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General Frisbie (steamship)

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Steamship General Frisbie
File:General Frisbee.jpg
General Frisbie ca. 1909


General characteristics
Tonnage670 GT
Length184’
Beam29’
Draft12’
Speed17 knots
Capacity450 Passengers
Crew24
NotesOfficial Number 86541

The General Frisbie was a wooden, two-deck passenger ship built in 1900.  She was designed for use as a ferry between Vallejo and San Francisco.  The steamer was successful in that role and was the fastest ship on the route when she began service.[1]  Improved roads, bridges, and automobiles reduced demand for ferry service in the Bay Area, and newer ships were optimized for transporting cars, so the General Frisbie was retired in the late 1920’s.

In 1930 General Frisbie was sold and towed to Seattle.  She was renamed Commander and operated as a ferry between Bremerton and Seattle beginning in 1931.  Rather than the superior service with which she began her San Francisco service, in Seattle she was the cut price competitor with limited capabilities, particularly for cars.  She continued her runs until November 1935 when her owner was acquired in the midst of a strike by ferry workers.  She was immediately retired from ferry service for the last time.

The ship was sold again and converted into a floating salmon cannery in 1936.  In 1937 and 1938 she sailed to Moser Bay on Kodiak Island, Alaska in the Spring, and returned with cases of canned salmon in the Fall.  In 1939 her engine and other fittings were removed at Seattle.[2]  She was towed back to Moser Bay and beached in 1940 to become part of the permanent land-based cannery facility.[3]  In 1950 she was dismantled completely.[4]

She was named for General John B. Frisbie, a founder of Vallejo, California and son-in-law of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, a pivotal figure in the transition of California from Mexican to American rule.[5]

Ownership history

Captain Zephania Hatch, a steamboat captain with experience on Puget Sound and the Columbia River, began providing ferry service between San Francisco and Vallejo in 1895.  His only ship, the Monticello, was faster than the competing vessels on the route, and so enjoyed commercial success. Zephania brought his brother Charles into the business, naming it Hatch Brothers Steamship Company.  The company reinvested its profits, ordering the construction of its second ship, General Frisbie, in 1900.[6]

Hatch brought in a third partner in 1904 in order to fund the purchase of a third vessel, the Arrow, in 1905.  The new partnership, which owned the General Frisbie, was incorporated as the Monticello Steamship Company.  As the 1920s drew to a close, Zephania’s sons, who ran the company after their father’s death in 1913, considered the strategic challenge of the automobile to the ferry business and decided to sell.  In February 1929 Monticello Steamship Company, including the General Frisbie, was sold to the Golden Gate Ferry Company for $2 million.[6]

The new owner had little use for the obsolescent ship and sold it in 1930 to the Union Ferry Company of Seattle, which leased it to The Washington Line.  Both companies were headed by Captain William E. Mitchell.[7] He and a couple of other long-time steamship captains formed an underdog competitor to the dominant Black Ball Line of the much larger Puget Sound Navigation Company.   The ship was renamed “Commander” by its new owners.

On November 13, 1935, the Puget Sound ferry unions struck, shutting down the Black Ball ships.  The next day Puget Sound Navigation Company made a deal to acquire Kitsap County Transportation Company, which operated the Washington Line.  Just as in San Francisco, the acquiring company had no use for the obsolescent Commander and quickly sold her.  In February 1936 the Commander was sold to C.L. Bryant, a Seattle salvage broker, who resold her to Richard D. "Dick" Suryan.[8]

The Suryans of Anacortes, Washington were a Croatian immigrant family active in Northwest fisheries.  Suryan, Inc, bought Commander in 1936 and converted it to a floating cannery.  The company became insolvent and Commander was foreclosed on by Seattle First National Bank in 1938.  The bank owned the ship through at least 1941.[9]  The Suryans regained ownership of the vessel by at least 1943 through their Far North Packing Company.[10]

In 1946, Libby, McNeill & Libby, purchased the Far North Packing Company, including the beached Commander.[3]

Construction and modification

General Frisbie underway ca. 1911

Initial construction

The General Frisbie was built in New Whatcom, now part of Bellingham, Washington, in 1900.  Her builder is variously reported as G.R. Whidden[11] or the Bellingham Bay Improvement Company.[5]  Bellingham Bay Improvement Company owned both a lumber mill and waterfront real estate in the area, so both parties may have been involved.

The hull was towed from New Whatcom to San Francisco by the steamer Rainier.  On this delivery trip the General Frisbie was laden with lumber for sale in San Francisco.  After a placid trip down the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the ships were met by a sudden gale off Cape Flattery. After a two-day struggle with the storm, the Rainier ran low on coal and returned to Seattle to refuel.  She finally arrived in San Francisco on December 26, 1900 and the General Frisbie began fitting out.[12][13]

Her steam engine, boilers, and lighting plant were installed in San Francisco.  She had a four-cylinder, triple expansion steam engine which produced 1000 horsepower to drive a single propeller.  The engine was manufactured by United Engine Works of San Francisco.  Her boilers were built by Keystone Boiler Works.[14]  The boilers were oil fired, which gave General Frisbie a speed advantage over her coal-fired competitors.[1]

In her initial configuration she was licensed to carry 450 passengers.  Among her amenities was a dining room that sat sixty.  Her initial cost, after fitting out, was estimated at $80,000.[15]

At some point during her time in San Francisco Bay, she was modified to carry 12 cars, loading through a side door. This small capacity was not competitive with purpose-built car ferries of the day.

Her home port was San Francisco.

Conversion to Puget Sound Ferry

The General Frisbie was towed to Seattle by the freighter Jane Nettleton, arriving February 15, 1930. Her new owners took bids for work on the pilot house, staterooms, companionways, and superstructure.[16]  At some point in her Seattle ferry career she had her boilers replaced.[17]  It is not clear whether this was part of the initial Seattle refit.

Conversion To Floating Cannery

Major modifications were made to Commander in 1936-37 to convert it from a ferry to a floating cannery. The conversion took place at the Seattle Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at the foot of 26thAvenue NW in Ballard.[8]  The original pilot house was removed and replaced with a much smaller structure.[18] The upper deck was converted to accommodations for thirty workers while the lower deck was made into a fish processing plant and cannery.[19] The old steam engine and boiler was replaced by a 4-cylinder “E” type Bolinder diesel engine.[20]  The large smokestack associated with the old steam engine was replaced by two much smaller funnels. A cargo crane was installed with the mast rising from the new pilot house and the boom swinging over the foredeck. A smaller crane was installed on the stem.

Approximately $75,000 was spent on the conversion.[21]

Her home port was changed to Juneau, Alaska.

Service history

General Frisbie (left) and Monticello at Vallejo Docks ca. 1909

San Francisco ferry

General Frisbie’s entrance into San Francisco operations was marked by an “owners trial” excursion on June 12, 1901, which included a number of friends and invited guests of the Hatch Brothers.  Her first captain was George Wheeler, jr., who had previously been master of Hatch’s Montecello.[5]

In normal operations, she and other Hatch steamers ran between pier 2 at the Mission Street Dock in San Francisco and her Vallejo terminal, near the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Travel time varied with the state of the tides, but she would typically complete the trip in ninety minutes.  Her initial schedule had her sailing from San Francisco at 9:45 AM, and 3:15 and 8:30 PM.  She returned from Vallejo at 7:00 AM, and 12:30 and 8:30 PM.  A round trip ticket cost $1, except on Sundays when it was $0.75.  Meals cost $0.50.[22]

The ship also ran excursions on holidays and for special events.  For example, on July 4, 1923 she ran four-hour excursions around San Francisco Bay featuring dancing and refreshments for $1.50 per passenger.[23]

Groundings and collisions

When General Frisbie began service in 1901 there were no electronic navigation aids, not even radios.  This combined with routine thick fogs in San Francisco Bay, meant that groundings and collisions were frequent in the local ferry fleet.  General Frisbie had its share of accidents.

Sinking of Sehome (1901)

The fog was thick in San Pablo Bay on the morning of December 14, 1901.  The General Frisbie had just left Vallejo while the steamer Sehome was headed up the channel in the opposite direction.  Both ships were proceeding slowly and using their steam whistles as fog signals.  Nonetheless, at 8:30 AM the General Frisbie rammed the Sehome amidships on her port side.

Both captains immediately assessed the damage as fatal to the Sehome and acted accordingly. Captain Charles Sandhal of the General Frisbie left his engines in gear so that the bow of his ship would continue to plug the hole in the Sehome’s side and delay the inevitable sinking. Captain Fred Olsen of the Sehome ordered all his passengers evacuated to the General Frisbie.  

By happenstance, a party of sailors from Mare Island Naval Shipyard was on board the General Frisbie heading to a football game in Berkeley.  The Navy men assisted in the rescue of the Sehome passengers and were subsequently commended by the Secretary of the Navy for their efforts.  Not only did they hand out life belts, but the Marine band struck up some ragtime tunes to calm the passengers.[24]

The ships remained locked together for fifteen minutes.  After all 173 passengers and crew[25] were rescued from the Sehome, a tug towing a rock barge emerged from the fog and collided with General Frisbie’s stern. This blow wrenched her bow from the gash in Sehome’s hull.  The later ship promptly sank and came to rest on the mud bottom, awash to her upper deck.[26]

Ramming of St Helena (1903)

At 10:30 PM on October 19, 1903 the General Frisbie was heading up the channel toward Vallejo while the steamer St. Helena was sailing in the opposite direction for San Francisco. The two ships collided near Vallejo, with the bow of the General Frisbie piercing the hull of the St Helena. While the General Frisbie was not critically damaged, the St Helena promptly took on water and began to sink.  Her captain drove her on to the mud flats at the edge of the channel where the ship settled on to the bottom.  Her passengers were safely evacuated to shore while the General Frisbie stood by to render assistance.[27]

Collission with Iriquois (1912)

On October 3, 1912 the General Frisbie hit the Southern Pacific steamer Iriquois and carried away a portion of her guard rail.  While the General Frisbie was able to continue her run to San Francisco, the Iriquois was damaged badly enough that she was tied up at Mare Island. Ironically, the General Frisbie was captained by Fred Olsen at the time of the collision.  He had previously been captain of the Sehome when it was sunk by the General Frisbie in 1901.[28]

Grounding on Anita Rock (1915)

The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was a big event in 1915 San Francisco.  The Exposition grounds, in what is now the Marina District, had its own pier.  On March 29, 1915 the General Frisbie ran an excursion trip to this pier from Vallejo for Exposition dedication ceremonies. The number of passengers on board was variously reported at the time from 175 to 300, but all accounts agree that there were at least 45 children from the Good Temple Orphans home in Vallejo.[29]

The trip from Vallejo to the Exposition was uneventful.  The passengers reembarked at 9:00 PM after their day at the Exposition.  Captain Potwin decided to cruise along the shore to offer a final view of the Exposition’s lights.  The ship hit Anita Rock, just offshore from the Idaho Pavilion, at approximately 10 PM. The ship initially listed but then largely righted itself.  She was hard aground, unable to move, with the hull pierced and water flooding in. The passengers, particularly the children, had to be calmed by the crew to prevent panic.

Captain Potwin used his steam whistle to signal the ship’s distress. The nearby battleship USS Oregon responded by sending two steam launches.  The lifesaving crews at Fort Point and Point Bonita also sent boats.  All the passengers were rescued safely and taken back to the Exposition grounds.  The rescue was aided by calm seas and searchlights trained on the scene from shore.

The crew kept the ship’s pumps running all night just keeping up with the incoming water.  At 9:30 AM on March 30, Crowley launch No. 1 and another vessel pulled General Frisbie off Anita Rock and into deeper water.  Here a tug towed her to the Union Iron Works shipyard.  Once in drydock, inspection of the hull revealed that 75’ or roughly half of the keel had been torn off as well as adjoining planking.[30][31]

The subsequent investigation of the accident focused on the Anita Rock buoy. The General Frisbie was the third vessel in a month to hit Anita Rock.  All three captains believed that the buoy had been moved 200 yards inshore without notice to the maritime community.[32]

Puget Sound ferry

In 1930 ferry traffic across Puget Sound was dominated by the Black Ball Line.  A group of ex-Black Ball captains and executives banded together to challenge the near-monopolist.  The General Frisbie was brought to Seattle by the insurgent group to challenge Black Ball on the Seattle – Bremerton run, where Black Ball was the only operator.  She was renamed “Commander” by her new owners. The fact that she had almost no capacity to carry cars was less important on this route since hundreds of workers from Seattle commuted to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton every day for work.[33]  The ferry dock in Bremerton was (and still is) within walking distance to the naval shipyard so the workers did not need car service.

The insurgents announced a round-trip price between Seattle and Bremerton of $0.60, undercutting Black Ball’s $.80 rate.  The board of Puget Sound Navigation Company, which ran the Black Ball Line, chose not to match the lower rate.[34]  Instead, it intervened with the Washington Department of Public Works, which regulated ferry service, in April 1930 to prevent the Commander from operating. The case was fought up to the Washington Supreme Court which ruled in favor of the challengers on April 2, 1931.[35]

Commander began her daily runs after the Supreme Court Victory.  She sailed from the Canadian National dock at the foot of Marion Street in downtown Seattle.  She was scheduled to leave Seattle at 6:00 and 9:30 AM and 1:00, 5:00, and 8:00 PM. She returned from Bremerton at 8:00 and 11:45 AM and 3:15, 6:30, and 10:15 PM.  A round trip ticket cost $0.60.[36]

The Black Ball Line added the iconic ferry Kalakala to the Seattle – Bremerton route on July 2, 1935, competing with the Commander.[37]  In November of that year, the unions struck the Black Ball Line but allowed the Commander to continue service.  This had the effect of allowing Puget Sound Naval Shipyard employees to get to work, while cutting off car ferry service to Bremerton, which only the Black Ball ships provided.  Puget Sound Navigation Company responded to the unions' actions by acquiring its competitor’s operations, including the Commander.  After an agreement with the ferry unions, the Commander was retired in favor of the Kalakala and towed to moorings in Kirkland on Lake Washington to await her fate.[38][39]

Alaska cannery

The newly reconfigured Commander sailed north to Alaska on May 25, 1937.  She returned to Puget Sound in the Fall with 22,451 cases of canned salmon, which sold for $101,025.33.  This amount was not sufficient to pay off the company’s debts, so further financing was required.

In Spring 1938, The Commander sailed again to Alaska to pursue her cannery operations.  She returned to Anacortes in the Fall with $106,353.22 worth of canned salmon, which again was inadequate to pay the company’s debts.  Suryan’s, Inc. which owned the business was so short of cash that its pay-off checks to the crew of the Commander at the end of the season bounced.  The crew and some of the fishermen who sold their catch to the cannery blockaded the ship, forcing creditors to pay them before the canned salmon could be removed and sold.[21][40]

Although it seems likely that Commander missed the 1939 fishing season after she was repossessed by Seattle First National Bank, by 1940 she was tied to the cannery dock again in Moser Bay. Having had its engines removed in 1939, it is likely that she spent the remainder of her career there as part of the cannery operations until she was broken up in 1950.

External Links

The University of Washington Special Collections includes a photograph of the cannery operation at Moser Bay between the time Libby, McNeill & Libby acquired it (1946) and when the Commander was broken up (1950). The beached Commander can be seen tied to the right side of the dock.

http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/ref/collection/alaskawcanada/id/5138

The Anacortes Museum has two photos of the Commander from 1937 or 1938, when she was modified to be a fish cannery, but not yet beached in Alaska.

http://anacortes.pastperfectonline.com/photo/D8A017FB-D623-41CA-88F4-701698981202

http://anacortes.pastperfectonline.com/photo/1DF0A6D4-6AAC-4A3C-BFA8-815555417316

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  1. ^ a b "Beats The General Frisbie". San Francisco Call. January 26, 1904. p. 12.
  2. ^ "Shipwrecks Off Alaska's Coast" (PDF). Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. p. 227. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  3. ^ a b "Lewis MacDonald's Alaska Salmon Cannery Chronology, 1878-1950 | Alaska Historical Society". alaskahistoricalsociety.org. Retrieved 2018-06-29.
  4. ^ "Merchant vessels of the United States / United States Department of Transportation, United States Coast Guard. 1950". HathiTrust. p. 932. Retrieved 2018-06-29. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  5. ^ a b c "News Of Ocean And Waterfront". San Francisco Chronicle. June 13, 1901. p. 10.
  6. ^ a b "The Monticello Steamship Company - Solano History Database". articles.solanohistory.net. Retrieved 2018-06-30.
  7. ^ "Old "General Frisbie" Sold to Seattle Man". Santa Cruz Evening News. February 4, 1930. p. 3.
  8. ^ a b "Ferry To Join Cannery Fleet". Seattle Daily Times. November 30, 1936. p. 21.
  9. ^ "Merchant vessels of the United States / United States Department of Transportation, United States Coast Guard. 1941 1941". HathiTrust. p. 113. Retrieved 2018-06-30. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  10. ^ "Merchant vessels of the United States / United States Department of Transportation, United States Coast Guard. 1943 1943". HathiTrust. p. 114. Retrieved 2018-06-30. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  11. ^ Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Wyman and sons. 1906.
  12. ^ "Steamship Puts Back To Port". San Francisco Call. December 20, 1900. p. 11.
  13. ^ "New Steamer General Frisbie". San Francisco Chronicle. December 27, 1900. p. 10.
  14. ^ "The General Frisbie is a Very Speedy Steamship". San Francisco Call. June 13, 1901. p. 7.
  15. ^ "New Steamer On The Way". San Francisco Chronicle. December 18, 1900. p. 10.
  16. ^ "Frisbie Towed By Frieghter Due Thursday". Seattle Daily Times. February 11, 1930. p. 5.
  17. ^ "Faster Time To Bremerton". Seattle Sunday Times. December 30, 1934. p. 21.
  18. ^ "From The Crow's Nest". Seattle Daily Times. April 6, 1936. p. 22.
  19. ^ "General Frisbie to Become Floating Cannery". Oakland Tribune. December 3, 1936. p. 36.
  20. ^ "Bolinder Semi-Diesel Hot Bulb Engines". {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  21. ^ a b "13 Wn.2d 450, E. P. WHITING, as Receiver, Appellant, v. SEATTLEFIRST NATIONAL BANK, Respondent". courts.mrsc.org. Retrieved 2018-06-29.
  22. ^ "Steamboat Excursions". San Francisco Chronicle. June 13, 1901. p. 10.
  23. ^ "Bay Excursion". San Francisco Chronicle. July 4, 1923. p. 8.
  24. ^ Our Navy, the Standard Publication of the U.S. Navy. 1918.
  25. ^ Guard, United States Coast (1920). Merchant Vessels of the United States...: (including Yachts). U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 450.
  26. ^ "Steamer Sehome Rammed and Sunk by General Frisbie". San Francisco Chronicle. December 15, 1918. p. 1.
  27. ^ "Steamers Clash Near Vallejo". San Francisco Chronicle. October 20, 1903. p. 1.
  28. ^ "Bay Steamers Collide Near Mare Island". San Francisco Call. February 3, 1912. p. 10.
  29. ^ "Orphans in Panic; Steamer Hits A Rock". Los Angeles Times. March 30, 1915. p. 5.
  30. ^ "200 Orphans In Frisbie Wreck". Oakland Tribune. March 30, 1915. p. 11.
  31. ^ "Keel of General Frisbie Torn Off". San Francisco Chronicle. April 1, 1915. p. 8.
  32. ^ "175 In Peril As Ship Hangs On Anita Rock". Santa Ana Register. March 30, 1915. p. 1.
  33. ^ "Bremerton Asks Ferry Changes". Seattle Daily Times. March 23, 1933. p. 16.
  34. ^ "Ferry Rate War Meeting Called By Black Ball". Seattle Sunday Times. March 9, 1930. p. 26.
  35. ^ "Ferry Prepared For Service On Bremerton Run". Seattle Daily Times. April 3, 1931. p. 13.
  36. ^ "To Bremerton Navy Yard". Seattle Daily Times. July 29, 1931. p. 17.
  37. ^ "Ferry Kalakala Slated to Start Service Tuesday". Seattle Daily Times. June 27, 1935. p. 18.
  38. ^ "400 Marooned By Ferry Strike". Seattle Daily Times. November 15, 1935. p. 1.
  39. ^ "Cross-Sound Auto Trucks Blocked By Walk-Out". Seattle Daily Times. November 16, 1935. p. 1.
  40. ^ "7 Wn.2d 204, E. P. WHITING, as Receiver, Appellant, v. CARL RUBINSTEIN et al., Respondents". courts.mrsc.org. Retrieved 2018-06-29.
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