ca. 1916. Gersix truck manufacturing plant at 3011 South Fife in Tacoma. View of 6-cyclinder, structural steel framed trucks. The Gerlinger Motor Car Co. was the manufacturer of Gersix trucks; the firm was managed by Edward E. Gerlinger. The company was later sold to Edgar Worthington and Cpt. Frederick Kent who renamed it the Gersix Motor Co. After reincorporation in 1923, Ken-Worth (named after the two principal shareholders, Worthington and Frederick Kent's son, Harry) was created. Kenworth Motor Truck Co. established its headquarters in Seattle and became known for their custom trucks. Photograph provided by Robert (Bob) Hahn, whose father, J.E. (Ed) Hahn, worked for many years at Gerlinger Motor Car Co. and later Kenworth. (www.kenworth.com/7100_ken.asp)
Gerlinger Motor Car Co. (Tacoma); Trucks--Tacoma--1910-1920;
A sleek Blue Line bus, operated by Peter Conlon and his brother John W. Conlon, is parked outside the 12-unit Electric Apartments, 2510 Fawcett Avenue, in the early 1930s. The Conlons owned the Sumner Tacoma Stage Co. which carried passengers between Sumner and Tacoma. A small American flag is jauntily attached to the hood perhaps in honor of a holiday. (Photograph courtesy of the Jack Conlon collection)
ca. 1921. This photograph taken in the early 1920's shows the arrival and tugboat assisted turn around of the steamship "Indianapolis" at the Tacoma terminal, the Municipal Dock, of the Seattle to Tacoma steamship passenger service. The Municipal Dock was on the City Waterway (now the Thea Foss Waterway) north of the Eleventh Street Bridge. The ships would arrive and dock with their bows headed up the channel. Due to the narrowness of the channel, the length of the ships and the proximity of the bridge, a tugboat was required to assist them in turning about for their return voyage to Seattle. The Foss #12, captained by William T. Case, would connect a line to the bow and turn the ships about twice a day. The steamships could then assume cruising speed and head for Seattle. (photograph courtesy of the collection of William T. Case)
ca. 1921. The "Tacoma," one of two steamboats used on the Seattle to Tacoma passenger service operated by the Puget Sound Navigation Co. The "Tacoma" can be identified by its two funnels. The Eleventh Street Bridge can be seen in the background. Due to the narrowness of the channel, the Foss #12 tug had to assist in turning the bow of the steamship about for its return trip to Seattle. Here, a line has been attached from the Foss #12 to the bow of the ship to turn it about. The "Tacoma" was launched on May 13, 1913 and it provided Puget Sound passenger service from 1913-1938. The vessel was manufactured at Robert Moran's Seattle Dry Dock & Construction Co. It could accomodate 1,000 passengers, who could travel in style from Seattle to Tacoma in 77 minutes. The passenger only line was defeated by the advent of automobiles and a combination of demand for car ferries and the opening for the Seattle Tacoma Highway in 1928. (photograph courtesy of the William T. Case collection) ("Puget Sound Ferries" by Carolyn Neal and Thomas Kilday Janus; "Ferryboats" by M.S. Kline and G.A. Bayless)
The steamboat "Tacoma" was severely damaged when she was rammed by the car ferry "Kitsap" in late October of 1926. The resulting impact tore a hole in the side of the "Tacoma" at the water line. Although the accident occurred when the ships were maneuvering through thick fog, it greatly increased the discord between the Puget Sound Navigation Company, which operated the "Tacoma," and the Kitsap County Transport Company (also known as the White Collar Line because of the wide white metal band, or collar, around the smoke stacks of the company's ships). The two companies had been in a bitter rate war for years. (Photograph courtesy of the William T. Case collection) ("Puget Sound Ferries" by Carolyn Neal & Thomas Kilday Janus)
Mooring mast built by the Navy in 1924 at Camp Lewis for the visit of the dirigible USS Shenandoah. The Shenandoah visited the Tacoma area October 18-19, 1924. The Shenandoah was one of four rigid airships constructed by the military during the 20's and 30's, after the design of the German Zeppelin. The Shenandoah was the first built in America. The 165 foot pole was built for the 1924 visit and dismantled 12 years later.
Ship name: Sooloo. Full-rigger. Built at East Boston in 1861 by John and Justin Taylor for the old Salem house of Sislbee, Pickman & Allen, who owned her until 1887. Portrait of a Port: Boston 1852-1914, by W. H. Bunting, p. 342.
Cedarbank. The four-masted steel barque 'Cedarbank', 2825 tons. 2825 tons, 326.0 x 43.0 x 24.5. Built 1892 Mackie and Thomson, Glasgow. Owners A Weir and Co. registered Glasgow, later Norwegian owners without change of name. Reported wrecked in 1917 although she remained in Lloyds for a few years after. (State Library of South Australia, B 3456, PRG 1218/3 or OH 456/1, Digital Collections, South Australiana Collection, Photographs, A. D. Edwardes Collection, https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+1373/18/76)
Barkentine Monitor Formerly a unit of the Nelson Line fleet, was sold to the Interstate Fish Reduction Co., organized by E. B. McGovern of Seattle, and converted to a fish reduction plant, one of the largest on the coast and capable of processing 40 tons of sardine, pilchard or herring per hour into fish oil and meal. Capt. W. C. Ansell was appointed master of the Monitor, which carried a complement of 40 crew members and plant workers. (Gordon Newell, Maritime events of 1936, H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest., p. 448.)
Snow & Burgess Built as a full-rigged ship at Thomaston, Maine in 1878 by Thomas Watts. Converted to a fiveΓÇômasted schooner on the West Coast in 1904. 1655 gross tons. Burned for junk in 1922 after arriving at Port Townsand from Manila with a broken back, a year earlier. (Gibbs, Jim. Pacific Square-Riggers : Pictorial History of the Great Windships of Yesteryear. 1987. Pg. 190.)
Snow & Burgess. Built as a full-rigged ship at Thomaston, Maine in 1878 by Thomas Watts. Converted to a fiveΓÇômasted schooner on the West Coast in 1904. 1655 gross tons. Burned for junk in 1922 after arriving at Port Townsand from Manila with a broken back, a year earlier. (Gibbs, Jim. Pacific Square-Riggers : Pictorial History of the Great Windships of Yesteryear. 1987. Pg. 190.)
A. J. Fuller. Built in 1881 in Bath, Maine, the 1849 ton, 229 foot, square rigged ship, A.J. Fuller was originally a notable Down east sky sail-yarder for the Flint & Company fleet. Purchased at the turn of the century by the California Shipping Company and subsequently by Capt- Dermot, she was engaged for several years in the Puget Sound-Australian timber trade. After the outbreak of World War I the A.J. Fuller sailed under the Northwestern Fisheries Company in the Alaskan salmon trade. On October 30, 1919 she arrived in Seattle with a full load of salmon and salt. While sitting at anchor in a dense fog, the steamship Mexico Maru entered the port on a regular trans-Pacific run and collided with the A.J. Fuller. The ten foot hole torn in the bow of the wooden ship caused her to rapidly sink. Although salvage was deemed possible the underwriters decided against it. The approximate position of the A.J. Fuller is 2000 ft offshore of Harbor Island at a depth of 240 feet. (Newell, Gordon
Americana. Schooner built in 1892 om Grangemouth, Scotland. Vanished en route from Astoria to Sydney in 1913. (Pacific square-riggers; pictorial history of the great windships of yesteryear, by Jim Gibbs, p. 183)
Clipper Saint Paul (St. Paul). Built 1874 in Bath, ME, served briefly as a museum in the Seattle waterfront, was towed in 1942 to Oyster Bay, Vancouver Island to serve as part of a breakwater. (https://www.historylink.org/File/20184)
Abner Coburn. The 1,972-ton wooden ship Abner Coburn, built by William Rogers at Bath, Maine in 1882, was acquired from California Shipping Co. by Libby, McNeil & Libby, making annual voyages to Bristol Bay for the next 11 years. Gordon Newell, "Maritime events of 1912" H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest.,p. 201-202.
