Overview
Harvest Queen was the name of two stern-wheel steamboat built and operated in Oregon. Both vessels were well known in their day and had reputations for speed, power, and efficiency.The first Harvest Queen, widely considered one of the finest steamers of its day, was constructed at Celilo, Oregon, which was then separated from the other portions of the navigable Columbia River by two stretches of difficult to pass rapids. At considerable risk, this steamer was taken down through the first set of rapids in 1881, and the second set in 1890. Thereafter the first Harvest Queen was worked primarily between Astoria and Portland, Oregon until 1900, when it was dismantled. Most of the machinery was installed in a new, slightly smaller vessel, also called the Harvest Queen, which, although it had accommodations for passengers, was primarily worked as a towboat.
In 1926, the second Harvest Queen was sold to Alaska Junk Company, a scrap metal recycler, which sought a buyer for the steamer. With no buyer found, the boat was stripped out and then abandoned near Ross Island.
Construction
Harvest Queen was built in 1878 at Celilo, Oregon for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. The name was suggested by one T.B. Merry, "because she was the queen of the harvest, and the farmers' salvation." Harvest Queen cost $24,000 to build.
Dimensions and engineering
. Steamer Almota is on left. Photograph taken by Capt. James W. Troup. As built, Harvest Queen was feet long, exclusive of the fantail, which was the overhang at the stern of the boat on which the sternwheel was mounted. Harvest Queen had a beam (width) of feet, which was exclusive of the guards, the wide wooden protective timbers running along the top of the hull. Counting the fantail and the guards, Harvest Queen was feet long, with a beam of feet. The depth of hold was feet. Depending on the load, the steamer's draft ranged from to feet. The vessel could carry nearly 500 tons of cargo. Overall size of the vessel was 845.80 gross and 697.04 registered tons. The official merchant vessel registry number was 95534. Harvest Queen was driven by twin horizontally mounted single-cylinder steam engines, each turning an arm, called a pitman, connected to the stern-wheel.
Each engine had a bore of and a piston stroke of .
Operations 1878-1900
In 1878, the navigable portion of the Columbia river was divided into the "lower river", running from the river mouth, near Astoria, to the Cascades Rapids. This was also called the Cascades route. Dense fogs and low water in early December 1879 forced the withdrawal of the larger upper river steamers, Harvest Queen, D.S. Baker, and Annie Faxon, from service and even the smaller vessels were having difficulty navigating on the river. Because of the increased water depth, and the increased freight on the Snake River, the decision was made to take Harvest Queen up the Snake River to Lewiston, Idaho. On Monday, August 25, 1879, Harvest Queen arrived at Celilo with 437 tons of wheat, which at that time was the largest load ever carried on the upper Columbia. In early October 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes was touring the west.
After visiting Walla Walla, President Hayes and his party rode a train west to the Columbia river, where they boarded the . Harvest Queen ran between Wallula and Blalock Landing. was in use as the railroad waiting room at Blalock Station. Once the rail line reached Wallula, there would be little work remaining for Harvest Queen on the upper river.
Transfer to middle Columbia
In 1881, Harvest Queen was transferred to the middle Columbia River. This required the steamer to be run through Celilo Falls. 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. The boat was beached and temporary repairs were made, and the boat was returned to the river. At least two more falls lay between the steamer and The Dalles These were Five Mile and Ten Mile Rapids. Harvest Queen was able to pass both these rapids with only minor damage. The steamer reached The Dalles, the principal city on the middle Columbia, on February 18, 1881. From 1881 to 1890, Harvest Queen was operated on the middle river, under the command of Capt. John McNulty.
Transfer to lower Columbia
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. One thousand people boarded the R.R. Thompson at Portland, with eight hundred more embarking on the T.J. Potter. 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.
Readiness against Coxey's Army
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. A Northern Pacific special train was waiting at Kalama to transport the troops to Puyallup. 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.
Rescue of snow-bound train passengers
In early January, 1895, an O.R.& N. passenger train became stranded by snow drifts in the Columbia Gorge. On the morning of January 5, 1895, Harvest Queen was dispatched to proceed upriver through floating ice and bring out the passengers.
Intervention in fishermen's strike
In 1896, Harvest Queen was chartered by the Oregon National Guard to transport troops to Astoria to intervene in a fishermen's strike. 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. Willett informed Summers that an order would soon be issued to require Summers to assemble his troops and be ready for instant movement. 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. 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.
The troops marched in a column to the dock where the Harvest Queen lay, and boarded the vessel. 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. 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. Sentries were posted to insure this remained so. 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. An encampment was set up in the courthouse square. 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. No disturbance was noted.
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. The troops returned to Portland on board Harvest Queen.
Opening of Cascades Locks and Dam
, 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.
Overcrowding
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. 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. The O.R.&N. applied to the federal district court in Portland, Oregon, to remit the fine. In March, U.S. District Judge Matthew Deady made his findings, which were to have been forwarded to the secretary of the treasury. The case against S.G. Reed was dismissed.
Groundings and sinking
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. The grounding occurred near Warrior Rock lighthouse on Sauvie Island. came along, and Harvest Queen signaled to the passing boat. The attempt was near success, but near the top of the rapids, Harvest Queen struck a rock, and began to fill with water. operated until 1899, when it was deconstructed with much of its machinery going to a new steamer of the same name.
Excessive speed
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. The ordinance was widely ignored, but eventually the harbormaster McInnis decide to enforce it. 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.
Drownings
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. 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. Ward fell, struck his head on the guard and rolled off the boat, possibly in a state of unconsciousness. On the night of Wednesday, February 17, 1897, another crewman, Archibald A. Roof fell off Harvest Queen, and was presumed drowned.
The steamer was towing the barkentine Northwest, and nearing the confluence of the Willamette and the Columbia rivers when Roof was last seen. Shortly after that, Roof was missed, and it was supposed he had fallen off the boat and was drowned. There were no witnesses however.
The rebuilt Harvest Queen
, circa 1906, towing an ocean-going ship. In 1900, by a Danish immigrant shipbuilder, Peter Carstens (1842–1914), built a new vessel, also called Harvest Queen, at Portland for the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company. Much of the machinery and many of the fittings from the old vessel were used on the new steamer. The depth of hold was 9.0 feet. Overall size was 733 gross and 430 registered tons. The official merchant registry number was 96489. Total number of crew required was listed as 12. The machinery was built in Portland by the firm of Wolff & Zwicker.
Operations after 1900
The second Harvest Queen was launched at 11:00 a.m. on May 1, 1900, at the company's shipyard in North Portland. Harvest Queen was taken out on a trial trip on the Willamette River on the afternoon of Thursday, August 2, 1900. The boilers were set to produce only 120 pounds of steam, rather than the 180 pounds to be carried in service. The commander of Harvest Queen would be Capt. Lester A. Bailey, and the chief engineer would be Fred Smith. Work on the top level of cabins, called the Texas, would also be done. Harvest Queen departed the Ash street dock in Portland at 8:00 p.m. every weekday (10:00 p.m. on Saturdays) for the beach, stopping at Astoria on the trip downriver. The steamers Julia B. and Monarch were on the scene and ran firehoses out to fight the fire. The steamer had run over 178,000 miles since its last major overhaul.
On February 18, 1921, Harvest Queen departed Portland at 8:00 P.M. for Astoria for the last time. When Harvest Queen departed Astoria the next day, returning to Portland, all steamboat service of the O-W R & N on the Portland-Astoria route ended permanently. With the summer rush over, in September 1921, Harvest Queen was withdrawn from the Astoria-Megler ferry service, and taken to Portland, where it was tied up to a dock next to Hassalo and T.J. Potter. Harvest Queen was also operated as a ferry on the Astoria-Megler route during the summer of 1923 as a replacement for the propeller-driven steamboat Nahcotta, which was then undergoing repair.
Disposition
, published in The Sunday Oregon, July 4, 1926. On June 30, 1926, the Oregon-Washington Railway and Navigation Company, the legal successor to the O.R.&N, sold Harvest Queen and Hassalo to Alaska Junk Company. The retirement of these two vessels from the once large O-W R.&.N. fleet left only two steamers remaining, the small propeller Nahcotta, then running as a ferry between Astoria and Megler, Washington, and the then new sternwheeler Lewiston, built in 1923 and operating on the Snake River. On July 4, 1926, Alaska Junk Company, owned by Sam Schnitzer (1880–1952) and H.J. Wolf, offered Harvest Queen and Hassalo, a similar vessel, for sale. Abandoned in the Willamette River, in the first part of 1927 Harvest Queen sank near Ross Island.
A few months later, in early June 1927, the steamer's pilot house broke free during rising storm waters and floated downriver, causing a mistaken report of a sunken vessel to be filed with the harbor patrol.
Plans and model
Plans of the hull lines of the Harvest Queen are in the collection of the Oregon Historical Society. A model of the Harvest Queen is at the Columbia Gorge Discovery center in The Dalles, Oregon.