David B. Williams's Blog, page 5

Vancouver Naming Puget Sound

In my research for my book about Puget Sound, I often come across fine images of the region. Here’s one that struck me as interesting. It comes from one of a series of books, known as the Zig Zag Journeys. Each was written by Hezekiah Butterworth, who had been inspired by a French book that wove narrative and historic stories for school children. Mr. Butterworth decided to do the same. His first book was Zigzag Journeys in Europe. According to his biography in the book, Mr. Butterworth “is a delightful man to meet.” Plus, “his handshake is cordial and his welcome warm and hearty.” What more do you really need to know about the man?

In Zigzag Journeys in the Great Northwest, which is based on a journey on the Canadian Pacific Railroad to Vancouver, with visits to Puget Sound and the Columbia River, Mr. Butterworth, extols George Vancouver’s discovery of Puget Sound. “Vancouver seems to have had a heart formed for friendship, and he named many of the places of the sublimely picturesque region that he visited under the blue spring sky and in the burning noons and long crimson morning and evening twilights of the June days of 1792 for the honor of his faithful officers and best loved friends.”

Mr. Butterworth, like so many others, fails to mention that Puget Sound had already been discovered by the Native people who had inhabited the place for at least the past 12,500 years or so. Nor does he note that all of the places named by Vancouver already had names.

The image is curious. Where are these deciduous trees, where Vancouver supposedly stopped to name the place? Vancouver may have had friendly heart but nowhere in his or his crew’s journals is there any indication that he discussed place names with his men? The clothes are wonderful though.

Seattle Maps 16 & 17 – Puget Sound

Two fine images of Puget Sound that I came across the other day. Protection Island now has very few trees on it and is a good place to see puffins. Note on the lower map how far south Admiralty Inlet extends. This was the original boundaries as defined by Capt. George Vancouver, who named it in May 1792. (click on images for larger size)

Puget Sound from the North
Puget Sound turned sideways with north to the left

Quote 5 – That old Giant!

“If there is one thing above another in our famous Sound region that transcends all else in the way of adoration and homage it is Mount Rainier. That old Giant! How overpowered one is by its bigness and nearness, as the mists of morning clear away and its glistening, snowy form rises majestically before you–standing there so Sphynx-like in its immovability, so grand, so bold, so defiant, towering above the lesser hills around it!”

Beth Bell Higgins, Souvenir and Guide Book of Seattle–Twenty Third International Christian Endeavor Convention, July 1907

Quote 4 – Perfect Network

“In 1792, 1793, and 1794, the celebrated English navigator Vancouver, being sent out by government, explored, surveyed, and sounded the Strait of Juan of Fuca, to the head of Puget’s Sound, and every mile of all the intricate windings of this coast. It may be said without exaggeration, that, in the world, there is not to be found a more extensive and complex system of internal navigation. The labyrinth of bays, sounds, inlets, creeks, and harbours,–promontories, islands, and land tongues, with the countless sinuosities of land and water, show it to be a perfect network.”

John Dunn, History of the Oregon Territory and British North-American Fur Trade with an Account of the Habits and Customs of the Principal Native Tribes on the Northern Continent, London, Edwards and Hughes, 1846, pg. 298

Quote 3 – Ideal Sacrilege

“This tree of deep and secure harbors, whose trunk, Admiralty Inlet…surprised its Spanish, American, and British explorers with suddenly-discovered little harbors, like hidden fruit among thick leaves–quiet, lovely nooks, embosomed in green woods…And they are the loveliest bits of creation. Would that I had the wealth to covenant with man never to bring into these paradises of harbors the axe! The ideal sacrilege of chopping the Garden of Eden to feed a saw-mill is realized daily here by the remorseless Americans who feed the hungry gangs of the Sound mills with the king tree and the queen trees of the world.”

Samuel Wilkeson, Wilkeson’s Notes on Puget Sound–Being Extracts from Notes by Samuel Wilkeson on a Reconnoissance of the Proposed Route of the Northern Pacific Railroad Made in the Summer of 1869.

Seattle Map 15 – Mosquito Fleet 1908

Doing some research on Puget Sound’s infamous Mosquito Fleet. I have been trying to locate the origin of the term. There doesn’t seem to be any consensus, though the earlier uses refer exclusively to military vessels. So far I have traced the usage of Mosquito Fleet back to 1777 and a letter written by Governor George Clinton (he uses Musquito instead of mosquito), in reference to fighting on the Hudson River. Benedict Arnold also commanded a Mosquito Fleet on Lake Champlain at this time. There are also references to Mosquito Fleets in the War of 1812 and the Civil War.

But my favorite discovery is this wonderful map from the August 22, 1908, Seattle P-I. We may think we have a good ferry system that carries people throughout Puget Sound but it certainly pales compared to the routes displayed on this map.

Or consider that a 1901 P-I article lists 195 ports of call, quite a few of which I haven’t a clue as to their location. In the days before the automobile took over, the Mosquito Fleet ruled the transportation routes of our inland sea.

We’re number 1…in Piracy.

Just discovered that there’s a category of books about piracy on Amazon. It makes sense but I certainly didn’t expect to be in it but apparently my new co-authored book about the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Locks is listed in that category.

Avast ye scurvy dogs. We take no prisoners!

Canal in the news

My new book, co-written with Jennifer Ott, will be in stores in a couple of weeks. As a little sneak peak, the Seattle Times has published an excerpt.

Seattle magazine also included a feature about the locks and ship canal based on Waterway: The Story of Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal.

And Jen and I will be reading from the book on July 12 at MOHAI and July 23 at the Seattle Public Library, Central Branch.

100 years of the locks and ship canal

Vaun Raymond just released his wonderful one-hour long video about the history of the locks and ship canal. I think he did quite a good job.

Slow boat from China

Various people keep asking when my new book, Waterway: The Story of Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal, co-authored with Jen Ott, will be in stores. I usually tell them that it’s literally on a boat from China. This is true. I recently got information on exactly where it is and what boat it is on. So here’s the skinny. Scheduled arrival in Tacoma is June 29.

MOL Genesis – The container ship with one pallet of books coming directly to Seattle (actually Tacoma). 
MOL Genesis – Big View – Look for tiny square north of island labeled Japan..
MOL Genesis – Close up View