Deep Focus, Part II: Joe Williamson, Reluctant Photographer

In our very first blog post we talked about the Joe Williamson Collection of maritime photographs which forms the heart of our archives. In researching the story we learned some interesting tidbits about the man who was an avid collector of photographs, a photographer in his own right, and a sailor, as well as one of the founders, and first president, of our historical society.

First and foremost Joe Williamson (1909-1994) was a man who loved ships. Almost every article and interview about him refers to the fact that he wasn't wild about photography itself. It was the output of his work that held his fascination. He loved developing film.

In 1979 intrepid newspaperwoman Lucile McDonald interviewed Joe for an article, reproduced here, that appeared in the December issue of the The Sea Chest, the quarterly journal of the historical society. Read it to hear, in Joe's own words, how he amassed his collection of maritime photographs, as well as stories of his early seafaring adventures.

This photo shows Joe, as a lad of six or so, on a bike along with his brothers Glen (left) and Paul, circa 1915. Photo courtesy of Leslie Williamson Lowell. As a young man Joe could be spotted riding his Indian Scout motorcycle on his rounds making deliveries for Bartell Drugs and other concerns.  

Ships and shops

By his late twenties, Joe had settled down somewhat and was selling maritime photographs from a waterfront shop he called the “Marine Salon.” Between 1937 and 1962 Joe operated a series of small shops, all on or near the Seattle waterfront.

PSMHS Research Coordinator Karl House recalls patronizing Joe’s shops as a youth:

I first met Joe Williamson because I used to buy pictures of tugboats from him when I was a young boy in elementary school, maybe eight or nine years old. I knew where it was, ‘cause you could go there on the bus. Well, I knew the shop because I’d been in with my dad before, and I knew it cost 50 cents to buy an 8 by 10 picture of a tug. Their photo salon was on the little viaduct that goes from First Avenue over the railroad tracks into the Colman Ferry Dock. That was the first Joe Williamson shop I was in. Subsequent to that he moved to a larger shop in the ferry dock itself and I bought a number of pictures over the years there. He was in the shop on the ferry dock for several years.

He was courteous and he would pull out pictures of various tugs, even though I only had enough money usually to buy one at a time. I’d pick out a picture and he’d sell it to me. If he wasn’t there, his wife would wait on me. She knew about everything that was in there, where the things were filed and so forth. Everybody on the waterfront pretty much knew a lot about what Joe did.

Ron Burke, long-time editor of the PSMHS journal The Sea Chest, also has fond memories of visiting Joe’s shop.

I grew up in Bremerton and whenever I came to Seattle [on the ferry], I would walk past Joe Williamson's Marine Photo Shop on the Marion Street pedestrian viaduct from the ferry dock. As a teenager and a Sea Scout in the 1940s, I got interested in maritime history and I used to drop by his shop and talk to him about it.  

One Christmas my grandmother gave me five dollars.  I took it to Joe's shop and started to order photos and told him to stop me when I reached the five dollar limit.  As I recall, I was able to buy eight photos, all of which I still have and [some of which I]  have used in The Sea Chest. 

Later, during my college summers, I worked on eight different ferries and ships and bought photos of each of them from Joe.  Also, in that work, I needed Coast Guard endorsements which required current photo ID cards and I always went to Joe to take my photos.

Indeed, Joe’s work extended beyond simply taking pictures and selling them. He was a creative entrepreneur, turning ships photos into Christmas cards, selling photos to various newspapers and periodicals, and collaborating with marine historian Jim Gibbs on a series of pictorial books.

During the same period he owned two ships, which he christened PhotoShip and PhotoQueen, respectively, and which he captained in his quest for adventure and photos. Karl House remembers them:

He had two different boats from which he took pictures. The first one was called PhotoShip and I’d say it was maybe a 30-foot boat. Then he bought a larger boat, called PhotoQueen, which was probably 50 or 55 feet. He could stay out on that boat for longer periods of time because it had all the cooking and live-aboard facilities that you needed on a boat that size. So he’d go as far out as the San Juan Islands and do some photo shoots there. Anyplace there was a photo opportunity.

Joe’s shop was always more than a collection of prints; it grew into a sort of gallery of maritime artifacts, including ships models, ships name plates, and other “relics and souvenirs” as the daily paper described it. One particular relic surfaced among Joe’s trove in 1947: part of the whistle from the well-beloved Bailey Gatzert, a sternwheeler which plied the waters of Puget Sound from 1890 to 1926. The familiar Bailey Gatzert whistle consisted of four chimes (some say five), one of which Joe holds above. Seattle Times Archives, December 7, 1947.  

Joe at MOHAI

Museum of History and Industry Curator of Photography Howard Giske met Joe shortly after his collection was acquired by PSMHS and conveyed to storage at the old MOHAI at Montlake. In his early 70s at that point, Joe traveled from his home on Bainbridge Island to lend a hand in the darkroom:

He lived in Winslow, not far from the ferry dock. He would walk down to the ferry dock, get on the boat, gab with old pals and cronies, I’m sure – he knew a lot of the ferryboat people. He would walk off at Colman Dock and would walk from there to MOHAI…to Montlake! He always had interesting stories, charming tales to tell about his walk to the museum that day. Just a chatty, lively fellow to have on the team.

PSMHS board member Pat Hartle remembers that Joe would also walk from the ferry dock to the Yankee Diner in Ballard for dinner meetings of the historical society. Each jaunt was a walk of about five miles in one direction!

Former Puget Maritime Board President Jim Cole, who led the charge to obtain the Williamson Collection, recalls Joe at MOHAI:

Of course, the collection was his child. He wanted to make sure everything was done right. It was probably hard to let go.

The Man with the Pipe

Joe is most often remembered as the man with a pipe in his mouth. Howard Giske recalls setting up some of Joe’s old darkroom equipment at MOHAI: 

He had always been a pipe smoker [so] we really had to work hard to get those lenses and condensers and things all cleaned up. He loved the darkroom work, he said. He really wasn’t all that interested in the photography and the camera work, but he’d smoke his pipe back there [in the darkroom.] A cloud of smoke! You couldn't catch anything on fire really, but he would kind of pollute the air with that old pipe. In a lot of the pictures taken of him you see him with his pipe.

Joe (center) with the other founding members of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society in 1948. From left: Jim Gibbs, Tom Sandry, Joe, Bob Leithead, and Austen Hemion. Photo, PSMHS.

-- Eleanor Boba

Sources:  

• The corporate records of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society.
• McDonald, Lucile. “The Famous Williamson Photo Collection.” The Sea Chest December 1979.
• Hemion, Austen. “Joe D. Williamson.” The Sea Chest June 1994.
• The Seattle Times Historic Archive, various articles.
• Oral history interviews with Jim Cole (2015), Karl House (2015), and Howard Giske (2015.)
• Email communication with Ron Burke (2015) and Pat Hartle (2015).
• Special thanks to Joe’s great niece, Leslie Williamson Lowell, for use of a family photo.

Into the Surf

From 1927 until 1968 the Coast Guard maintained a life-saving station at Point Reyes, California, in the shadow of Chimney Rock on Drakes Bay. The station house, with its marine railway, still stands, although it is used only occasionally by nonprofit groups. Recent visitors to the shoreline witnessed some restoration work going on and were allowed a glimpse inside the structure.

The road to the Lifesaving Station is a ten minute walk from the public parking lot at Chimney Rock. Look for signs pointing to the station (to the right as you face the sea) and to the Elephant Seals (to the left).

The tracks leading from the station directly into the surf by means of an incline plane are probably the last existing marine railway on the Pacific Coast. Motorized lifeboats were assured a fast launch into the surf in times when every minute counted.

The cradle that held the motor lifeboat  waits in the ground floor boat bay for the last lifeboat, currently undergoing restoration. Living quarters for crew were on the second floor.

The names and relics of wrecked ships adorn the walls of the ground floor boat bay: the cargo ship Munleon, lumber steamer Hartwood, the oil tanker Richfield were three of the lucky ones among many wrecks during the 1920s and 1930s. All lives were saved. During this period a shipwreck and rescue often drew crowds of spectators to the station grounds.

By the 1950s technological advances in lifesaving began to put the Point Reyes station, with its 36-foot lifeboats and breeches buoy, out of business. In 1968 the station was closed; in 1989 it was declared a National Historic Landmark. A modern Coast Guard rescue, complete with helicopters, now operates out of Bodega Bay. 

Accidental tourists were treated to the release of rehabilitated sea mammals: three juvenile California sea lions (Carmella, Mariachi, and Leeward, above) and one young female elephant seal (Rail Buddy below), restored to health by the Sausalito-based Marine Mammal Center. These guys heard the call of the sea and knew exactly what to do.

The U.S. Life-Saving Service (USLSS) was founded in 1871. In 1915 the service merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to form the modern Coast Guard.

The Point Reyes Lifeboat Station was originally established on another spot on the peninsula (the much less protected South Beach) in 1888. During this period, surfmen went out in man-powered boats. (Point Reyes National Seashore photo)

The life-saving station at Point Reyes has a connection to another landmark in the district....a tiny cemetery overlooking Drake's Estero on the road between the coast and town. For photos of the gravestones of some surfmen see the author's own blog, Remnants of the Past.

Thanks to park ranger Sarah at the Lifeboat Station for information and to Alan Humphrey for photography.

-- Eleanor Boba

Deconstructing Annie

Promotional poster for Tugboat Annie. 

Image courtesy of Jerry Murbach, doctormacro.com.

Filming Tugboat Annie: Fact and Fiction on Puget Sound

ELEANOR BOBA

In 1933 Seattle played a part in a blockbuster movie. Tugboat Annie, the story of a wise-cracking female tug skipper in the mythical Secoma community on Puget Sound, was the hit of the day, in many cases being held over for a second week at movie houses across the country! It made over a million dollars for MGM, a huge sum in the day.

The movie, starring Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery, appeared in theaters only weeks after filming was complete. Background scenes featured Lake Union, Queen Anne Hill, and Puget Sound. A tugboat crashes into a ferry on Elliott Bay. And a passenger liner arrives at the Bell Street Pier to the cheers of thousands. 

The bulk of the filming of Tugboat Annie took place on sound stages, sound pools, and lakes in or near MGM's Culver City studios. However, enough scenes were filmed in and around Seattle to justify calling Tugboat Annie the first major movie to be shot in  Seattle. (Barring an episode of a Ripley's Believe it or Not filmed in Tacoma in 1932, it was the first film to be shot in Washington State.)

THE LEGEND OF ANNIE

The movie was based on the short stories of Norman Reilly Raine published in The Saturday Evening Post. Raine began writing his Annie stories in 1931 during a brief stint as a writing instructor at the University of Washington. He gathered inspiration for his popular tales from visiting the Seattle waterfront, incorporating the atmosphere and characters into his stories. 

The unsinkable Annie (a widow in the stories, 'though married in the movie) is a tough-talking, late middle-aged skipper who more than holds her own with both the seafaring and landlubbing men she encounters. She is master of the Narcissus, a sea-going tug. The yarns are full of salty language and local color.

"Tugboat Annie Brennan relinquished the wheel to Shiftless. 'When you wake up,' she told him, 'try to remember we're headin' for Everett, not China.' She stood in the wheelhouse doorway for a minute, and pushed back her old felt hat, drawing deep into her capacious chest the invigorating Puget Sound air, fragrant of pines and the sea. 'These is the days I like,' she went on contentedly, half to herself. 'There's a kind of a twang in the air. My goodness, I'm that hungry I could eat a horse and chase the driver." (From the story "When Greek meets Greek")

THE MYTH OF ANNIE

Legends take shape where history meets myth. The most enduring mythic element of Annie's legend is that her character was based on Thea Foss, matriarch of the Foss Family and founder of the Foss tugboat business (now Foss Maritime). This myth, nurtured over decades, has taken on the status of gospel despite the fact that the women shared little beyond business acumen. 

Thea Foss (left) with Mathilda Berg in front of the Foss family home in Tacoma, 1910.

 Image courtesy of Washington State Historical Society.

The reality is that Raine became acquainted with Wedell Foss, one of Thea's three sons and a partner in the family business. The Foss corporate history, written by Michael Skalley, credits Wedell Foss with suggesting the plot for Raine's first Tugboat Annie story. Raine himself identifies Wedell Foss as one of his informants in a telling interview with Pacific Motor Boat magazine (November, 1934):

"With the background for a story developing in my mind, and a tentative character to fit into it, I still had no plot. It was then that I sought the cooperation from the heads of the tugboat lines in Seattle and later with the Wrigley and Red Stack people down the coast. ....I sought out and talked with Wedell Foss, that canny Norse member of the Foss Company, Inc., and with George Cary, the genial partner of the Puget Sound Tug and Barge Company. From the first gentleman I got a stirring and interesting episode around which to build my plot; from the second I got material to supplement it; and so steamed back to my office full of beer and inspiration, and commenced to bang out Tugboat Annie."

Kate Sutton of the Providence Steamboat Company on board the Walter E. Sutton. When asked if she was the inspiration for Tugboat Annie, she reportedly said "I hope not!"  Photo courtesy of Providence Steamboat Company collection, Steamship Historical Society Archives, www.sshsa.org.

So who was Annie? Was she Wedell's mild-mannered mother, who never actually plowed the waters? Was she Kate Sutton, the owner and manager of the Providence Steamboat Company in Rhode Island whom Raine had heard of from a reporter friend? Was she entirely fictional?

The answer appears to be a little bit of each.....along with a large dose of Marie Dressler.

In the Pacific Motor Boat article Raine goes on to explain:

"Then, suddenly, I ran into an obstacle. The good lady in Providence was not, I speedily saw, a sufficiently colorful and definite character around whom to build the story....Then I recollected having seen, some time before in the film "Min and Bill" a marvelous piece of characterization of a waterfront character, played by that grand old trouper, Marie Dressler. I had my answer. I would write Miss Dressler into the character. Not, be it noted, with any idea of motion picture sale or production, but simply as someone whom I could visualize clearly as I wrote; who was rough of tongue and soft of heart; who could be adamant in a business deal, yet hold the affection and interest of magazine readers, as Miss Dressler won the affection and admiration of picture fans."

Thea Foss is not mentioned in the Pacific Motor Boat interview although Raine must have been aware of her through his friendship with her son. Wedell Foss, himself, is sometimes mentioned as the inspiration for Annie's rival in the movie and later her son's boss, Red Severn. Others see Severn as a nod to shipping magnate Robert Dollar.

THE MYTH OF MARIE

The bigwigs in Hollywood clearly identified Dressler with the part, as well. Fresh from her Oscar win for Min and Bill, the 64-year old* Dressler's star was riding high in 1933. Unfortunately her health was not. Knowing full well that she was battling cancer, MGM's Louis B. Mayer talked her into a punishing three-film contract over a six month schedule. 

Betty Lee's well researched biography of Dressler, based on primary source material including the diaries of Dressler's close companion, Claire Dubrey, details how Mayer protected his valuable property:

"As he had previously arranged for Dinner at Eight, Mayer ordered that the star's working day be confined to three hours, that stand-ins be used for rehearsals, and that a sofa be available for Dressler's use when the camera's were not turning."

This brings us to a second myth -- that Marie Dressler was in Seattle for the filming of Tugboat Annie. Despite misinformation from director Mervyn LeRoy's own self-serving and inaccurate autobiography, this is extremely unlikely. All scenes with Dressler and co-star Wallace Beery were filmed at MGM studios, even those on the water. There was no need for them to travel to Puget Sound, especially in Dressler's condition. The local newspapers, full of coverage of the film crew on Lake Union, make no mention of the presence of either star. 

Another fable connected to Dressler's mythical stay in Seattle can be traced to her own autobiography. The story goes that Louis B. Mayer purchased a small cottage Marie had admired and had it moved to Seattle for use as her dressing room and residence while on location. Dressler's use of the phrase "on location" was quickly misinterpreted by some biographers to mean Seattle. A close reading of Lee's biography of Dressler make it clear that the location was a lake near the Culver City studios.

Despite such pampering, the Tugboat Annie shoot was not easy on Dressler and others. In her autobiography, the actress describes filming in MGM’s tank:

“The most grueling piece of physical labor I ever put in was during the filming of the storm scenes in ‘Tugboat Annie.’ One coastwise sailor in the cast told me that in twenty years’ experience aboard tramp steamers he had never encountered rougher seas than those manufactured in our studios. They should have been good. Mr. Mayer spent $30,000 on the dock alone! Able-bodied men were slapped down by waves the script described as mild. There was more than one arm in a sling, and at least one leg in a plaster cast before we got through.” (Dressler, My Own Story, 271-72)

ACTORS AFLOAT

Marie and Wally may not have acted in Seattle, but there were other actors with strong local connections. MGM hired several local boats in starring roles: the Arthur Foss tugboat (then called the Wallowa) played the part of the Narcissus, Tugboat Annie's own boat; the Sea King, owned by the Gilkey Brothers, portrayed rival towboat Firefly; and a cannery ship, the General W.C. Gorges, a former German steamship, stood in for the fictional Glacier Queen, a passenger liner captained by Annie's son in the movie. The ferryboat Washington of Kirkland, sailing under its own name, is t-boned by the Narcissus in Elliott Bay. No fault of Annie's, the accident occurs when her husband is distracted by a cask of bootleg "hooch" floating in the bay.

Originally the Prinz Sigismund, the steamer was seized from the Germans during World War I and became an American troop transport, renamed the General W.C. Gorgas. Later the ship was used for commercial purposes, including salmon cannery work, until World War II when she once again became a troop transport. In 1945 she was sold to the Soviet Union. 

Photo courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command.

Many other tugs and boats were hired as extras. Employees of Foss Tugboat and Barge were pulled into service by Wedell Foss, a strong booster for the production. 

Mervyn LeRoy came to town to direct his floating actors. The director of Little Caesar was quoted in the paper as saying "I've directed mobs of 'gangsters,' but you can't talk to a tugboat -- you must do it with signals to their pilots." (Seattle Daily News, April 11, 1933.) Crowds gathered on the shores of Lake Union to watch the action.

The tug Sea King played the part of the Firefly in Tugboat Annie.
Photo courtesy of Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society.

Because many of the maritime scenes were filmed in Culver City, it was necessary to build a replica of the Wallowa for exterior shots. Well-known naval architect Carl Nordstrom was hired to prepare plans of the boat. The Seattle Daily Times reports that Nordstrom was to draw up plans for both the Wallowa and the Sea King, but it is possible that the plans for the Sea King were never used. Portions of the Glacier Queen were constructed on MGM's Stage 22. 

That a replica of the Wallowa was built is confirmed by photos in the book M-G-M: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot which show the tug on a studio lake as late as 1970 alongside other famous film vessels including the Cotton Blossom from Showboat. 

Plans of the Arthur Foss as drawn by naval architect Carl Nordstrom. The venerable tug still floats at the historic ships pier at Lake Union Park. Image courtesy of Northwest Seaport.

Movie magic allowed these boats to change identity for subsequent movies. The Wallowa replica may or may not have been used as an extra in another Wallace Beery film, Barnacle Bill, in 1940. About the same time the erstwhile Narcissus had a narrow escape. According to M-G-M: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot: 

"In November of 1940, because of falling high-tension wires, fire raged through the area, destroying much of the [Lot One] set and threatening the old Tugboat Annie tugboat. The heat was so intense, and aggravated by a stiff ocean breeze, that windows in the studio's Cartoon Department across Overland Avenue were shattered....The tugboat survived, however, and would finally be secured on the Lot Three lake." (p. 119)

The galley of the Arthur Foss is a bit more cramped that that of the Narcissus in the movie. 
Photo, Alan Humphrey.

Seattleites also had their chance to be extras in a real Hollywood movie: somewhere between "a few score" and ten-thousand locals turned out as unpaid extras for the big scene where the Glacier Queen steams alongside the Bell Street Pier to brass bands and streamers. Other locals were on hand as background characters in the scenes filmed on Lake Union. A local houseboat dweller, Maria Fisk, was hired to double Marie Dressler in long shots on the boat. Seattle Mayor John Dore, enthralled by movie-making, reportedly donned a sailor's cap to appear in some scenes. Of course local pilots and crewmen worked the boats. Captain Clarence Howden piloted the Wallowa/Narcissus.

ARC LIGHTS IN SEATTLE

Tugboat Annie had its world premier at the Fifth Avenue Theater in Seattle on July 28, 1933. The city made the most of the honor. The first showing, at 11:30 in the morning, was heralded with a cacophony of ships whistles in the harbor. The big event in the evening involved fireworks, balloons, klieg lights, and many local celebrities including Mayor Dore and Lieutenant-Governor Victor Meyers. Governor Clarence D. Martin sent a telegram, as did the film's stars. The Seattle Star covered the celebrations:

"While a cool evening breeze brought the salty breath of Elliott bay up thru downtown canyons, glaring arc lights swept the faces of thousands who came to watch the first showing of the picture which is to send the echo of Puget Sound towboat whistles around the world." (July 29, 1933)

The ferryboat Washington of Kirkland makes its way through the Ballard Locks in this photo courtesy of Kirkland Heritage Society. The museum ship St. Paul can be seen in the background with an "open" sign attached to its foremast. 

TUGS IN TACOMA

Tacoma held its own premier of the movie three weeks following the Seattle event, rightfully claiming a share of cinema history. "Secoma," after all, was a mash-up of the two port cities. On the Sunday following the opening the first Tugboat Annie races were held on Commencement Bay to great fanfare. Myth has Marie Dressler personally presenting the silver loving cup to Captain Arthur Hofstead of the tug Peter Foss which had nosed out the Captain O.G. Olsen by a scant three feet.

Although the Marie Dressler Loving Cup may have been donated by the actress or her people, the Tacoma News Tribune informs us that the prize was presented by Leroy V. Johnson, general manager of the Jensen-von Herberg Company which owned the local theater showing Tugboat Annie.

Tugboat racing became a staple at maritime events in Puget Sound from that day.

A Tugboat Annie race photographed by Joe Williamson, circa 1940.
The Arthur Foss is in the lead. Courtesy of Puget Sound Maritime.

THAT'S A WRAP

Marie Dressler died of cancer a year to the day from the Seattle premier of Tugboat Annie. Her character, Captain Annie Brennan, pursued her adventures on Puget Sound in two more movies, a short-lived TV series, and some 75 short stories which trickled out from the pen of Norman Reilly Raine until the author's death in 1971.

Seattle would not see another major motion picture company until Elvis Presley came to town in 1962 to film It Happened at the World's Fair (released in 1963). By that time Seattle was identified more with the aerospace industry than with the maritime. Tugboat Annie remains a pleasant reminder of rough and tumble days in a waterfront town.

Cast and crew publicity photo for Tugboat Annie, 1933. From left front are Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, Mervyn LeRoy, and writer Norman Reilly Raine. Famed cameraman Gregg Toland leans over Miss Dressler. Image Courtesy of Tacoma Public Library, C157920-3.

Selected sources:  

• Selected articles from The Seattle Daily Times, The Tacoma News Tribune, The Seattle Star
• Stephen Bingen, Stephen X. Sylvester, and Michael Troyan, M-G-M: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot, 2011.
• Norman Reilly Raine, Tugboat Annie (collected stories), 1934.
• Norman Reilly Raine, "That's How Tugboat Annie was born," Pacific Motor Boat, November 1934.
• Mervyn LeRoy with Dick Kleiner, Mervyn LeRoy: Take One, 1974.
• Marie Dressler with Mildred Harrington, My Own Story, 1934.
• Matthew Kennedy, Marie Dressler: A Biography, 1999.
• Victoria Sturtevant, A Great Big Girl like Me: The Films of Marie Dressler, 2009.
• Betty Lee, Marie Dressler: The Unlikeliest Star, 1997.
• Michael Skalley, Foss: Ninety Years of Towboating, 1981.
• "The Providence Steamboat Company: Still a Family Business," PowerShips, the Magazine of the Steamship Historical Society of America, Summer 2012.
• Gordon Newell, ed., The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 1966.

*In good Hollywood tradition, Dressler's age is uncertain. Dates for her birth range from 1865 to 1868 to 1871, the date that appears on her grave marker.

Halloween Quiz Answers

MONSTERS OF THE DEEP

Here follow the answers, more or less, to our Halloween trivia questions, which may be found here.

1.  Herman Melville's great white whale, Moby Dick, may not have been mythological, but he certainly was monstrous.

2.  The monster in It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955) is a giant octopus somehow connected with H-bomb tests. Skip the rest of the movie and watch the last 20 minutes for Ray Harryhausen's stop motion monster in action. Fun fact: the studio couldn't afford eight arms for the octopus, so the creature has only six!

3.  A number of sea witches and mermaids have been blamed for luring sailors to their death; the two-tailed siren is the symbol of Starbucks. 

4.  The sea witch Morgana (or Morgan Le Fay) gave her name to the atmospheric condition known as Fata Morgana, in which distorted images of boats, islands, or buildings appear in the sky, causing confusion to mariners.

5.  Cthulhu is the center of a literary universe created by Lovecraft. Spellings may vary, and, as for pronunciation, good luck with that! We will also accept Dagon, a Semitic fish god who appears in some Lovecraft work.

Elephant fish painted on a church ceiling.

NAUTICAL SPOOKS AND GHOST SHIPS

1. Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) starred the incomparable Peter Ustinov as the notorious pirate.
2.  Captain Daniel Gregg is the titular character in the movie and TV show The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

3.  The murdered pirate has been arranged by Captain Flint to point to the buried treasure.

4.  Black cats (or any cats) are generally considered good luck on shipboard, probably because of their rat-catching abilities. As with all traditions, there are exceptions to this rule.

5.  The Queen Anne's Revenge was the last ship captained by the pirate Blackbeard, himself a spectre in Disney's 1968 movie Blackbeard's Ghost (see above). The Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground and sank off the coast of North Carolina in 1718; the wreck was located in 1996 and partially excavated. 

6.  The Black Pearl, a fictional ship starring in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, sailed under both Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa. And, frankly, maybe others!

7.  In John Carpenter's spooky film, The Fog (the 1980 original, please), the ghost ship is crewed by a group of angry lepers who were lured to their deaths while seeking a haven.

8.  Trick question. The Flying Dutchman is not a who but a what....a ghost ship doomed to sail the seas forever. Legends may vary.

9.  Longfellow cast a ghostly pall over the British ship guarding Boston Harbor at the time of The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. Paul Revere managed to avoid detection by the Somerset's sentries as he crossed the Charles River to warn the patriots of the coming of British troops searching for weaponry.

Engraving of Blackbeard, circa 1736.

Halloween Quiz

MONSTERS OF THE DEEP

Amateur cartographer William L. Taylor added sea monsters to his rendering of the Yukon River Delta as part of a collection of papers in the possession of Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society -- The "Fragmentary Records of The Custom House of St. Michael, Alaska, 1894-1917."

Fantastic sea creatures are an enduring part of maritime legend and lore. Test your knowledge of these beasts and spirits!

1. I matched wits with a peg-legged sea captain, driving him insane. Who am I?

2. I destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Ferry Building, and parts of the Embarcadero with some help from special effects master Ray Harryhausen. What manner of beast am I? 

3. I lure sailors to destruction with my beauty and song and, sometimes, with the smell of coffee. What type of creature am I?

4. I'm a sea witch who gave my name to an atmospheric condition that causes seafarers to see mirages. Who am I?

5. I'm a sea deity discovered by horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Extra points if you can spell or pronounce my name. Who am I?

If you haven't been scared off yet, revisit our trivia contests from past years.

Nautical spooks and ghost ships

1. What ghostly mariner starred in a Disney movie long before Pirates of the Caribbean?

2. What spectral sea captain starred in both a romantic movie (1947) and a television series (1968-70)?

3.  On Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins and company come upon the skeleton of a pirate. What is the "point" of the skeleton to the story?

4.  Which of the following is NOT a portent of bad luck in sailing tradition or literature: a woman on board, setting sail on a Friday, a black cat, the black spot, bananas on board.

5.  Who is associated with the ship Queen Anne's Revenge?

6.  Who captained the Black Pearl?

7.  In the Movie, The Fog, what manner of men crew the Elizabeth Dane?

8. Who is The Flying Dutchman?

9. And finally, what scene from history was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recalling when he described

The Somerset, British man-of-war,

A phantom ship, with each mast and spar 
Across the moon like a prison bar, 
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified 
By its own reflection in the tide.

CLICK HERE FOR ANSWERS

A Pretty Good Spread: Shipboard Menus from the Puget Sound Maritime Collection

Menu covers of the S.S. Homeric of the Italian Home Lines cruising to the West Indies from Europe in 1957.

Cruise ships and passenger liners have a tradition of fine dining. Menus in the care of Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society bear witness to this tradition. We have well over 1,000 menus in a collection donated by J.A. Gibbs and inventoried by Hal Will. We are pleased to present a selection of these in this web essay.

Ships menu covers often included original artwork evocative of the ships destinations. A series of menus from the passenger liner Denali, in the service of the Alaska Steamship Line, feature Husky and Malamute dogs, a sure crowd pleaser. 

Mother and daughter artists Nina and Josephine Crumrine were commissioned by the steamship line to create artwork for their ships. Full size prints decorated ship offices. A number of their original paintings are in the care of museums and archives. Most of the dogs are named leading us to believe they were painted from life models.

This 1929 menu from the S.S. Dorothy Alexander, en route from Ketchikan to Sitka, converts into a convenient postcard to send to your friends. The Pacific Steamship Company has kindly included contact information should the recipient be interested in cruising. The romantic, tropical imagery would seem to have little to do with the ship's destination; however, the company also served the palmy communities of San Diego and Los Angeles.

This cover from a 1930's shipboard menu reflects the Arts and Crafts aesthetic of the period. Malahat Drive is a scenic highway on Vancouver Island, a part of the Trans-Canada Highway. The ship was the SS Princess Patricia in service of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Dinner on the Princess Patricia included steamed deep sea cod, prime rib, jelly omelette, whatever that is, and princess ice cream.

The S. S. President Jefferson was one of five liners operated as the Admiral Oriental Line, a concern of shipping magnate Robert Dollar. A Thanksgiving menu from 1930 -- The Captain's Dinner --  included a "Sayonara to our Japanese Passengers," leading us to guess that the liner was about to make port in Yokohama or Kobe. A handwritten note at the bottom reads "I thought this a pretty good spread."

 Robert Service poem graces a summer cruise to Alaska menu, 1979.

Maritime Museum: The Los Angeles Maritime Museum

Maritime museums often seem to be an endangered species these days, yet they still have a lot to offer. We plan to drop anchor at selected maritime museums this year, beginning with the Los Angeles Maritime Museum.

The museum is housed in a Streamline Moderne building on the San Pedro channel at the Port of Los Angeles. This architectural style appropriately mimics an ocean liner. Built in 1941, the building was originally a ferry terminal for passengers traveling between San Pedro and the naval and cannery facilities on nearby Terminal Island. Today it showcases the history of the port that is one of the largest container facilities in the United States.

Ship models make up a large share of the exhibits at the museum. This is a model of the double-ended ferry Islander which served the San Pedro-Terminal Island run from 1941 until 1963 when completion of the Vincent Thomas Bridge ended the need for ferry service. The label informs us that the ride lasted three minutes and cost 10 cents.

A model of the famed English tea clipper Cutty Sark, launched in 1869. The original is on display in Greenwich, England. Not all the models currently on display at the museum relate to Los Angeles history. This situation may change.

The Chinese junk Ning Po does have associations with Los Angeles. Reportedly built in 1753, the storied boat became a fixture and tourist attraction along the coast of Southern California beginning in 1911. In 1938 the Ning Po caught fire and went down off Catalina Island where it remains.

Perhaps the most famous ship model in the museum's collection is not  of a real ship. It is the Poseidon, star of the movie Poseidon Adventure (1972). The model is based largely on the blueprints for the RMS Queen Mary, a real ocean liner berthed nearby in Long Beach, which was used for filming many scenes in the film.

The museum is home port for a real boat. The Angel's Gate tug, built to serve the war effort in 1944, now provides excursion sailing in the harbor. The tug was featured in a 2015 episode of the TV series "Agent Carter."

Finish up your tour of the museum in the gift shop "Sea Chest" or on the outdoor viewing platform where you can see the USS Iowa, the Vincent Thomas bridge, Terminal Island, and the occasional sea lion.

Eleanor Boba