File:Steamer PREMIER, 1891-1894 (TRANSPORT 635).jpg

PH Coll 584.23a

The PREMIER, a steel single-screw steamer with wooden upperworks, was constructed by the Union Iron works, San Francisco, in 1887 for the Canadian Pacigfic Navigation Co. and placed in service under American registery between Vancouver, Victoria and Puget sound ports. The PREMIER left Port Townsend on the afternoon of October 8, 1902, bound for Seattle. The iron steam collier WILLAMETTE, laden with 2,700 tons of coal from the company's Seattle bunkers for San Francisco had left her moorings at 10:50 a.m. in a thick fog which enveloped Sound and Strait. Off West Point, she was overtaken by the CITY OF KINGSTON, bound for Port Townsend. The WILLAMETTE was happy to follow in her wake, letting her clear the way through the fog, guiding her by periodic whistle blasts. Off Marrowstone Point, the WILLAMETTE's course was changed in accordance with the sound of the whistle in the fog ahead. Unfortunately, these blasts were not from the CITY OF KINGSTON, but from the PREMIER, which was approaching at full speed. The big collier WILLAMETTE rammed the passenger steamer at a 45-degree angle on the port side with such force as to cut into her hull to the keel, the WILLAMETTE's bow being so firmly wedged into the PREMIER as to make it impossible for her to pull away. The WILLAMETTE finally pushed the PREMIER across the inlet and beached her near Bush Point, her surviving passengers being transferred to the Collier and dispatched to Seattle aboard another ship. Four passengers were killed, three intantly, and at least twenty injured. Almost 24 hours were required to separate the two vessels with the assistance of a tug. The PREMIER was repaired and put into service under Canadian registery as the CHARMER. (pg. 76) Notes from Gordon Newell, ed., The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co, 1966).

• Subjects (LCSH): Premier (Steamboat); Steamboats--Washington (State)