January 5, 1892
A notable milestone for Undine, a sternwheel-driven steamboat operating on rivers in Oregon, took place when she played a pivotal role in rescuing people who had been on board a vessel that sank in the Willamette River. (A major tributary of the Columbia River, the Willamette River is located entirely within the northwestern region of Oregon.) The ill-fated vessel was Telephone, another sternwheel-driven steamboat in service in that region of the Pacific Northwest.
The trouble began early on January 5, 1892, when the Portland-bound Telephone, which was described in the next day’s edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as “the finest passenger steamer on the Columbia River,” collided with the breakwater at the mouth of the Willamette River on that foggy morning. Telephone was under the command of Captain William Larkins, who gave the Seattle Post-Intelligencer a detailed description of the disaster.
“The night was one of the meanest and dirtiest of any I have ever experienced on the river,” asserted Larkins. “The fog was so thick that we could not see a boat’s length ahead . . . The accident occurred at 3 o’clock and the passengers were all asleep.” Larkins went on to note, “The boat commenced filling rapidly.” The passengers were quickly awakened and — along with members of the crew – transferred to lifeboats that were used to transport everyone to the nearest river bank. The steadily sinking steamboat was soon mostly underwater.
“A bonfire was built on shore for the comfort of the passengers,” recalled Larkins, “and considering all the circumstances, we made the best of things.” The initial means of rescue finally showed up in the form of the Astoria-bound Bonita. This steamboat’s crew, responding to signals from the river bank, made their way to that shore. The stranded passengers were then taken on board Astoria. As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer confirmed, however, “On meeting the Undine, bound for Portland, the passengers were again transferred and brought up to [that] city.”
While all of this was unfolding, and before Undine arrived in Portland, apprehensions about the whereabouts of Telephone were reaching a feverish pitch among the city’s residents. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported, “She was due at her dock in [Portland] at 4 a.m., and her non-arrival created some excitement, which grew apace as the hours wore on, and the wildest rumors of the awful catastrophe spread like wildfire throughout the city.”
This newspaper further stated, “The river has been running high and filled with snags and sawlogs, and when 10 o’clock in the forenoon came and still no news of the missing craft, women began to wring their hands and shed tears, while faces of the men grew pale with fear, for it was not impossible that she had been snagged in wildstream and gone to the bottom, with her passengers drowned in their staterooms.”
Ultimately, however, there were both answers about the fate of those passengers and a happy ending for everyone. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer recounted, “At 10:15 the steamer Undine came up the river and when within hailing distance a score of voices shouting queries about the Telephone. Back came the glad reply: ‘Passengers all safe and aboard this boat.’” The newspaper then noted, “The shout that went up from those anxious ones on the wharf was one of unbounded joy, and when a few minutes later the passengers filed ashore, they were embraced as if departed ones were come back to life.”
(Telephone was subsequently salvaged and after being “thoroughly repaired and elegantly equipped” [in the words of a March 1892 edition of the Portland-based Oregonian], brought back into service. “To insure the absolute safety of the patrons of the Telephone,” according to the Oregonian, this steamboat was outfitted with 10 large pumps “so that in case of accident it would be practically impossible to sink her.”)
Undine’s part in rescuing all of those passengers was only one of several eventful chapters in what would be the longstanding history of that steamboat. Undine, which was constructed in 1887 by the Portland-based shipbuilder J.H. Steffen for transportation businessman Jacob Kamm, served a wide range of functions throughout the decades. These roles included not only making regular passenger and freight runs but also towing a variety of vessels and transporting U.S. Army troops. Undine, which was eventually renamed the Dalles, remained in operation until being dismantled in 1940.
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on Undine and other steamboats that have operated in Oregon, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_steamboats_on_the_Columbia_River
Additional information on Undine’s role in rescuing the passengers of the steamboat Telephone in 1892 is available at https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045604/1892-01-06/ed-1/seq-3/
Transportation History 
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