MV ''Westward'' is an motor

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

,Westward in the 21st Century
John Sabella & Associates. Accessed online 6 September 2008 "arguably Seattle’s most famous motor yacht,"Maritime History - Westward Documentary
Maritime Center News (Northwest Maritime Center and Wooden Boat Foundation on Port Townsend Bay), August 4, 2006. Accessed online 6 September 2008 originally constructed in 1924 by Ted Geary for inventor Campbell Church, Sr.,Westward, Cruising Alaska 1920s Style
John Sabella & Associates. Accessed online 6 September 2008 and currently owned by Bill Bailey. Her home port is

Friday Harbor, Washington Friday Harbor is a town in San Juan County, Washington, United States. The population was 2,162 at 2010 census. Located on San Juan Island, Friday Harbor is the major commercial center of the San Juan Islands archipelago and is the county sea ...

and she is listed on the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

.Previous National Register Updates: April 13, 2007
(Weekly list of actions taken on properties 4/09/07 through 4/13/07). MV ''Westward'' is NRHP listing #07000304, listed April 12, 2007. Accessed online 6 September 2008 ''Westward'' was modeled after a salmon cannery tender and constructed—around a 1923 Atlas-Imperial

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

—at the Martinolich Shipyard on

Maury Island Maury Island is a tied island in Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is connected to Vashon Island by an isthmus built by local homeowners in 1913. Before construction of the isthmus, the island was connected to Vashon only durin ...

near Seattle. She was designed to travel the

Inside Passage The Inside Passage (french: Passage Intérieur) is a coastal route for ships and boats along a network of passages which weave through the islands on the Pacific Northwest coast of the North American Fjordland. The route extends from southeaste ...

along the

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

coast to

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

. Her construction marked a turning point in Geary's career: previously he had built workboats; from this time he built yachts. In her early years, expeditions on the ''Westward'' were hunting expeditions, with "a Norwegian whale gun shooting

harpoon A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch and injure large fish or marine mammals such as seals and whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal ...

s fitted with time fuse bombs, a 10-horse gasoline

winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a spool (or drum) attach ...

with thirty-six hundred feet 097 metersof quarter-inch .6 cmplow steel cable as a fishing line, and all of the accessories for 'scrapping it out' with fifty-ton bout 45 metric tonneswhales". These expeditions were led by Church's son Campbell Church, Jr., who founded The Alaska Coast Hunting and Cruising Company. The Churches ended up owning numerous notable motor yachts. Besides the ''Westward'' were the ''Nooya'', ''Deerleap'', ''Caroline'', ''Alarwee'', ''Acania'', ''Onawa'', ''Malibu'', ''Cadrew'', ''Electra'', ''Olympus'', and ''Taconite''. Campbell Jr. made extensive films of his journeys. Among the many people who have traveled aboard ''Westward'' are A. C. Gilbert, inventor of the

Erector Set Erector Set (trademark styled as "ERECTOR") was a brand of metal toy construction sets which were originally patented by Alfred Carlton Gilbert and first sold by his company, the Mysto Manufacturing Company of New Haven, Connecticut in 1913. In ...

George Eastman George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. He was a major philanthropist, establishing the Eastman ...

(of Eastman Kodak), banker Paul Mellon, George Pabst of

Pabst Brewing Company The Pabst Brewing Company () is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and was, by 1889, named after Frederick Pabst. It is currently a holding company which contracts the brewing of over ...

, investor

E.F. Hutton EF Hutton was an American brokerage firm, stock brokerage firm founded in 1904 by Edward Francis Hutton and his brother, Franklyn Laws Hutton. Later, it was led by well known Wall Street trader Gerald M. Loeb. Under their leadership, EF Hutton b ...

and his wife

Marjorie Merriweather Post Marjorie Merriweather Post (March 15, 1887 – September 12, 1973) was an American businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist. She was also the owner of General Foods Corporation. Post used much of her fortune to collect art, particularly I ...

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

, John Wayne,

Phil Harris Wonga Philip Harris (June 24, 1904 – August 11, 1995) was an American actor, comedian, musician and songwriter. He was an orchestra leader and a pioneer in radio situation comedy, first with ''The Jack Benny Program'', then in '' The Phil Harr ...

, Fibber McGee & Molly and Amos & Andy. During World War II, ''Westward'' was pressed into military service. Don Gumpertz bought ''Westward'' in 1967 and circumnavigated the globe in it in the 1970s. Hugh Reilly, once the owner of a fleet of

fishing trawler A fishing trawler is a commercial fishing vessel designed to operate fishing trawls. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively dragging or pulling a trawl through the water behind one or more trawlers. Trawls are fishing nets th ...

s in the Alaska seafood industry (coincidentally named Westward Trawlers), bought ''Westward'' in 1993. From 1997 to 2004 he returned Her to her roots as a vessel for Alaska tourism (minus the blood sports). He then put the boat through a major refitting before taking her on a two-year tour of the Pacific, from which he returned in early September 2008. After a brief visit to

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

, he took her down the West Coast to Mexico and then in May 2009 crossed for the South Pacific. ''Westward'' is still powered by her original 1923 Atlas-Imperial diesel engine. which provides 110

horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are t ...

and gives her a cruising speed of eight knots. http://classicyacht.org/westward/?page_id=26

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westward National Register of Historic Places in Seattle Motor yachts Ships built in Washington (state) 1924 ships