The SS Roosevelt – From the Arctic to the Panama Canal

When the ship canal and locks officially opened on July 4, 1917, the epic boat parade was led by a legendary vessel, though it was a far different boat than when it earned its fame. The boat was the 184-foot SS Roosevelt, once described as the “strongest wooden vessel ever built.” Her strength was necessary because she was designed and built to carry Robert Peary’s crews to the Arctic. In 1909, Perry reached the North Pole, claiming to be the first to do so. (Historians debate as to whether Peary actually reached the location and whether Frederick Cook got there first.)

Peary’s ship, the S.S. Roosevelt, launches from McKay & Dix Verona Island Shipbuilding Co. on March 23, 1905. BUCKSPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Peary’s ship, the S.S. Roosevelt, launches from McKay & Dix Verona Island Shipbuilding Co. on March 23, 1905. BUCKSPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Roosevelt at Ellesmere Island - Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center at Bowdoin
The Roosevelt at Ellesmere Island – Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center at Bowdoin
July 4, 1917  Ship Canal and the Roosevelt
July 4, 1917 Ship Canal and the Roosevelt

A little over a year after Peary’s men reached the Pole, the Roosevelt was sold to ship salvager and towing man John Arbuckle, After his death in 1912, the boat was sold three times in the next three years. By the time she reached Seattle in April 1917, the Roosevelt had been converted to a supply transport boat for the United States Bureau of Fisheries, which planned to use her in the Pribilof Islands. On her first trip there in 1918, the Roosevelt helped save several ships trapped in the ice in the Bering Sea.

After her service in the north, the Roosevelt bounced around between various owners, finally ending up with the Steamboat Inspection Service, where she was converted to a tug, her job till the sad end of her days. Her final voyage came in October 1936, when her new owner, the California Towing Company used her to tow a former Navy collier to New York. The trip did not go well with repairs in San Francisco and troubled trip to and through the Panama Canal. She left the canal in January 1937 only to suffer bad weather and numerous mechanical issues. She had to limp back to Cristobal.

Finally on January 21, 1937, the Roosevelt was set out to pasture, so to speak, beached and abandoned on the tideflats of what was known as the Old French Canal. I have not been able to determine exactly what happened to the Roosevelt. The French attempt at a canal has been altered, cleaned up, and filled. Most likely the Roosevelt succumbed to the tropics and moldered and decayed away, one more relict lost to time.

Final Resting Place of the Roosevelt(?) - Used courtesy of Bill McGlauglin
Final Resting Place of the Roosevelt(?) – Used courtesy of Bill McGlauglin
Close of final resting place - Used courtesy of Bill McGlaughlin
Close of final resting place – Used courtesy of Bill McGlaughlin

But a couple parts of the Roosevelt still exist. MOHAI has the ship’s wheel, a gift  from one Karl Seastrom in 1954. The museum has no record of who he was or how he got the wheel. They also have some warning lights but again no data. The Roosevelt‘s bell is also in Seattle, at the Coast Guard Museum, though it is not the original one. That bell is supposedly at the Explorer’s Club in New York City. When I asked people at the CGM how they got the bell, I was told it was dropped off in the 1970s or 1980s by a former owner of the Roosevelt but who that was and how he got it is also unknown.

In case you are interested, here are links to more in-depth articles.

Julius Grigore, jr.  “Peary and the Roosevelt: When Man and Ship Were One.”  Panama Canal Review, Vol. 16, No. 5, August 1965, pp. 14-16, 22.   http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00097366/00029/18

NOAA Alaska Fisheries Service Center story: http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/history/vessels/boats/roosevelt.htm

From the Panama Canal Review, 1971: http://www.czbrats.com/Builders/FRCanal/frenchcan.htm

 

 

Lake Washington Canal Association

Yesterday, I was fortunate to meet Carol Whipple, great granddaughter of one of Seattle’s more important early citizens, Roger Sherman Greene. Greene had arrived in the state in 1870, when President Ulysses Grant appointed him to be associate justice to the Washington Territory Supreme Court. Greene moved to Seattle in 1882, where he became involved in civic politics and activities. In particular, he was well known for trying to prevent a lynching of two men in Pioneer Square and for standing up to white mobs during anti-Chinese riots in the city in 1885. Greene was also a principal player in the efforts to build a ship canal and locks in Seattle.

Screen Shot 2016-06-30 at 7.39.16 AMDuring our discussion, Carol showed us her ancestor’s personal stock certificate for the Lake Washington Canal Association. Formed in 1907 by people such as Greene, Thomas Burke, former governor John McGraw, and J.S. Brace, owner of the biggest mill on Lake Union, the LWCA was created to foster the building of the canal. It did so primarily by obtaining the rights to the canal, which had been given to developer James Moore. (Moore’s plan called for as single, much-too-small wooden lock, but he was unable to meet his obligations so transferred the rights to the LWCA.) The LWCA then transferred the rights to King County, which was responsible for building the canal.

Screen Shot 2016-06-30 at 7.38.35 AMHolding the certificate was certainly my day’s highlight, though Carol’s story Screen Shot 2016-06-30 at 7.38.54 AMabout finding her ancestor’s glass eye in a collection of family memorabilia was a close second. It is a lovely document. In particular, the etching that shows the canal system is a true work of art, beautifully depicting Green Lake, Lake Washington, and the cuts at Montlake and Fremont. On the right side is another symbol of Seattle from the era, the totem pole that had been erected in Seattle in late 1899.

Known as the Chief-of-All-Women pole, it had been carved earlier in the century to honor a Tlingit noblewoman of the Ganaxadi Raven Clan in southeast Alaska. The pole had made its way to Seattle when a group of Seattle businessmen had cut it down, stolen it, and brought it by ship to the city. In the words of the Seattle Post Intelligencer, it was “a great and wonderful thing and a grand acquisition for the city.” The pole would be burned down anonymously in 1938 and replaced with one carved in Alaska.

The LWCA ultimately succeeded in their goal. The canal officially opened on July 4, 1917, a date that is being commemorated this year and next.