King & Winge (fishing schooner)

The" King & Winge" was one of the most famous ships ever built in Seattle. Built in 1914, in the next 70 years she had participated in a famous Arctic rescue, been present at a great maritime tragedy, and been employed as a halibut schooner, a rum runner, and a pilot boat.

Construction

"King & Winge" was originally a powered halibut schooner built by the King and Winge shipyard in West Seattle in 1914. She was designed by Albert M. Winge, co-owner of the shipyard. [Jacobi, Wayne, “King & Winge: Versatile Ship Comes Home,” Seattle Times, January 5, 1962, page 33.] Her dimensions were 143 tons, 97' length on the deck (110' overall), 19.6' beam and 9.7 depth of hold. As built she was fitted with a 140 horsepower Corliss gasoline engine and an electric lighting system. She had two 60' high masts, and carried nine halibut dories. The construction was very strong, with 4x4 ½ inch oak frames, each set six inches apart, and sheathed with planking three inches thick, covered with another layer of ironbark sheathing. The schooner was divided into three watertight compartments, her hull was heavily braced, and her bow was nosed with steel-plates for ice work.

Rescue of the Stefansson expedition

While her builders had planned to put "King & Winge" in the halibut fishery, she was chartered before construction was complete by the Hibbard-Swenson Co. for an expedition to the Arctic for hunting, trading, and making a motion picture.

Captain Olaf Swenson and C. L. Hibbard took "King & Winge" up to Nome, where they found the U.S. revenue cutter "Bear". Earlier that season, "Bear" had attempted to rescue the Stefansson expedition survivors, stranded in the Arctic since the sinking of their ship "Karluk", crushed by ice in the Chukchi Sea in January. "Bear" had been forced to abandon the rescue effort by weather conditions and had returned to Nome to refuel. Swenson returned to Seattle for business reasons, but Hibbard and the navigator A.P. Jochkimson decided to go to Wrangel Island to look for the survivors, leaving a day ahead of the "Bear".

Once arriving at Rodgers Harbor, on September 7, they found and took on board the three survivors there, and then went through huge ice floes to Waring Point, where they took on board nine more. Sailing back south, they met the "Bear" and turned over the rescued men to the coast guard cutter. [McCurdy, at 242-243]

Wreck of the "Princess Sophia"

In October 1918, the "King & Winge" was present at one of the great tragedies of Alaskan maritime history, the wreck of the "Princess Sophia". On October 23, 1918, coming south down Lynn Canal south from Skagway in a snowstorm, the "Princess Sophia" had struck Vanderbilt Reef, not far from the Sentinel Island Light. She was hung up high on the reef for a considerable time, and her captain apparently thought that she could be floated off at the next high tide. Consequently no attempt was made to transfer the passengers to the "King & Winge" or the lighthouse tender "Cedar", which, with a large number of smaller vessels, had heard of the wreck and gone to the "Sophia"’s aid. The sea conditions were bad, and any attempted transfer would have been risky in any case. Overnight, however, the wind came up, and the "Sophia" was washed off Vanderbilt Reef and sank with all 343 people aboard. Only the upper part of her mast remained above the water. All that the "Cedar" and the "King & Winge" could do was pick up floating bodies and take them to Juneau. [McCurdy, at 299-300, provides an extensive recollection of Captain Leadbetter, who was in command of the "Cedar".]

Rum-running career

The "King & Winge"’s history in the early 1920s is reported to be obscure [Jacobi] What facts are known is that at some point King and Winge sold her, and an effort was made to run her as a pilot boat at Cape Flattery, at the western entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. She had several owners in that time, and had become legally encumbered as security for a loan. In 1922, she was sold to Northwest Trust & Savings Bank to satisfy the loan. [McCurdy, at 322] In 1923, she was sold at auction to Roy Olmstead and T.J. Clarke, two former policeman who had opted for a substantially more lucrative career in the rum-running business, Prohibition having recently come into law. Clarke and Olmstead tried and failed to reregister the "King & Winge" as a Canadian vessel, and so the "King & Winge" passed into the possession of the Columbia Bar Pilot’s Association.

Columbia bar pilot boat

"King and Winge" was the Columbia bar pilot boat from 1924 to 1958. She was called the "Columbia" by the pilot’s association. In 1924, the "King & Winge" was converted from gasoline to diesel power. [McCurdy, at 366] She served under the command of Captain F.E. Craig, who estimated he’d made more than 50,000 crossings of the bar in her. [Jacobi]

Later history

In 1958, Dr Clyde C. Parlova of Astoria, Oregon bought "King & Winge" from the pilot’s association, with the objective of restoring her to as a sailing ship. How much progress Dr. Parlova made is not known, but late 1961, Jack Elsbree, of Seattle, a retired airline pilot, bought the "King and Winge" from him and brought her up to Lake Union in Seattle, with the same objective, that is, of restoring her to her original state. [Jacobi]

The "King & Winge" survived into modern times, sinking in 18 foot seas, 22 miles West of St. Paul island on February 23, 1994. Attempts to save the flooding vessel failed and all four crew members were rescued by the USCG cutter Hamilton. [MMS Shipwreck Database, http://www.mms.gov/alaska/ref/ships/INDEX.HTM Retrieved on 23 April 2008.]

ee also

Vilhjalmur Stefansson

External links

* [http://ead.dartmouth.edu/html/stem107.html Papers of Burt Morton McConnell, charterer of "King & Winge" for "Karluk" rescue, Dartmouth College Library]

Photographs

* [http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1pr6TjYNkuoeH8_sjc_66zeR7Dz6aSpfmtOzAZFGgWKmvFbt4_Q6iaor4O_-9MglZReetgSTpAuWM "King & Winge" as Columbia bar pilot boat] (accessed January 19, 2008)
* [http://66.154.152.16/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album31&id=King_Winge "King & Winge", in more recent times] (accessed January 19, 2008)
* [http://www.sitnews.us/Kiffer/PrincessSophia/princess_sophia.jpg"Princess Sophia" on Vanderbilt Reef, October 24, 1918] (accessed January 19, 2008)

References