"The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down." A. Whitney Brown.

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San Juan Archipelago, Washington State, United States
A society formed in 2009 for the purpose of collecting, preserving, celebrating, and disseminating the maritime history of the San Juan Islands and northern Puget Sound area. Check this log for tales from out-of-print publications as well as from members and friends. There are circa 750, often long entries, on a broad range of maritime topics; there are search aids at the bottom of the log. Please ask for permission to use any photo posted on this site. Thank you.

20 June 2015

❖ WHALER HEADING TO THE BERING ❖

Whaler WESTPORT
209877
Original photo dated 1935

Click to enlarge.
From the archives of the S.P.H.S.©
The WESTPORT, one of the 14 ships of the Pacific Coast whaling fleet, shown leaving Seattle for the treacherous waters of the Bering Sea, some of which were uncharted at the time of this photo. With the harpoon gun on her prow, the men believed there would be a big profit in whale oil that year.
The next year, the crew of the Seattle whaler WESTPORT,
had their ship breakup on Bight Reef in the Aleutians

15 Sept. 1936.
The crew escaped and was brought to Seattle, 
5 October, on the Coast Guard cutter CHELAN.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

1912: Built by the former Moran Brothers Shipyard (renamed the Seattle Construction and Drydock Co.) for Gray's Harbor Station of the American Pacific Whaling Co.

G.t. 116 / 59 N.t. 
88' Reg. L.  x 19.0' x 11.5'
450 HP-triple expansion engine, single Scotch boilers of 180 lb. working pressure.

1934: Capt. Harold C. Kristensen, 50, master of WESTPORT, killed when the harpoon gun he had fired, collapsed, & its heavy steel frame toppled over on him in western AK waters.

1935: WESTPORT lost off Akutan, AK., September 1936. No lives lost.
Above dated material from H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest . Newell, Gordon, editor.

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