Page 2 - 2022 Summer SWHS Newsletter

Choosing a life on the waterways
As a young man living at Cultus Bay, A Memorable Event.
Henry must have given thought about The firsT passage of The greaT
his future. Should he become a farmer? jams of The skagiT
A logger? A fisherman? Seek work at SKAGET RIVER, MAy 23Th,1878.
bustling Port Townsend? ED. INTELLIGENCER: –Today our
Or perhaps he longed for a life of people were made to rejoice by
adventure on the maritime highway. the realization of a long deferred
Sailing vessels such as sloops and hope--the opening of the Skagit
river to navigation, and the ascen-
schooners and barks were increasingly sion of a steamboat through the
being replaced by nimbler steamboats. jam. The latter was successfully
Henry got his start on the steam- accomplished by the neat little
steamer Wenat, under the skill-
boat J. B. Libbey in 1875. In time, he ful management of her courteous
would captain most of the steamboats young captain, Mr. Henry Bailey.
that plied the Sound and nearby riv- She pushed off from the landing at
ers; steamboats with names such as Mt. Vernon, (the lower end of the
the Zephyr, Wenat, Fairhaven, Skagit jam). carrying a full head of steam. replaced Lawler in the engine room,
The weather being fine and the lau-
Chief, and State of Washington. rels worth the venture, she availed although Lawler claimed to have
Bailey even made the newspapers in herself of the golden opportunity checked the boiler before he left:
1878 just after the massive logjams on to make her name immortal by be- “Before going up I went to the boil-
the Skagit River were finally cleared. ing the pioneer steamer to navigate er, and the gauge indicated 90 pounds
this far-famed and crystal river of
‘Courteous young captain Henry the great Northwest. With about of steam, and the glass was half-full
Bailey’ piloted the sternwheeler Wenat thirty invited passengers aboard, of water” (Seattle Daily P-I, Jan. 17,
upriver to a cheering crowd. (See arti- she steamed up against the current 1883).
till near the upper end of the jam,
cle at right.) where she came to a standstill. At about 12:05 p.m., the boiler ex-
He continued on the Wenat, but only Then battling a few moments with ploded. Deckhand Frank Murphy,
a short while, for later that year she hit THE FOAMING CURRENT, described what happened:
a snag and sank for the fourth time. losing and gaining just as the surg- “The gong had just sounded for din-
(Steamboat crews often faced dangers ing or unsteady force and flow of ner. The engineer had been relieved
the current happened to strike her,
from storms, fires, explosions, and col- while all on board stood watching by Captain Bailey, and had gone up-
lisions with rocks, logs or other boats.) in breathless anxiety until seem- stairs to eat. The steamer was about a
mile from shore, just off the ‘potlatch
The Wenat’s salvaged boilers and en- ingly, with a desperate effort of house’ [a log longhouse capable of
gine were put into a steamboat called added strength, she overcame the holding some 200 people], at a large
the Josephine. power of the sweeping current and Indian camp at Port Susan, when all
dashed through the vortex to the
His brother follows in his footsteps eddy above. No sooner had she of a sudden, a terrible explosion oc-
reached the goal of safety than full
curred, which sounded like 49 can-
Henry’s younger brother, Robert F. fifty voices were raised in cheers, nons, all firing at once.
Bailey, started working as a fireman accompanied by a shrill and pro- The crown-sheet [a part of the boiler]
(loading cordwood to heat the boiler) tracted shriek of the steam whistle, passed directly up through the pilot-
on the steamer Josephine in 1879 when which made a welcome ring as the house, and carried Johnson, the deck-
echoes reverberated through the
he was 21 years old. adjacent forests of towering firs... hand at the wheel, far off into the air.
Three years later, he was serving as The steamer immediately split in two,
acting Captain when tragedy struck and the portion containing the boiler
Jan. 16, 1883. (The regular Captain sunk in 30 feet of water. The cabin and
and owners were signing legal papers Jan. 20, 1883), with the temperature a a portion of the hull floated. The scene
at Port Townsend.) few degrees above freezing. By noon, was terrible and indescribable.
Here is an account of the explosion the boat was between Mukilteo and The wounded women and men were
that happened.* Hat (Gedney) Island, approximately groaning and crying, and the uninjured
The Josephine left Seattle at 6:30 one mile offshore. were rushing frantically around the
a.m. and proceeded north through ...Captain Robert Bailey relieved wreck, not knowing which way to turn”
Puget Sound. It was, “on the whole, a engineer Dennis Lawler in the en- (Seattle Daily P-I, Jan. 17, 1883)...
disagreeable day... being sloppy under- gine room, and Lawler went upstairs
foot, and snowing some in the morn- to eat. According to the Post-Intel- *written by Phil Dougherty for the website His-
ing” (Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer, ligencer, only an “ordinary stoker” toryLink at www.historylink.org/file/804
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