Teaser (sternwheeler)

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Yesler Wharf 1882.jpeg
Teaser, lower left, at Yesler Wharf circa 1877.
History
Name:Teaser
Completed: 1874
Out of service: 1879
Fate: Sank 1879, raised, converted to schooner 1880.
Notes: Career as schooner unknown
General characteristics
Type: inland steamboat (1874–1880); sailing vessel (post 1880)
Tonnage: 33.27 regist. [1]
Length: 69 ft (21.03 m) [1]
Beam: 13 ft (3.96 m) [1]
Depth: 8 ft (2.44 m) depth of hold [1]
Installed power: (1874–1880): twin steam engines, horizontally mounted; cylinder bores 8 in (20.3 cm); stroke 18 in (45.7 cm) [1]
Propulsion: (1874–1880) sternwheeler
Sail plan: Schooner (post 1880)

Teaser was a steamboat which ran on the Columbia River and Puget Sound from 1874 to 1880.

Columbia River river in North America; flows from British Columbia, through Washington, and along the Washington–Oregon border to the Pacific Ocean

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. It flows northwest and then south into the US state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state of Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The river is 1,243 miles (2,000 km) long, and its largest tributary is the Snake River. Its drainage basin is roughly the size of France and extends into seven US states and a Canadian province. The fourth-largest river in the United States by volume, the Columbia has the greatest flow of any North American river entering the Pacific.

Puget Sound sound along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington

Puget Sound is a sound along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and two minor connections to the open Pacific Ocean via the Strait of Juan de Fuca—Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and Deception Pass and Swinomish Channel being the minor.

Contents

Columbia River service

Teaser was built in 1874 at The Dalles, Oregon, and was intended to run on the middle Columbia river, which was the stretch of navigable river that ran between the Cascades Rapids and Celilo Falls. At that time, all traffic proceeding upriver had to be offloaded onto a portage railroad that went around the impassable Cascades, then run upriver by rail to the Upper Cascades to be loaded onto another steamer to be carried to The Dalles, where another portage railroad existed around Celilo Falls. The reverse had to be followed for downriver traffic. [1]

The Dalles, Oregon City in Wasco County

The Dalles is the county seat and largest city of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 13,620 at the 2010 census, and is the largest city on the Oregon side along the Columbia River outside the Portland Metropolitan area.

Cascades Rapids

The Cascades Rapids were an area of rapids along North America's Columbia River, between the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. Through a stretch approximately 150 yards (140 m) wide, the river dropped about 40 feet (12 m) in 2 miles (3.2 km).

Celilo Falls

Celilo Falls was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Mountains, on what is today the border between the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. The name refers to a series of cascades and waterfalls on the river, as well as to the native settlements and trading villages that existed there in various configurations for 15,000 years. Celilo was the oldest continuously inhabited community on the North American continent until 1957, when the falls and nearby settlements were submerged by the construction of The Dalles Dam.

In the 1870s, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company had a monopoly on all traffic on the Columbia River. Teaser was launched as a boat to run in opposition to the monopoly, to make connections over the portage at the Cascades with the newly constructed Otter, running on the lower river. Both Teaser and Otter were too small to mount a serious challenge to the powerful Oregon Steam Navigation Co., but to prevent any competition, the monopoly bought both vessels just the same, and both vessels were sent to Puget Sound. [1]

Oregon Steam Navigation Company

The Oregon Steam Navigation Company (O.S.N.) was an American company incorporated in 1860 in Washington with partners J. S. Ruckle, Henry Olmstead, and J. O. Van Bergen. It was incorporated in Washington because of a lack of corporate laws in Oregon, though it paid Oregon taxes.

<i>Otter</i> (sternwheeler)

Otter was a wooden sternwheel steamboat that was used in Puget Sound and briefly on the Columbia and Stikine rivers from 1874 to 1897.

Operations on Puget Sound

Transfer of Teaser to Puget Sound meant the vessel had to be taken through the dangerous Cascade Rapids. While this could be done in the right conditions with a skillful pilot, it was considered too risky to have any passengers or cargo on board. Teaser was taken down through the Cascades in 1875 under the command of Capt. J.W. Brazee, with engineer James Carroll and the fireman on board as crew. The vessel was brought around the Olympic Peninsula and arrived at Seattle on July 8, 1875, and was placed on a route out of Snohomish. Capt J. C. Brittain is reported to have owned Teaser when the vessel was on Puget Sound, and used the vessel in connection with the steamers Despatch and Comet to carry the mail, for which he had a contract, to Snohomish, La Conner, Whidbey Island, Fidalgo Island, Bellingham Bay, Semiahmoo Bay, and Lopez, Orcas and San Juan islands. [2]

Olympic Peninsula peninsula

The Olympic Peninsula is the large arm of land in western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Hood Canal. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous United States, and Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point, are on the peninsula. Comprising about 3600 square miles, the Olympic Peninsula contained many of the last unexplored places in the Contiguous United States. It remained largely unmapped until Arthur Dodwell and Theodore Rixon mapped most of its topography and timber resources between 1898 and 1900.

Snohomish, Washington City in Washington, United States

Snohomish is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The population was 9,098 at the 2010 census. The mayor of Snohomish is John T. Kartak and the City Administrator is Steve Schuller. Snohomish prides itself for its historical downtown, and is known for its many antique shops. Snohomish is also referred to as the "Antique Capital of the Northwest." The historic business and residential center of the town constitutes the Snohomish Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Many houses bear plaques with the year the house was built and the name of the people who originally occupied it. Each year the city gives tours of the historic houses; one of them, the Blackman House, is a year-round museum. A general aviation airfield, Harvey Airfield, is less than one mile southwest of downtown Snohomish.

Whidbey Island island in the United States of America

Whidbey Island is the largest of the islands composing Island County, Washington, in the United States. Whidbey is about 30 miles (48 km) north of Seattle, and lies between the Olympic Peninsula and the I-5 corridor of western Washington. The island forms the northern boundary of Puget Sound. It is home to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

Sinking and conversion to sailing vessel

Teaser is reported to have sunk in an unspecified location in 1879. [2] The vessel was raised and converted into a sailing schooner in 1880. [1] [2]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Wright, ed., Lewis and Dryden Marine History, at 215, 253, 278, and 398.
  2. 1 2 3 Newell, Inland Sea, at 72, 73, and 82.

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References

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