in 1910, rigged as a brigantine.The Mary D. Hume in 2009
The first eight years of the Hume's career were spent hauling cargo between San Francisco and Gold Beach. In 1889 the Hume was bought by the Pacific Steam Whaling Company, to be used to catch whales in the Arctic. She was re-rigged as a brigantine. Her first expedition spanned 1890–1892, catching 37 whales for a cargo worth $400,000. The second voyage lasted from 1893 to 1899, with relief crews sent to Herschel, Canada. In 1900 the Hume became an Alaskan cannery tender for the Northwest Fisheries Company, receiving a new steam engine between 1900 and 1904. After sinking in ice in the Nushagak River she was repaired in Seattle. In either 1906 or 1908 she began work for the American Tug Boat Company of Everett, Washington towing logs and barges on Puget Sound. Her superstructure was altered at this time. A third new engine was installed in 1939, salvaged from the Columbia River lightship. In 1954 a 600hp diesel engine was installed and the superstructure was altered to its present configuration. In 1973 the Hume was bought by the Crowley Maritime Corporation and was used as a tugboat. She was retired in 1977, and reconditioned by Crowley in 1978 prior to her return to Gold Beach.[2]
Current wreck
An effort was organized to preserve Mary D. Hume as a museum ship, but a mechanical failure caused her to slide off the sling and into the mud at Gold Beach[4] and an unrelated lawsuit over ownership of the vessel dissipated the funds of the Curry County Historical Society which had planned to restore the vessel. Even so, the Mary D. Hume is on the National Register of Historic Places,[5] and her wreck can still be seen in Gold Beach.
The Hume was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 1, 1979, when she was afloat and berthed on the Rogue River. Repairs started in 1985, but an accident led to her sinking. Efforts were made to survey and raise her, but there were no funds to make the effort. In 1992 the Hume's status on the National Register was reviewed. The review concluded that her hull still held significance and she was retained on the National Register.[2]
Willapa Bay is a large shallow body of water near the Pacific Ocean in southwestern Washington. For a number of years before modern roads were built in Pacific County, Washington, the bay was used as the means of travel around the county, by powered and unpowered craft, including several steamboats.
The history of steamboats on the Oregon Coast begins in the late 19th century. Before the development of modern road and rail networks, transportation on the coast of Oregon was largely water-borne. This article focuses on inland steamboats and similar craft operating in, from south to north on the coast: Rogue River, Coquille River, Coos Bay, Umpqua River, Siuslaw Bay, Yaquina Bay, Siletz River, and Tillamook Bay. The boats were all very small, nothing like the big sternwheelers and propeller boats that ran on the Columbia River or Puget Sound. There were many of them, however, and they came to be known as the "mosquito fleet."
The Coquille River starts in the Siskiyou National Forest and flows hundreds of miles through the Coquille Valley on its way to the Pacific Ocean. Bandon, Oregon, sits at the mouth of the Coquille River on the Pacific Ocean. Before the era of railroads and later, automobiles, the steamboats on the Coquille River were the major mode of transportation from Bandon to Coquille and Myrtle Point in southern Coos County, Oregon, United States.
The steamboat Fleetwood operated in the 1880s and 1890s on the Columbia River and later as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.
The steamship Alaskan operated from 1884 to 1889 on the Columbia River and Puget Sound. Alaskan and her near-sistership Olympian were known as "Henry Villard's White Elephants." There were a number of vessels named Alaska and Alaskan, this large side-wheel steamboat should not be confused with them.
The sidewheeler Idaho was a steamboat that ran on the Columbia River and Puget Sound from 1860 to 1898. There is some confusion as to the origins of the name; many historians have proposed it is the inspiration for the name of the State of Idaho. Considerable doubt has been cast on this due to the fact that it is unclear if the boat was named before or after the idea of 'Idaho' as a territory name was proposed. John Ruckel also allegedly stated he had named the boat after a Native American term meaning 'Gem of the Mountains' he got from a mining friend from what is now Colorado territory. This steamer should not be confused with the many other vessels of the same name, including the sternwheeler Idaho built in 1903 for service on Lake Coeur d'Alene and the steamship Idaho of the Pacific Coast Steamship Line which sank near Port Townsend, Washington.
The Union Steamship Company of British Columbia was a pioneer firm on coastal British Columbia. It was founded in November 1889 by John Darling, a director of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, and nine local businessmen. The company began by offering local service on Burrard Inlet near Vancouver and later expanded to servicing the entire British Columbia coast.
Charles R. Spencer was a steamboat built in 1901 to run on the Willamette and Columbia rivers from Portland, to The Dalles, Oregon. This vessel was described as an "elegant passenger boat". After 1911 this vessel was rebuilt and renamed Monarch.
The river sternwheeler Ramona operated from 1892 to 1908 on the Willamette River in Oregon, on the Stikine River running from Wrangell, Alaska into British Columbia, and the Fraser River, in British Columbia. This vessel should not be confused with the coastal steamship Ramona which also ran in Alaskan waters.
Robert Deniston Hume was a cannery owner, pioneer hatchery operator, politician, author, and self-described "pygmy monopolist" who controlled salmon fishing for 32 years on the lower Rogue River in U.S. state of Oregon. Born in Augusta, Maine, and reared by foster parents on a farm, Hume moved at age 18 to San Francisco to join a salmon-canning business started by two of his brothers. They later re-located to Astoria on the Columbia River, where they prospered. After the death of his first wife and their two young children, Hume moved again and started anew in Gold Beach, at the mouth of the Rogue.
Hyak was a wooden-hulled steamship that operated on Puget Sound from 1909 to 1941. This vessel should not be confused with the sternwheeler Hyak which ran on the extreme upper reach of the Columbia River at about the same time. The name means "swift" or "fast" in the Chinook Jargon.
Alice was a Puget Sound steam passenger ship built in 1897. Alice was later rebuilt into a steam tug, and later converted to diesel power and renamed Simon Foss. As a tug, the vessel was in service until 1963. This vessel should not be confused with the similarly designed vessel Alice, built in 1892, which later became Foss 18.
Portland was a steam tug built in Portland, Oregon, United States. This vessel was also known as Clayoquat and Phoenix.
Otter was a wooden sternwheel steamboat that was used in Puget Sound and briefly on the Columbia and Stikine rivers from 1874 to 1897.
Rabboni was a steam tug that operated on the west coast of the United States starting in 1865.
General Miles was a steamship constructed in 1882 which served in various coastal areas of the states of Oregon and Washington, as well as British Columbia and the territory of Alaska. It was apparently named after US General Nelson A. Miles.
Leschi was a steam ferry that operated on Lake Washington from 1913 to 1950, and afterwards on Puget Sound until 1967. From 1969 to 1986 the vessel was a floating cannery in Alaska.
Princess Beatrice was a steamship built for and owned by the marine division of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The ship served from 1903 to 1928 in the coastal waters of British Columbia. The ship also operated on Puget Sound on a route from Victoria, British Columbia to Seattle, Washington. Princess Beatrice was the first ship to operate in the year-round steamship service between Seattle and Victoria that was run by CPR from 1904 to 1959. This ship should not be confused with an earlier Princess Beatrice, built in Scotland in 1874, which served on the Atlantic coast of Canada.
Aquilo was a steam yacht which was built in Boston in 1901 for William Phelps Eno, a wealthy man who was the inventor of the stop sign. In 1910, Eno sold Aquilo and the yacht was brought to the west coast of North America, where it was operated principally in Puget Sound and coastal British Columbia. Aquilo had a long succession of wealthy owners. In 1966, the yacht caught fire and sank while en route from Seattle to Los Angeles.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
