Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Hector (steamboat 1897)

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Name
  
Hector

Identification
  
U.S. Registry #96874

Length
  
13 m

Out of service
  
1913

Launched
  
1897

Route
  
San Juan Islands, Puget Sound

Fate
  
Explosion and fire (total loss), crew rescued.

Type
  
steam tug, inland steamboat, tug, cannery tender

Hector was a small steam vessel built in Roche Harbor, Washington in 1897. The vessel was worked as a cannery tender and a tug boat in the San Juan Islands and on Puget Sound from 1897 to 1913.

Contents

Career

Hector was built for the brothers Capt. Thomas Gawley and Engineer Hector Gawley of Lopez Island. The vessel was used for some years as a chartered fish-trap tender in the San Juan Islands. Later Hector was sold and transferred to Tacoma where it was operated as a tug.

Explosion and fire

In April 1913, Hector, making the first trip after having refitted with a new boiler was raising steam off Purdy Spit when an apparent coal gas explosion occurred. Harold Lanning was able to rescue the crew with his 26 ft (7.92 m) motor vessel. The burned hull of Hector was towed to the shore, where beachcombers eventually removed everything usable from the hulk.

References

Hector (steamboat 1897) Wikipedia