Life on the Inland Sea: The Steamboats That Built Seattle

HOW MEN LIVE, UPON OUR INLAND SEA.

SOMETHING OF LIFE ON WHEELS.

The evocation of navigating the ocean with vessels propelled by steam is cosmopolitan, but that of river and inland navigation is essentially a profession nurtured upon the western continent. This is a legitimate result of geography, for while the rivers of Europe are in significant streams, aside from their history, the great currents of the Mississippi, St. Lawrence and Columbia, are peculiarities of the occidental hemisphere.

A few boats of this class were introduced on Pacific waters—the Eclipse, Queen City, J. Bragdon, Gilda, Helen Hensley, and Comanche, in California; and the Lot Whitcomb, Willamette and Oneida in Oregon. The latter was the largest mic boat of that class we ever saw.

Sound boats are as much de generis as any others in the world. They must not be too deep, or they cannot get in and out of Olympia and Victoria. Yet they must have sufficient draft to enable them to baffle the storms in Puget Sound. The Olympia was really the best boat of this sort ever on these waters, though the North Pacific is of more favorable model.

The Eliza Anderson is the oldest of the present passenger fleet... The Libby is another venerable craft that has done good service. She has an engine in her that Martin Bulger got out from New York some seventeen years ago.

Stern-wheel paddles, or wheelbarrows, as they are often called, are being introduced here to a great extent, as they surpass all other boats for quick handling in crooked water... The Annie Stewart is the largest boat of this class in these waters. She was built in 1864 at San Francisco by an old Scotchman named Stewart... Stern-wheelers are the cheapest boats to run, and are gradually coming into vogue here on that account.

The following is a list of boats now registered in the Inspector's office of this district: [Table of vessels including Cyrus Walker, Goliah, Favorite, Yukima, S. L. Musick, Fannie, Colfax, St. Louis, Tacoma, North Pacific, Annie Stewart, Allum, Success, Linne, Blackely, Libby, Polikofsky, Leucemo, Capital, Eliza Anderson, Phantom, Chehalis, Wenat, Teaser, Favorite, Dispatch, Nellie, S.J.B. Libby, Funny Luke, Tahoma, Blue Diamond, Addie, Zephyr, James Mortie, Lena C. Gray, Collier]

The pay of officers is small as yet, but few of the captains getting more than one hundred dollars per month. Indeed the pay of engineers generally equals that of masters. But the day is coming when steamboating will be conducted on a larger and more liberal scale as the trade grows more extensive and then the pay of steamboat pilots and engineers will be as liberal here as it is elsewhere.