The Steamboat That Dared the Rapids

Shooting the Rapids.

A thrilling trip of the steamer Hasalo, bound for Puget Sound.

The Oregon Railway & Navigation Company's steamer Hasalo, bound for Puget Sound to rejoin the company's other steamers now owing to the increase in traffic, ran the Columbia River rapids very successfully Saturday, under the command of Captain James W. Troup. Sunday's News is one of the vessels about town.

There was a high tide of breath as the great cataract loomed before them. The water rushed over the rock chasms, six long channels where whistles were given from the locomotive as a signal that all was ready. Then, with a shrill whistle, Captain James W. Troup was not slow in giving the final signal. A moment later the Hasalo's wheel turned.

She noted course fairly from the shore, swung around deliberately, just if responding to an invisible mouth, quiet, deep. Interest now became intense and thousand eyes were bent with a strained tension on the steamer. Now she backed behind the little island midway of the channel, swung clear and added breadth for the fearful plunge.

For a moment the boat seemed to pause, as if for half a second it might not rise, then, with her sharp and glittering prow aimed at the great green masses, she shot toward them. From shore to shore the first line of the rapid is marked by a roar of thundering like the tumultuous surf. With a full head of steam she entered the upper break in the waters, and here receiving the first lashings of the mighty current, plunged that thrilled the crowd as if touched by an electric shock. There the exclamation a thousand voices broke. Such subdued terrors. Crashing: the steamer pointing her bow upward at a short angle, and then blindly plunged downward as if going to the bottom; but she came up with a rush, and now having recovered herself to the right of the rapid, flew with the speed of an arrow through and over the surging, boiling waters.

In less than thirty seconds the Hasalo reached the foot of the rapids until the bad pass was from view around the abrupt bend in the river, going with a tremendous rate of 25 miles per hour. The captain's shot that the feat was as successfully accomplished almost beyond the crowd's belief. No accident happened, which, under all the circumstances, was a miracle, said Captain Troup.

To add to the interest of the run, the Hasalo continued to whistle as long as the steamer remained in the rapids. These whistles were responded to every time by the crew, and were kept up during the dangerous passage. Altogether it was a wild, daring, and constant roar that filled the air while the steamer made this dangerous passage.

And once we open a canal will never forget the day which will be long remembered in the history of the Pacific Northwest.