Harvest Queen (sternwheeler)

In 1881, Harvest Queen was transferred to the middle Columbia River.[1] This required the steamer to be run through Celilo Falls.[1] Under the command of James W. Troup, one of the best-regarded steamboat captains of the day, on February 8, 1881, Harvest Queen went through the first stretch of whitewater, called Tumwater Rapids, sustaining serious damage in the process.[1][2]

The boat was beached and temporary repairs were made, and the boat was returned to the river.[1] At least two more falls lay between the steamer and The Dalles[1] These were Five Mile and Ten Mile Rapids.[1] Harvest Queen was able to pass both these rapids with only minor damage.[1] The steamer reached The Dalles, the principal city on the middle Columbia, on February 18, 1881.[2]

From 1881 to 1890, Harvest Queen was operated on the middle river, under the command of Capt. John McNulty.[2]

On Sunday, May 18, 1890, under command of Captain Troup, Harvest Queen was run through the Cascades to the lower river, witnessed by the largest crowd ever assembled for such an event.[2]

Four hundred people came down from The Dalles on the steamer D.S. Baker.[3] One thousand people boarded the "R.R. Thompson at Portland, with eight hundred more embarking on the T.J. Potter.[3] Bands aboard the steamers entertained the passengers.[3] Ione also transported excursionists.[3]

In addition, three passenger trains departed the Union Pacific depot in Portland, bound for the Cascades.[3] About 8,000 tickets were sold for passage on the trains.[3] Another train came in from Arlington, Oregon.[3]

Once all the passengers had arrived on the steamers, they were transported from the lower Cascades five miles on the narrow gauge portage railway, or, in the case of the R.R. Thompson's passengers, on the regular line, to the upper Cascades, where the rapids began.[3]

The first four miles of the Cascades were covered in just four minutes.[2] There were twenty passengers on board during the run, including prominent steamboat personnel of the day.[2] This was the fourth time that Captain Troup had brought a steamer down through the rapids.[3] It was the ninth time that a steamer had been brought through the Cascades rapids.[16] No further runs through the Cascades would be made until three years later, in 1893, when Captain Baughman took D.S. Baker from the middle to the lower river.[16]

By this time, the Union Pacific railroad had acquired control of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.[2] On April 1, 1890, the Union Pacific reorganized its riverine service, and appointed Captain Troup as superintendent.[2] Harvest Queen was extensively repaired in 1890.[2]

In March 1892 there were rumors of an impending rate war on the Portland-Astoria run among the Union Pacific, owners of the Harvest Queen, the then-new and speedy steamer T.J. Potter, and the pioneer steamboat men Jacob Kamm, owner of Lurline, and U.B. Scott, owner of the very fast stern-wheeler Telephone.[17]

In April 1894, Harvest Queen embarked 300 troops from the barracks of Vancouver Barracks to be transported to Kalama in case of trouble caused by "Commonwealers" at Puyallup, Washington.[18] A Northern Pacific special train was waiting at Kalama to transport the troops to Puyallup.[18] The Commonwealers were a branch of Coxey's Army, an organization of laborers that arose in the context of the widespread unemployment following the Panic of 1893.[19] The general plan of the Commonwealers, and similar groups around the country, was to travel to Washington, D.C. to protest, seeking government funding of projects that would produce jobs for the unemployed.[19] Trouble had come in various cities as the Commonwealers boarded trains without paying fares.[19] A large rally of the Commonwealers took place in Puyallup, Washington near the end of April, 1894.[19] No transport of troops from Vancouver Barracks was ordered however, and at 4:00 p.m. on May 2, 1894, Harvest Queen was discharged from War Department service, and returned to Portland.[20]

In early January, 1895, an O.R.& N. passenger train became stranded by snow drifts in the Columbia Gorge.[21] On the morning of January 5, 1895, Harvest Queen was dispatched to proceed upriver through floating ice and bring out the passengers.[21]

In 1896, Harvest Queen was chartered by the Oregon National Guard to transport troops to Astoria to intervene in a fishermen's strike.[22] On Tuesday, June 15, 1896, an officer of the Oregon adjutant-general's office, Major Geo. T. Willett placed a telephone call to Col. Owen Summers, at the Multnomah County Armory.[22] Willett informed Summers that an order would soon be issued to require Summers to assemble his troops and be ready for instant movement.[22] Later orders to Summers were that Harvest Queen had been chartered by the Oregon Military Department and that he should embark the troops under his command onto the steamer to proceed to Astoria, and to cooperate there with county judge J.H.D. Gray in suppression of the fishermen's strike then in progress.[22]

The troops were assembled by 11:30 p.m. on June 15, and were ready to embark on Harvest Queen early the next morning, at 2:30 a.m.[22] The troops marched in a column to the dock where the Harvest Queen lay, and boarded the vessel.[22] Freight and equipment, including Gatling guns and field artillery, was also loaded on board, and at 4:00 a.m. on June 16, Harvest Queen pulled out from the dock.[22]

Col. Summers ordered the troops to behave in a military fashion and to remain inside the cabin of the vessel so that there would not be a visible military presence on the decks of the steamer.[22] Sentries were posted to insure this remained so.[22]

Harvest Queen with the troops on board arrived at the O.R.& N.'s dock in Astoria at 10:30 a.m. on June 16, 1896.[22] An encampment was set up in the courthouse square.[22] Troops were detailed to serve as cannery guards, and a Gatling gun was set up on a tugboat to serve as a harbor patrol vessel.[22] No disturbance was noted.[22] On June 21, 1896, Colonel Summers was ordered to return to Portland with his command, but leave behind in Astoria about 100 troops, with the Gatling guns.[22] The troops returned to Portland on board Harvest Queen.

Four steamers at the opening of Cascade Locks. From left to right: Maria, Dalles City, Harvest Queen, and Sarah Dixon

Harvest Queen was present at the formal opening of the Cascade Locks and Canal on the afternoon of November 5, 1896.[23]

In June 1890, Warren V. Sackett, captain of the Yaquina Bay steamer Walluski, filed a complaint with the U.S. steamboat inspection office in Portland, alleging that Harvest Queen, and another steamer, S.G. Reed had carried passengers in excess of licensed capacity.[25]

Against Harvest Queen, Sackett charged that the steamer departed Portland for Astoria on June 8, carrying 613 passengers, when the boat's license allowed for only 400.[25] Against S.G. Reed, Sackett claimed that the steamer had run from Portland to Oregon City, also on June 8, carrying 561 passengers, and returned with 760, when the Reed's license allowed only 500.[25] The practice of carrying passengers in excess of the licensed limit was criticized in the Daily Morning Astorian.[24]

In addition to fines of $1,000 against the ship owners for each offense, Sackett and any other person filing such allegations stood to earn one-half of the fine imposed by the government, as well as $10 per head and passage money for every passenger carried in excess of the license limit.[25]

A fine was imposed.[26] The O.R.&N. applied to the federal district court in Portland, Oregon, to remit the fine.[26] In March, U.S. District Judge Matthew Deady made his findings, which were to have been forwarded to the secretary of the treasury.[26] The case against S.G. Reed was dismissed.[26]

At 3:00 in the morning of Saturday, January 23, 1892, Harvest Queen ran aground at Warrior Reef, on the Columbia River near St. Helens.[27][28] The grounding occurred near Warrior Rock lighthouse on Sauvie Island.[28] The fog was so thick that the light could not be seen.[28] At about 6:00 a.m. the small propeller steamer City of Astoria[29] came along, and Harvest Queen signaled to the passing boat.[28] Thirty-five passengers, and, reportedly, the steamer's freight, were transferred to the City of Astoria and brought to Portland.[27][28] Sometime later, either about noon[28] or 8:00 p.m. the steamer was refloated, sustaining no harm except for some minor damage to the stern-wheel.[27]

In June 1894, the Union Pacific tried to send the Harvest Queen back up through the Cascades rapids to work again on the Middle Columbia.[30] The attempt was near success, but near the top of the rapids, Harvest Queen struck a rock, and began to fill with water.[30]

On November 19, 1895, after departing Astoria bound for Portland, Oregon, she ran into a submerged piling at a fish trap near Oak Point, 60 miles downriver from Portland in heavy fog. The steamer sank and was thought to be a total loss. Later however the vessel was raised and taken to Portland, Oregon for repairs,[31] operated until 1899, when it was deconstructed with much of its machinery going to a new steamer of the same name.[1]

In 1895 the city of Portland had an ordinance which restricted the speed of steamboats to 6 miles per hour in front of the city.[32] The ordinance was widely ignored, but eventually the harbormaster McInnis decide to enforce it.[32] He caused Captain Gray, of the Lurline, and Captain Martineau,of Harvest Queen, to be arrested and charged with violating the speed ordinance as a test case.[32]

Reward placed June 18, 1890, for recovery of the body of crewman George P. Ward, drowned crewman of Harvest Queen.

Crewmen on board steamboats in the 1890s did not wear life-preservers. Drownings often occurred if they fell into the river. In late May, 1890, while Harvest Queen was coming upriver from Astoria to Portland, George P. Ward, of Portland, a watchman, was drowned when he was struck with a gang plank as the boat was preparing for a landing and knocked into the river.[33][34]

According to a later, more detailed account, at about midnight, Ward, who had recently acquired a mate's license, slipped on the deck while preparing to receive a load of several cords of wood from a landing as fuel for the steamer, which was then moving at full speed.[35] Ward fell, struck his head on the guard and rolled off the boat, possibly in a state of unconsciousness.[35] Captain Emken, in command at the time, was immediately notified, and the steamer was stopped and a boat sent out to look for Ward.[35] The steamer and the boat cruised around for two hours looking for him, proceeding two miles downriver, but they found nothing.[35]

Efforts to recover Ward's body were unsuccessful.[33][34] The Queen arrived in Portland with the flag at half-staff on account of the death.[34] Ward's brothers, of Portland, offered a $50 reward for recovery of his body.[36]

On the night of Wednesday, February 17, 1897, another crewman, Archibald A. Roof fell off Harvest Queen, and was presumed drowned.[37] The steamer was towing the barkentine Northwest, and nearing the confluence of the Willamette and the Columbia rivers when Roof was last seen.[37] Shortly after that, Roof was missed, and it was supposed he had fallen off the boat and was drowned.[37] There were no witnesses however.[37]

• Newell, Gordon R., ed. (1966). H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle, WA: Superior Pub. Co. LCCN 66025424.
• Timmen, Fritz (1973). Blow for the Landing -- A Hundred Years of Steam Navigation on the Waters of the West. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers. ISBN 0-87004-221-1. LCCN 73150815.
• Wright, E.W., ed. (1895). Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, OR: Lewis and Dryden Printing Co. LCCN 28001147.

• "Historic Oregon Newspapers". University of Oregon.
• "California Digital Newspaper Collection". University of California, Riverside.