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Making Hay By The Bay

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COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY & INDUSTRY THEN: Around 1902, the stern-wheeler Capital City maneuvers at the end of Pier 3, its Seattle port of call. PAUL DORPAT NOW: In the intervening century, Pier 3 (now Pier 54) has been extended considerably to the south (right) and also some to the north. The primary builder of this expansion was Ivar Haglund, who first moved onto the pier in 1938 with an aquarium. He later purchased the pier.

AS THE NAME (on the stern-wheel) suggests, the "Capital City" is here either arriving from or returning to Olympia. The ship is at the end of Pier 3 (renumbered Pier 54 during World War II) early in the 20th century.

The Seattle-Olympia route, with a halfway stop in Tacoma, was not the one originally envisioned. When the stern-wheeler was built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush it was christened the Delton and prepared to head north for work on the Stikine River out of Wrangell, Alaska. Instead, it was sold to a Puget Sound company that changed the ship's name and kept it on these inland waters that are ordinarily hazard free — unless a vessel is carelessly steered into something.

For the Capital City, that was the Trader. In late October 1902, the two vessels collided off Dash Point. With a large hole torn in its hull, the stern-wheeler began to sink. Quoting from Gordon Newell's "McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest," the stern-wheeler's "Capt. Mike Edward rang for full speed ahead" and aimed for the beach. The steamer's engineer "remained at the throttle, waist-deep in water, and the Capital City managed to beach herself on the last of her expiring steam." Saved, the ship was repaired and returned to the Olympia run.

A larger sign is above the steamer, fixed to the water end of Pier 3. It promotes the business of James Galbraith and Cecil Bacon. Bacon was a chemical engineer and capitalist who in 1899 partnered with Galbraith, a hay and feed merchant on the Seattle waterfront since 1891. In 1900, the partners moved into this then-new Northern Pacific Railroad pier at the foot of Madison Street and began selling building materials such as lime, cement and plaster, as well. The partnership held until 1918.

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.