Construction
''Ocean Wave'' was built at Portland, Oregon by J.H. Steffen for the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company. ''Ocean Wave'' was a side-wheeler type of steamboat, designed by Jacob Kamm, a wealthy business man who had extensive experience in steamboats. In early July 3, 1891, Jacob Kamm and his son, Charles T. Kamm, were rushing to complete the work on the new steamer, in an effort to have the vessel running by July 15, 1891, as the low water in the river could prevent the river steamer then on the route, the ''Specifications
As completed in 1891, ''Ocean Wave'' was , with a beam of and depth of hold of These dimensions were measured over the hull. The size of the deck, which was built on outriggers or supporters attached to the hull, and the cabin structure (called the “house”) on the deck, were different, and often much wider, particularly for side-wheelers. The house was 56 feet wide at its maximum, necessarily overhanging the hull by 8 feet maximum on each side. The extreme length of the vessel was reported to have been 203 feet. The overall size of the vessel was 724.40 gross tons and 507.34 net tons. The merchant vessel registry number was 155207. Ocean Wave had two steam engines had a cylinder diameter of 18 inches and a stroke of 84 inches. The engines were manufactured by James Rees and Co., of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and were of the independent balance puppet valve type. The engines were designed to generate 190 nominal horsepower, turning the side wheels at twenty-two to twenty-five revolutions per minute. The side wheels themselves were in diameter, and the planks mounted on the wheel that bit into the water (called “buckets) were feet long. The steam engines coupled to the stern wheels were expected to be readily capable of driving the boat at a speed of 18 miles per hour. The boat was reported to have cost $75,000. There were accommodations for 115 passengers in state rooms, with berthing for 75 more.Operations on the Columbia River
The first pilot of ''Ocean Wave'' was Capt. Lester A. Bailey (b.1850), who had previously commanded the large sidewheeler ''Olympian'' on the route from Portland to Ilwaco. Others who served on ''Ocean Wave'' on the Ilwaco route were Charles T. Kamm, as master, and Joseph Hayes, as chief engineer. In 1889, the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company had built a narrow gauge railroad on the Long Beach Peninsula, then generally called the "North Beach." The company depended heavily on summer vacationers coming from the Portland area and other parts of Oregon. ''Ocean Wave'' was built to help transport vacationers to the company's dock atOwnership issues
In July 1895 the board of directors of the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company, known as the IR&N, voted to lease ''Ocean Wave'' to the Columbia River and Puget Sound Transportation Company, also known as the CR & PSN and commonly referred to as the White Collar Line. At that time the CR & PSN had on the Columbia River two fast and well-known sternwheelers ''Telephone'' and the ''Bailey Gatzert''. One of the IR&N company directors, Jacob Kamm, did not agree with this decision, and he placed a maritime lien (called a “libel”) on ''Ocean Wave'' for $17,851 for services provided by Kamm's firm, the Vancouver Transportation Company. While Kamm and Loomis were both on the board of directors of the IR&N, a disagreement between them had arisen, reportedly because ''Ocean Wave'', designed by Kamm, had proven to be a slower boat than Loomis had wanted. If the lien had remained in place, it would have forced ''Ocean Wave'' to be tied up during the entire summer season when the boat would otherwise be at its most profitable. Kamm stated that if ''Ocean Wave'' were to be released from the libel, he would place his own steamboats, ''Lurline'' and ''Undine'', in opposition. The editor of the ''Daily Astorian'' looked forward to such an event, which would generate a rate war among the steamboats supplying service between Portland and Astoria. As of July 16, 1895, the dispute was still not settled, and ''Ocean Wave'' was still not running on its most profitable route, the Portland-Astoria-Ilwaco run. The matter was resolved soon thereafter, when Louis A. Loomis (1830-1913), the chief founder of IR&N, went to San Francisco to obtain a loan of $85,000. Loomis estimated it would take over $64,000 to pay off all of the claims of Jacob Kamm. Loomis had been convinced that no one in the state of Oregon would lend him the money to pay Kamm's claims, so he had gone to San Francisco for the money. The rumor Astoria was that Loomis obtained the funds from the Morgan Oyster Company, who were also substantial stockholders in the IR&N. With the proceeds of the loan, Loomis was able to pay off Kamm. Sheriff Sears of Multnomah County, released the lien. With the lien gone, the lease of ''Ocean Wave'' to the CR&PSN went through. Ocean Wave began running on July 18, 1895. Thereafter ''Ocean Wave'' was operated on the Columbia River, and advertised, as one of the steamboats of the White Collar Line.Transfer to Puget Sound
In December 1897, ''Ocean Wave'' was sold to a syndicate who intended to bring the steamer north to Puget Sound. Another source states the vessel was chartered to Cook and Co., a Puget Sound concern. On December 7, 1897, President Loomis of the IR&N handed over ''Ocean Wave'' to Capt. Charles Clancy, who was to take the steamer down the Columbia River and around the Olympic Peninsula to Puget Sound. According to one non-contemporaneous source, the reason for the sale was that ''Ocean Wave'' was not in the same speed class as the primary competition, ''T.J. Potter''. The boat was reported to have been under powered and therefore somewhat slow in actual service. Other sources state or suggest that the reason for the sale was to permit ''Ocean Wave'' to be used in the shipping boom triggered by the Klondike Gold Rush. Ocean Wave saw some service running from Puget Sound to Vancouver, British Columbia under Gary (or Cary) W. Cook (b.1862). According to one source, when the bottom fell out of the Klondike market, ''Ocean Wave'' was left with nothing to do. In December 1898, ''Ocean Wave'' was taken from Tacoma to thePurchase by Santa Fe Railroad
By 1899, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad had completed its transcontinental line with its western terminus atTransfer to San Francisco Bay
At 9:30 pm, on Saturday, May 20, 1899, ''Ocean Wave'' departed Port Angeles, Washington under the tow of the powerful ocean-going steam tug ''Richard Holyoke''. ''Ocean Wave'' was not built to operate on the open sea, so before the transfer, it had to boarded up to protect against breaking waves. Water ballast was pumped into the hull. The weather was good and ''Holyoke'' arrived with the tow a day earlier than expected, on May 24, 1899. Once the boat arrived, and met with Santa Fe's approval following inspection, the railroad purchased the vessel from Leale.Reconstruction
On arrival in San Francisco, ''Ocean Wave'' was tied up to the Washington Street wharf. Modifications had to be made to refit ''Ocean Wave'' for ferry service. Within one-half hour, carpenters had begun to work on the vessel. There were fifty staterooms on the main deck and over one hundred on the upper deck, all of which had to be removed, to convert the upper deck into a single large passenger lounge (called a “saloon”) and the lower deck into a freight area. The bow had to be reconfigured to allow boarding over the front of the vessel at the ferry landing slips in the bay. Later the steamer was sent to Hay and Wright's shipyard at Oakland Creek."Ocean Wave’s New Business", ''Sunday Oregonian'', April 8, 1900, part 2, page 22, col. 1. When complete, Ocean Wave would be a “single ender” ferry, like the ''San Rafael'' which was then operating on the bay. Once in service, ''Ocean Wave'' and ''San Rafael'' would be the only single-ender ferries running on the bay, with all the rest being double-enders. In May 1899, it was reported that the time necessary to accomplish the reconstruction work would be about two months, and would be done about August 1, 1899. However, ''Ocean Wave'' was in the yard for seven months, and was finished a few days before April 8, 1900.Ferry operations
Santa Fe planned for ''Ocean Wave'' to meet its passenger trains at Point Richmond, then transported the passengers and their associated luggage and freight across San Francisco Bay to the Market Street ferry terminal. However, difficulties in completing the rail line to Point Richmond prevented ''Ocean Wave'' from being immediately placed into this service. Instead the boat was used at first to haul supplies from San Francisco to Point Richmond. When the rail line to Point Richmond was complete, ''Ocean Wave'' began service as a ferry. The first trip occurred on July 6, 1900, when ''Ocean Wave'' departed from the Ferry Building in San Francisco, and reached Point Richmond 40 minutes later, where passengers and baggage were transferred to an eastbound Santa Fe train, which would be the first ever to reachn Chicago over an entirely Santa Fe-owned right of way. In charge of ''Ocean Wave'' on this trip were Capt. John Lauritzen as master and Chief Engineer Ed Mahoney. ''Ocean Wave''’s engines were too light to handle the heavy traffic on the Point Richmond run. The new ferry that had been building at Union Works, was launched and named ''San Pablo''. When ''San Pablo'' was placed into service in December 1900, ''Ocean Wave'' was switched from the primary boat on the line to the spare or "relief" boat, used when the principal vessel was under repair or otherwise unavailable. Santa Fe operated the two boats together for about ten years. In May 1908, the Santa Fe Railroad arranged to have ''Ocean Wave'' take a number of excursion trips around San Francisco Bay to view the arrival of theAccidents and casualties
Over the years ''Ocean Wave'' was involved in a number of accidents, some of which resulted in loss of life. These occurred both on the Columbia River system and in San Francisco Bay.Columbia and Willamette river incidents
In January 1893, on the Willamette River, the sternwheeler ''Telephone'', while making a landing to pick up some hogs at the North Portland stockyards, ran into an anchored ship, breaking the ship'sSan Francisco bay incidents
On November 27, 1901, a cylinder head blew out on ''Ocean Wave'' while the ferry was on the 8:00 a.m. run, causing a deckhand to be slightly scalded by escaping steam. The engines became useless as a result, but the tug ''Reliance'' towed ''Ocean Wave'' to and from Point Richmond on the day of the incident, so there as no delay or inconvenience in the ferry service. The ferry ''Amador'' was to take the place of ''Ocean Wave'' until repairs could be effected. During a severe wind storm on February 25, 1902, ''Ocean Wave'' was blown off its moorings at Point Richmond and drifted about one-half mile into shallow water where it was grounded. A tug as well as the ferry ''San Pablo'' tried to pull ''Ocean Wave'' back into deeper water, but were unsuccessful. Finally it was decided to put a crew aboard the stranded ferry, and they started a fire in the boiler. With steam up, ''Ocean Wave'' was able to get clear under its own power. The ferry then went to San Francisco for repairs, but the damage was not very great. On July 8, 1910, a carpenter, Petrus A. Erickson, was believed to have fallen overboard from the ''Ocean Wave''. Erickson was thought to have fallen into the bay from the paddle wheel housing where he had been working when the ferry left San Francisco bound for Point Richmond on the afternoon of the 8th. Erickson's body was initially reported to have been found ten days later, on July 18, 1910, floating beneath Broadway wharf No. 2. This body was to have been turned over to Erickson's brother. However, the body recovered on July 18 seems not to have been that of Erickson's. On August 19, 1910, Peter Nelson, the lighthouse keeper atLater years
By 1911, ''Ocean Wave'' was not able to compete with newer and more powerful double-ended ferries that were running on the bay. The ferry was laid up at Antioch, California and sold back to Captain Leale, who intended to scrap it. However, when the First World War created a demand for shipping, ''Ocean Wave'' was sold to the United States Shipping Board, which used the vessel for about three and one-half years as a receiving ship to house recruits into the Sea Training Service to be trained as merchant seamen. The boat's engines were removed to make room for more recruits. In the 1920s the boat was sold again to be used as a floating restaurant. The boat later gradually disintegrated. According to another source, the boat was burned in 1934 on the mud flats of southern San Francisco Bay, near San Mateo.See also
*Notes
References
Printed sources
* * * * * * *On-line newspaper collections
* * * {{Puget Sound sidewheelers 1891 ships Steamboats of Oregon Ships built in Portland, Oregon Ferries of California Steamboats of California Steamboats of Washington (state) Passenger ships of the United States Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Merchant ships of the United States Richmond, California San Francisco Bay History of San Francisco Sidewheel steamboats of Washington (state) Paddle steamers of Oregon History of Portland, Oregon History of Pacific County, Washington Astoria, Oregon