Dora (sternwheeler)

Dora, somewhere on the Coquille River.
History
Name: Dora
Owner: Myrtle Point Transportation Company
Builder: Herman Bros., Randolph, Oregon
In service: 1910
Out of service: 1927
Identification: U.S. 208076
Fate: Abandoned
General characteristics
Type: Inland passenger/freight
Tonnage: 77 gross tons; 64 registered tons
Length: 70.3 ft (21.43 m)
Beam: 15.8 ft (4.82 m)
Decks: two
Installed power: Twin steam engines, horizontally mounted, 55 indicated horsepower
Propulsion: Sternwheel

Dora was a sternwheel steamboat that was operated on the Coquille River on the southern coast of Oregon from 1912 to 1923. This vessel should not be confused with a number of other craft of the same name operating at the same time in other parts of North America.

Design and construction

Dora was built at Randolph, Oregon in 1910 by the Herman Brothers [1] The steamer was 70.3 ft (21.43 m) long, with a beam of 15.8 ft (4.82 m) and depth of hold of 4.1 ft (1.25 m).[2] The overall size of the vessel was 77 gross and 64 registered tons.[2] Power was furnished by twin steam engines, each driving a pitman arm connected to a crankpin on the sternwheel, with 55 total indicated horsepower for both combined. Total required crew was shown as two. Dora was built for Russell Panter, who named the vessel after his daughter.[3] Panter was doing business as the Myrtle Point Transportation Company.[4]

Service and route

Dora was intended to be used for passenger service on the Coquille River.[1] Dora was placed on a route running from Bandon on the coast, to the county seat at Coquille and then upriver to Myrtle Point.[4] Dora served this route in conjunction with the smaller sternwheeler, Myrtle, also owned by the Myrtle Point Transportation Company.[4] Typical service included:

Competition with rival vessels

In 1915, Dora came into fierce competition with the gasoline launch Charm. There was a collision between Dora and Charm, and the captains of the vessels, Willard, of Dora, and Panter, of Charm, each claimed the collision was the other's fault.[7] Following the collision, the crews of the two vessels exchanged intemperate words, and someone was said to have thrown a gaspipe through a window on one of the vessels, while it was also claimed that someone had heaved a can of coal oil at the Dora.[7] Someone concerned about passenger safety contacted Sheriff Johnson, who in turn referred the matter to the Steamboat Inspection Service.[7] The inspectors instructed captains Willard and Panter to each submit written reports of the incident.[7]

On February 3, 1915, following a two-day trial before inspectors Edwards and Fuller, the U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service suspended, for 20 months each, the licenses of Captains Walter Panter and Allen Panter, as well as that of engineer Wm. Panter, all of the Myrtle Point Transportation Company, as well as the licenses of Capt. O. R. Willard and engineer Elmer Willard, both of the Coquille River Company.[8] Both the Panters and the Willards were barred from operating any vessel on the Coquille River or anywhere else.[8]

Loss of a crewman

On November 29, 1918, it was reported that Earl Randall, of Dundee, Oregon, a crewman on Dora, had been lost overboard during his course of duty and drowned.[9] The incident occurred on the Coquille River near Riverton while the vessel was steaming towards Coquille.[9] Randall was last seen walking through the engine room.[9] The next thing that was noticed was his cries for help as he came up to the surface of the river from underwater.[9] The vessel was reversed and a life ring was thrown, but it was too late.[9] Randall's body was recovered two hours later.[9]

Salvage of Myrtle

Dora abandoned, June 21, 1941.

In February 1921, the small steamer Myrtle had sunk at a dock at Myrtle Point.[3] On board Myrtle was a cargo consisting of most of a rail car load of canned carrots.[3] Dora, then owned by the Panter family doing business as the Myrtle Point Transportation Company, was sent to Myrtle Point to aid in the salvage of Myrtle and the sunken vessel's cargo.[3]

Disposition

Dora was abandoned in 1927 along the bank of the Coquille River on the ranch of Paris Ward, one of the shareholders in the Myrtle Point Transportation Company.[1][10]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Newell, Gordon R., ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, Superior Publishing (1966), at pages 174 and 391.
  2. 1 2 U.S. Treasury Dept., Statistics Bureau, Annual List of Merchant Vessels (for year ending June 30, 1911), at page 166.
  3. 1 2 3 4 King, Chuck, Kirk, Linda, and Prola, Carolyn, Myrtle Creek and Vicinity: 1893-1950, Arcadia 2014, at page 27.
  4. 1 2 3 "News of Nearby Towns -- Plans New Boat", Coos Bay Times, September 2, 1913.
  5. ↑ "Pythian Sisters to Myrtle Point", Bandon Recorder, November 14, 1913, page 1, col. 4.
  6. ↑ "Myrtle Point Items", February 24, 1914, page 1, col. 2.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Steamboat Controversy May Be Brought to Head", Semi-Weekly Bandon Recorder, January 29, 1915, page 1, col. 6.
  8. 1 2 "Riverboat Men Get Vacations", Bandon Recorder, February 5, 1915, page 1, col. 6.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Twenty Years Ago", Coquille Valley Sentinel, November 24, 1938, page 4, col. 4.
  10. ↑ Panter, William, "Early River Traffic on the Coquille," Glancing Back (Pioneer Lore), at 16-19, Vol. I, No. 1, Coos-Curry Pioneer and Historical Association, 1971

References

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