Yosemite (sidewheeler)
Encyclopedia
.jpg)
_and_schooner_marguerite_at_victoria_bc_1890s.jpg)
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
, the Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
, inland coastal waters and the lower Fraser River
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...
in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, and 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...
.
Design
Yosemite was built in 1862 at the yard of John Gunder North, in San Francisco. For a vessel built entirely of wood, Yosemite was enormous. She was 282' long after her rebuild following the 1865 boiler explosion, when 30' was added to her length., 35' beam (80' over the paddle guards) and 13' depth of hold, and rated at 1525 tons. She was a side-wheel steamer built entirely of wood with a single-cylinder “walking-beam” steam engine with a 57" bore and a 122" stroke. Another source gives slightly different dimensions: 283.2' long, 34.8' on the beam, 13.6' depth of hold, and 1,319 tons. Her paddle wheels were 32' in diameter and fitted with 10' long “buckets” (the maritime world for the wooden planks fitted to the wheel that acted as paddles) Turner, one of the most prominent Pacific Northwest maritime historians, described Yosemite as follows:Service in California
Yosemite was first placed in service by the California Steam Navigation Company in 1863 to run with Chrysopolis on the Sacramento River. On October 12, 1865, as she was leaving the Rio Vista landing bound down river, her boiler (supposedly a safer “low-pressure” model) exploded, killing 55 people and scalding and injuring many more. She was equipped with new boilers then, and once again in 1876, after which she could reach a speed of 17 miles (27.4 km) an hour. Railroad competition in California forced her to be laid up at Oakland from 1879 to 1883.Purchase by Canadian Pacific Navigation Company
John Irving (steamship captain)
John Irving was a steamship captain in British Columbia, Canada. He began on the Fraser River at the age of 18 and would become one of the most famous and prosperous riverboat captains of the era...
Commodore of the Canadian-Pacific Navigation Company
Canadian-Pacific Navigation Company
The Canadian-Pacific Navigation Company was an important early steamship company that operated steamships on the coast of British Columbia and the Inside Passage of southeast Alaska. The company was founded in 1883 by John Irving , a prominent steamboat man, businessman, and politician of early...
, bought Yosemite from her then owners, the Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
and brought her up to Vancouver to be one of the first vessels of the line.
Canadian Operations
Yosemite proved to be a good purchase for Commodore Irving. Despite her reputation arising from the 1865 boiler explosion, Yosemite ran in Canadian waters for many years without significant trouble. In 1883, she set a speed record of four hours and 20 minutes for the 72 nautical miles (133.3 km) run from Vancouver to VictoriaVictoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
, which stood until 1901, when the transpacific liner Moana made the run in four hours and one minute. In those times, ships were subject to health quarantines, in particular for smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
. Officials were sometimes too quick to declare a smallpox quarantine, which happened twice in July 1892 to Yosemite. Twice she was barred at Vancouver from landing passengers coming from Victoria and each time she simply landed them further up Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet is a relatively shallow-sided coastal fjord in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the low-lying Burrard Peninsula from the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, home to the communities of West...
. Court action was necessary to persuade the Vancouver officials to allow Yosemite to land in their city.
Purchase by Canadian Pacific Railway
In 1901, the Canadian Pacific RailwayCanadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
purchased all the steamship operations and vessels of the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company, including Yosemite, which with other older steamers of the line was placed in reserve to fill in for newer ships taken out for service, and to cover times of high traffic such as in the summer months. By this time, Yosemite was almost 40 years old.
Sale to Puget Sound Excursion Lines
In 1906, the Canadian Pacific Railway sold Yosemite to the Puget Sound Excursion Company. This company had been organized by Capt. Thomas Grant to run cruises and excursions out of Seattle in connection with the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific ExpositionAlaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition was a world's fair held in Seattle in 1909, publicizing the development of the Pacific Northwest.It was originally planned for 1907, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush, but the organizers found out about the Jamestown Exposition being held...
. Once in Seattle, Yosemite was rebuilt somewhat by John B. Mitchell. The main deck and social hall were extended all the way forward to be flush with the bow, and a large dancing pavilion was installed.
By the spring of 1907, Yosemite was in operation under command of Captain Grant, carrying up to 1,000 passengers at a time from Seattle to Bremerton and around Bainbridge Island. Music was provided by Wagner’s Band and food service by Lord and Meeks, a well-known Seattle catering firm.
The surviving photographs of Yosemite seem to always show an astounding number of people on her decks. This was in spite of the then recent loss of the General Slocum
General Slocum
The PS General Slocum was a passenger steamboat built at Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. The General Slocum was named for Civil War officer and New York Congressman Henry Warner Slocum. She operated in the New York City area as an excursion steamer for the next thirteen years under the same ownership...
in New York, also a wooden sidewheeler, in which over 1,000 people had been killed in a fire, and the resulting threat by the Puget Sound steamboat inspectors to strictly enforce the limits on passengers that could be embarked on excursions and cruises.
Among other trips, in 1908, Yosemite carried almost the entire student body of the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
out into Puget Sound to greet the Great White Fleet
Great White Fleet
The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the United States Navy battle fleet that completed a circumnavigation of the globe from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 by order of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. It consisted of 16 battleships divided into two squadrons, along with...
. In this particular trip, the vessel was obviously grossly overloaded, as the weight of the passengers caused her to heel so sharply over to port that the water came up to the bottom of the port side paddle wheel guard.
Boxing matches were held on her lower deck. Perhaps somewhat incongruously with hosting boxing matches, Yosemite on July 20, 1907 or 1908, advertised a “Grand Temperance Excursion” tickets $1.00 each “under the auspices of the International Order of Good Templars”:
Another typical charter excursion was carrying the Georgetown Volunteer Fire Department, who were all employees of the Rainier Brewery. In one atypical incident, in August, 1907, Yosemite rammed 30 feet (9.1 m) into a dock in Seattle, knocking over a horse and wagon, apparently becoming the first and only paddlewheeler to collide with a harnessed horse.
Wrecked
Yosemite was wrecked on July 9, 1909 at Port Orchard Narrows, in broad daylight. The circumstances of the wreck were never entirely cleared up. As she approached Bremerton through the narrows at about 6:20 p.m., with Capt. Mike Edwards in command, she suddenly veered sharply towards the shore at about 14 mi/h. Striking ground, her back was broken and she was a total loss. The captain said he expected the current to strike her differently than it did. Although there were over 1,000 people on board, fortunately no one was killed or drowned, with the passengers and crew being taken onboard the steamerTransport, the first on the scene, with Inland FlyerInland Flyer
Inland Flyer was a passenger steamboat that ran on Puget Sound from 1898 to 1916. From 1910 to 1916 this vessel was known as the Mohawk. The vessel is notable as the first steamer on Puget Sound to use oil fuel...
and Norwood standing by.
Yosemite had recently been sold to a real estate promoter, C.D. Hillman. He later was sent to prison, and this gave rise to talk and accusations that she had been wrecked recklessly or even deliberately for insurance. This doesn’t seem to square with the facts, as it would have required the collusion not only of her master, but also the pilot and two quartermasters who struggled to hold the ship on course, and strong tidal currents had wrecked and continue to wreck vessels.
Photograph of Yosemite in California service
- http://books.google.com/books?id=BeaXXDNzdUAC&pg=PA257&lpg=PA257&dq=sidewheeler+Yosemite&source=web&ots=mknBFKfiOU&sig=W2basj5pRYmkORto30pJ1KJWU2ARawls, James J., ed. and Orsi, Richard J., ed., A Golden State: Mining and Economic Development in Gold Rush California (California History Sesquicentennial Series, 2), at 257, University of California Press 1999 ISBN 0-520-21770-5 (showing Yosemite departing San Francisco with another apparently similar sidewheeler still at the dock)] (accessed 2/24/2008)
Historic images from on-line collection of the University of Washington
Historic images from the British Columbia Provincial Archives
- Yosemite in Victoria Harbor (this photograph shows the condition of the Yosemite as she was for most of her career, without the upper deck extending all the way to the bow)
- wreck of the Yosemite
