C. W. Wetmore

Other disasters in 1892 were the loss of the whaleback C. W. Wetmore, which was carrying coal between Puget Sound and San Francisco for $1.35 per ton at the time. Her loss, therefore, was not mourned by other shipowners engaged in the trade. E. W. Wright, Retirement of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company from Puget Sound, Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Puget Sound. New York: Antiquarian Press, Ltd., 1961 [This book was written in 1895 and the years covered in this chapter are 1891 and 1892., p.406.

Citation: Tacoma Public Library

C. W. Wetmore (steamer)

September 8, 1892 A rather aptly named whale-back steel steamer resembling a cigar with a foc'sl and bridge. Built in Wisconsin in 1891, she measured 265'x 38'x 24'with 3000 dead weight tonnage and 1075 net. On her first voyage she carried 100,000 bushels of wheat through lakes and locks to the sea, then across the Atlantic to Liverpool. Eventually she was brought around the Horn by Captain Joe Hastings and experienced good luck until she reached the California-Oregon border. From then on, her trip went sour. She unshipped her rudder and drifted unmanageably for several days until sighted off the Columbia by the steamer Zambesi, who took her into tow. The C. W. Wetmore broke loose coming over the bar and very nearly ended up on the rocks. She was rescued just in time and brought to - Astoria, repaired and placed in the coal trade. The Zambesi received $50,000 for her rescue efforts. After that, the poor Wetmore bumbled around, running aground, crashing into wharfs or banging into other vessels and, as the jok

Citation: Tacoma Public Library

C. W. Wetmore (steamer)

In 1891 a new style of marine craft steamed into the waters of the Pacific Northwest. The late arrival was one of the famous whalebacks, the C. W. Wetmore, built in the interior of Wisconsin, hundreds of miles from salt water. This homely appearing craft made her way through the lakes and locks until she reached the sea, and then carried a cargo of nearly one hundred thousand bushels of wheat across the Atlantic to Liverpool. On her return she was loaded with material with which to construct other steamers of a similar type, and started on a long journey around the Horn in charge of Joseph Hastings, captain; Robert S. Blauvelt, chief engineer; and J. J. Chisholm, first assistant. The C. W. Wetmore was two hundred and sixty-five feet long, thirty-eight feet beam, and twenty-four feet hold, net tonnage 1,075, with a dead-weight capacity of 3,000 tons. Her engines were twenty-six and fifty by forty-two inches, and she had two Scotch boilers eleven feet six inches in diameter and length. Below the water the Wetmo

Citation: Tacoma Public Library