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Wrecked at Port Angeles, Straits of Juan de Fuca. ...............................
"IDAHO (Steamer) - Another pioneer steamship, the Idaho, was wrecked on Rosedale Reef near Race Rocks lighthouse in the Straits of Fuca, November 29th. The IDAHO left Port Townsend early in the morning during a dense fog. Before reaching Race Rocks lighthouse, the foghorn was heard at regular intervals, but after that was silent for a long time. When it was again heard Captain Angerstein ordered a full stop, but the command came too late, and in another instant the steamer struck the rocks amidship. She carried as cargo 800 barrels of lime, 150 of fish oil, 370 of salmon, 65 bales of hops and 200 tons of coal. She commenced leaking as soon as she struck, and the water, coming in contact with the lime, caused a fire, which drove the crew from their quarters between decks. Holes were bored, and a sufficient quantity of water was let in to drown the flames. The weather was calm, and there was but little swell, but the Idaho had begun to feel her age and could not be released from the rocks. She remained there until December 20th, when she became dislodged and floated off, and while adrift was picked up by the tug Alert, which proved too small to handle her, although the captain refused a liberal offer to turn her over to the steamship UMATILLA. The tug DISCOVERY met her the same day, but the machinery had apparently disappeared. It was afterward discovered that her engines had become attached to the heavy chain which still remained fast in the hull, and this drag accounted for the difficulty in towing her. After the steamer left Race Rocks she drifted back to the American side, and was finally picked up by the tug MOGUL and towed into Port Angeles, where she sank. At the time of the disaster the IDAHO was under charter to the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company and carried a crew of forty two men, with L. F. Angerstein, captain; Cheney, first officer; Carr, second officer; and Cookson, chief engineer. No blame was attached to Captain Angerstein, as the masters of several vessels in the vicinity corroborated his testimony that the fog signal was not sounded.".E. W. Wright, "Finest Steamers in the Northwest Appear on Puget Sound Waters," Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. New York: Antiquarian Press, Ltd., 1961 [This book was written in 1895 and events referred to in this chapter generally took place in 1889., p.372. ....................
"IDAHO (Steamer) - The steamship IDAHO was built at Bath, Maine., in 1866, by Jarvis Patton, who sent the steamer Montana to the Coast the preceding year. She was an exceedingly well built vessel, oak, yellow pine and hackmatack entering into her construction, and is said to have cost $250,000. She went directly to the Pacific Coast, and commenced running north in March, 1867, continuing in the trade between San Francisco and all ports of importance as far as Alaska for over twenty years, with the exception of a short period in the Honolulu trade, where she was handled by Captain Floyd and Engineer Hawley. In 1875 she was transferred, with the rest of the Holladay fleet, to Goodall, Nelson & Co., and remained in their service and that of their successors until 1888, when she was chartered by the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, who lost her the following year on Race Rocks, near Victoria. When Cornwall put the Great Republic on the northern route as an opposition steamer, the IDAHO was started out as a "chaser," sailing a few days later than her competitor and carrying passengers at $15.00 and $7.50, while the steamer that sailed with the Republic was obliged to accept whatever rate the latter made. In 1883 the Idaho took the place of the Eureka, running to Alaska in command of Capt. James Carroll, and it is owing to this that she is probably better known than through any other service, as she was for many years almost the only means of communication with that remote section. She has been seized several times by the Government during her career on charges of smuggling, but has always succeeded in getting clear. Captains Carroll, Hunter and Wallace were the last officers in command before the Union Pacific chartered the steamer, and Captain Angerstein was in charge when she made her final trip (in 1889). The steamer was two hundred and fifteen feet long, thirty-one feet beam, twenty-one feet hold, with engines twenty-one and forty by thirty-four inches. She registered about eight hundred tons.".E. W. Wright, "The Alaska Purchase, Advent of Many Fine Steamers on Puget Sound," Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. New York: Antiquarian Press, Ltd., 1961., p.158.
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