VOL. 1 No. 9.
TOKTLAND, ORKGON, MAY, 1876.
For tbe West Siiobb.
OREGON SKIP HOLDING.
HV THOMAS B, MERRY.
Tlie firsl impression that tlie new coiner
has of Oregon, (at least it was my first) is
that it is a vast grain garden with such a
broad expanse of arable land that it could
produce not only grain enough to feed all
the other Pacific States and territories, in
the event of a drouth, but also have a large
surplus for exportation to foreign markets.
This is especially true of tlie Willamette
valley, which contains less waste land in
proportion to its total area, than any other
section of the same size in America.
Drouths are entirely unheard of there, and
the only failure of crops that can possibly
occur, would be through an excess of rains.
Hence its superiority over the Sacramento
and San Jaquin valleys in California, where
the rains cease after the 1st of April, is a
matter beyond dispute.
But all this wealth of golden grain is
valueless without a liberal supply of ton
nage to carry it into the markets of the
old world, where it may be exchanged for
such former articles of luxury as civilization
has now transformed into necessaries of
even-day life. So long as the earning
trade is restricted to foreign bottoms, or
even to vessels of American build, owned
outside the State, there is but little margin
of profit for the Slate of which the primary
producer is a citizen. And it will only be
when Oregon capital owns the keels which
bear her grain to Cork and Liverpool, as
well as the grain itself, that our state will
rise to her true commercial dignity and
display to an admiring world the opulence
of her resources. This fact seems to have
been hitherto overlooked by the financiers
of Portland, the commercial and monetary
center of the State. It is true that Portland
has the finest fleet of stern-wheel steamers
(for their size) of any city in America.
Nothing that I have seen can surpass the
Bmila for speed nor the Ol if Saltm for
lightness of draught ; and owners of those
vessels can well be proud of their achieve
ments. I!ut why does Portland build no
ships? ' And why are her wharves lined
with the red dags and lean iron hulls of
British vessels? I answer, for want of well
directed enterprise. 1 have heard men say
that the firlimber along the lower Columbia
river is unfit for the building of deep-water
ships, and that it is inferior to the fir of
Coos Bay and Ptiget Sound. In vulgar
parlance," I won't have it '." For mv own
part, I ask no '.letter illustration titan the
follow ing :
In the year 1857 an old low pressure
steamer called the ALvnai (formerly the
.S". II. Whttltr) was condemned at
Honolulu, her engines taken out and ship
ped to Astoria. At some point on the
lower Columbia river, the hull of a new
steamer was built in 1859, in which this
machinery was placed and the new craft
christened tlie Eliza Andersen. This vesset
has seen very severe service on the coast
of British Columbia, frequently crossing
the straits of Fuca at times when it seemed
impossible for any small vessel like her to
live in so heavy a sea. Last summer at
Seattle, I went aboard of her and found all
her timbers to be sound as. the day they
were hewn. Now any steamship man will
tell you that the timbers of a steamer will
ANKF.NY'S NEW MARKET FLOCK, FIRST ST., ISET. A AND ASH, PORTLAND. Photo by IluchtcKv Stolte.
decay much faster than those of a sailing
vessel, owing to the amount of salt water
that is always leaking from about the boil
ers and pumis. Yet this old and shame
fully neglected craft is sound and staunch
in her sixteen years. Taking this as an
example of the quality of Columbia river
timber, I have no hesitation in expressing
the belief that Portland can build ships for
the European grain trade, capable of last
ing fully twenty-five years.
Vessels for the coasting trade have been
built at San Francisco ever since 1853, but
it was reserved for Washington Territory to
turn out the first full-rigged ship for blue
water. Gilbert A. Meigs, of Port Madison,
Kitsap county, was the man who stood the
egg on its end. In 1871 he commenced,
in connection with Aaron J. Westervelt, of
New York, the construction of the ship
Wildwood, now on her return from Liver
pool to San Francisco. Unfortunately, a
difficulty sprang up between them when the
ship was first started and Mr. Westervelt
returned to New York in disgust. This
led to the vessel being finished in a very
different style from Mr. Westcrvch's design,
as he intended her to be the comterpart of
his celebrated ship Smefslaiet, which is
accredited with two triw from New York
to San Francisco inside of ninety days,
but the HAH'iW, though not wliat Wester
velt intended she should lie, is a credit to
the territory. She sailed from Durrani
Inlet, British Columbia, with a full cargo
of lumber and made the run to Melbourne,
Australia, in forty-six days.
The second ship built on the Pacific
Coast is the appropriately named
WESTERN SHORE,
Launched at North Bend, Coos county,
Oregon, October 8lh 1874. She was
designed by Capt A. M. Simpson, her
principal owner, and built by John Kruse,
the architect of the North Bend shipyard.
Her joiner work was by Frank Gibson,
polished work in cabin by Fredrick Mark
and painting by PetcrGibson. She is 1 188
tons burthen, out measuring the H'tlJuvod
about eighty tons, but being of fuller lines
and able to out-carry her at least 115,000
feet on a cargo of lumber. Her spars are
the handsomest slices ever seen in Liver
pool, if the Captain of i!.c British ship
Ptttttrilak is any competent judge. Her
riirging and canvass were designed by Capt
K. W. Sinqwin, the resilient rtner at
North Bend, and I must here take occasion
to say tliat this is a very immrtant matter
in ship-building. K you put too little can
vass tiion a ship, she will be too slow to
go after a doctor, if you put 011 too much,
she will bury herself by the head and have
no buoyancy. Now the Wnltrn Short is
not a very elegant ship above water, aside
from her superb spars, but she has easy and
graceful lines below, and sheds water easily
from her stern. Her cabin is of Oregon
myrtle, relieved try door-posts of the Sand
wich Island tamana, and was done by a
quiet little old Dutchman in Marshfield.
He subsequently did the cabin of the
barkentine Tarn O'Shanltr for the same
panics and made, if anything, a belter job
of it. It will pay any man interested in
the resources of Oregon to visit the latter
vessel when she arrives at Portland (where
she is a regular trader.) and I am confident
that "Uncle Pat" will treat him hospitably
for my sake.
The Wtriirn Short arrived in San Fran
cisco on the 161I1 day of November 1874
and commenced loading grain for Liver
pool, for which Krt she sailed on the 29th
of January 1875. She was a standing joke
for the marine reporters of the San Fran
cisco press who dubbed her the "Oregon
canal-boat. "Wcbfoot scow" ''Coos Bay
Ark," "North Bend chcesc-box," Ac.
Meantime, the quiet and unpretentious
Yankee who designed her, sat back and
silently munched his quid in the solitude of
his little office on Market street. He was
"waiting for the verdict." San Francisco's
pet ship, the Thru lirclhtri had sailed lor
Liverpool, a few days before with a pend
ing wager of $5,000 against the F.ngli'.h
ship Britith King. But nobody thought
of puuing up a dollar on the "Oregon
barge," which towed to sea that bleak
winter afternoon with 1940 tons of wheat
in her hold and staunch little Wesley
McAllep on the quarterdeck. She lay
becalmed all that night and all neit day orl