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Athlon (steamboat)
Encyclopedia
Construction
Athlon was built in Portland, OregonPortland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
by the J.H. Johnston yard. Her first owners were a consortium of Jacob Kamm
Jacob Kamm
Jacob Kamm was a prominent early transportation businessman in Oregon.-Early life:Kamm was born on December 12, 1823 in Canton of Glarus, Switzerland. His family immigrated to America when he was 8 to Illinois, St. Louis, then New Orleans. He worked as a Printer's devil beginning at age 12...
(and his company, Vancouver Transportation Co.), Shaver Transportation Company
Shaver Transportation Company
The Shaver Transportation Company is an inland water freight transportation company based in Portland, Oregon, United States. The company was founded in 1880, and played a major role in the development of freight transport in the Portland area and along the Columbia., Harry L...
and the Kellogg Transportation Company. The consortium built her at a cost of $4,950. The consortium's purpose was to Captain Neusome, owner of the Iralda, which he ran on the lower Columbia. Neusome had refused to fix (or “cooperate on,” as the phrase then was) steamboat rates on river. Neusome came around when Athlon was launched, and struck a deal with the consortium. In return, Athlon was sold to H.B. Kennedy, who took her up to Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
.
Operations on Puget Sound
Once at Puget Sound, H.B. Kennedy put Athlon on the popular Seattle-Port Orchard (Navy Yard) Route, in competition with Joshua GreenJoshua Green (seaman and banker)
Joshua Green was an American sternwheeler captain, businessman, and banker. He rose from being a seaman to being the dominant figure of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet, then sold out his interests and became a banker...
’s boat, the Inland Flyer
Inland Flyer
Inland Flyer was a passenger steamboat that ran on Puget Sound from 1898 to 1916. From 1910 to 1916 this vessel was known as the Mohawk. The vessel is notable as the first steamer on Puget Sound to use oil fuel...
. Athlon’s first captain on Puget Sound, in February 1901, was William Mitchell, who had worked his way up from cabin boy. (Mitchell eventually in 1933 became manager of the Kitsap Transportation Company, one of the last remaining competitors to the by-then dominant Puget Sound Navigation Company
Puget Sound Navigation Company
The Puget Sound Navigation Company was founded by Joshua Green in 1913. It operated a fleet of steamboats and ferries on Puget Sound in Washington and the Georgia Strait in British Columbia...
.)
By July 1901, H.B. Kennedy and Joshua Green reached a deal to end competition between their two boats, fixing rates on the route as was usual with these anti-competitive agreements. Over the years, the firms of H.B. Kennedy and Joshua Green's Puget Sound Navigation Company drew closer together and eventually merged. By 1903, Athlon was still owned by H.B. Kennedy personally, but was being operated by Puget Sound Navigation. This combination drove off all would be competitors including the Manette, and later, Arrow, even though Arrow was a much faster boat than Athlon, beating her by 30 minutes on a race from Seattle to Bremerton.
Inadequate safety equipment
In January 1904, the steamer Clallam and 50 of her passengers were lost en route to Victoria crossing the Strait of Juan de FucaStrait of Juan de Fuca
The Strait of Juan de Fuca is a large body of water about long that is the Salish Sea outlet to the Pacific Ocean...
. Clallam carried no distress rockets, which in those days before radio, might have saved some or all of her people. Steamship inspectors cracked down and fined a large number of steamers, including Athlon, $500 and more for operating without fog horns, signal flares or rockets, fire axes or proper life-saving equipment. Some measure of the severity of the fine can be judged by the fact that it was almost exactly 10% of the cost of Athlon’s construction.
Conversion to oil burner
In 1907, Athlon’s compound engine was replaced with a triple expansion steam engine. About the same time, she was converted to oil fuel, in response to the oil companies launching a push to persuade the steamboat operators to convert from burning cord wood or coal to burning oil. H.D. Collier, a marine engineer, was then Standard Oil’s representative in the Puget Sound region. When he approached Joshua Green to consider conversion to oil fuel, Green declined, telling him “Harry, that stuff blows up!” To prove the contrary, Collier rigged up an oil burner under Athlon’s boiler, then dropped a lighted match in the oil tank. When no explosion ensued, Collier had made his sale. Collier later became president and chairman of the board of Standard Oil of California.bbAnti-union propaganda stunt
Starting in late 1890s, Congress became more concerned about working conditions, safety equipment and standards on steamboats. Political pressure increased after the sinking of the RMS Titanic which foundered in the North Atlantic with a large loss of lives due to too few lifeboats. Athlon’s owners, prominent capitalists, opposed this, and when a version of what eventually became the La Follette Seaman’s Act of 1915 passed Congress in 1913, Athlon was used by the Puget Sound Steamboat Owners Association in a stunt to point out what they perceived as some of the absurdities of the legislation. The owners calculated that based on the number of passengers that Athlon was licensed to carry, she would have to be equipped with 19 lifeboats, this on a steamboat only 112 feet (34.1 m) long. They were able to cram only 8 boats on her decks, and put the other eleven in a scow lashed alongside. Using this and other tactics, the steamboat owners of Puget Sound and the rest of the country were able to stall passage of the Seamen’s Act until 1915.Sale to Moe Brothers
The Moe brothersMoe Brothers
Moe Brothers was a shipping firm that operated in Puget Sound and also a logging firm that operated in Kitsap County. The company was based in Poulsbo, Washington.-Business:...
were engaged in competition with the Kitsap County Transportation Company
Kitsap County Transportation Company
The Kitsap County Transportation Company was an important steamboat and ferry company that operated on Puget Sound. The company was originally founded in 1898 as the Hansen Transportation Company.-Hansen Transportation:...
for dominance of the Seattle-Poulsbo route. In 1914, the Moe Brothers, with backers on Bainbridge Island and around Liberty Bay, bought Athlon and put her on the route, where she ran for the next six years.
Grand Trunk pier fire
On July 30, 1914, Athlon and the coastal liner Admiral Farragut were moored in Seattle at the pier of the Grand Trunk PacificGrand Trunk Pacific dock
The Grand Trunk Pacific dock was a shipping pier in Seattle, Washington. The original pier was built in 1910 and was destroyed in a fire in 1914. The pier was then rebuilt and continued in existence until 1964, when it was dismantled...
, immediately to the north of Colman Dock
Colman Dock
Colman Dock, also called Pier 52 is an important ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington. The original pier is no longer in existence, but the terminal used by the Washington State Ferry system, and is still called “Colman Dock”-Location:...
. About 3:00 in the afternoon, the engineer on Athlon noticed a fire on the pier. Athlon and Farragut quickly cast off. The fire on the pier spread quickly, as the structure was newly built (four years old) and covered with creosote. Fire boats and land crews unsuccessfully fought the flames. Tragically four firemen were killed.
Final Loss
On August 1, 1921, in a heavy fog while running into Port LudlowPort Ludlow, Washington
Port Ludlow is a census-designated place in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. It is also the name of the marine inlet on which the CDP is located. The CDP's population was 1,968 at the 2000 census. Originally a logging and sawmill community, its economy declined during the first half of...
, Athlon struck the Ludlow Rocks at the harbor entrance. Athlon struck at extreme high tide, and at low tide it was possible to walk all around the boat. The nine people aboard all reached safety, but the vessel was a total loss. Her owners, Poulsbo Transportation Co., were able to salvage her machinery.
Athlon
- Athlon circa 1901, a classic Wilhelm Hester image
- Athlon, early profile view, showing poor combustion in boiler generating heavy black smoke
- Athlon and several smaller Mosquito Fleet boats at Colman Dock