View source for Shoalwater (sidewheeler 1852)

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|Ship image=Franklin (sidewheel steamboat) ad 1855.jpg
|Ship caption= Advertisement for steamer ''Franklin'' (a later name of ''Shoalwater''), published February 17, 1855.
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship name='''''Shoalwater''''' (sidewheel steamboat)
|Ship owner=McCarver & White<ref name = Affleck>Affleck, Edward L., ''Century of Paddlewheelers'', pp. 13, 19.</ref> and others later
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|Ship route=[[Willamette River]]
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|Ship built=1852, at [[Canemah, Oregon]]
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|Ship fate=Dismantled 1858
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|Ship type=inland steamship (passenger/freight)
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|Ship length={{convert|93|ft|m|1|lk=on|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam={{convert|17.5|ft|m|1|lk=on|abbr=on}}
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|Ship power=twin steam engines, horizontally mounted, {{convert|12|in|cm|abbr=on}} bore x {{convert|48|in|cm|abbr=on}} stroke 9.6 net [[horsepower]].
|Ship propulsion=sidewheels
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|Ship notes=later renamed ''Fenix'', ''Franklin'' and ''Minnie Holmes''.  Dismantled 1858, at [[Salem, Oregon]]
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The steamboat '''''Shoalwater''''' was the sixth steamer to operate on the upper [[Willamette River]], which refers to the part of the river above [[Willamette Falls]] at [[Oregon City, Oregon|Oregon City]].  In a short career of six years, ''Shoalwater'' was renamed''' ''Fenix''''', '''''Franklin''''', and '''''Minnie Holmes'''''.<ref name = LewisDryden>Wright, E.W., ''Lewis & Dryden Marine History of the Pacific Northwest'', pp. 57-58, Lewis & Dryden Publishing, Portland, OR 1895</ref>  ''Shoalwater'' was the first steamboat in Oregon to suffer a boiler explosion, although no fatalities resulted.<ref name = Corning/>

==Construction==
''Shoalwater'' was built in 1852 by Leonard White at [[Canemah, Oregon|Canemah]], a small settlement just above Willamette Falls.  Her first owners were [[Morton M. McCarver|McCarver]] and Son, who were merchants in [[Oregon City]].<ref name = Corning>Corning, ''Willamette Landings'', pp. 63, 72, 87, 119.</ref>   Leonard White and others may have had ownership interests in the vessel.<ref name = LewisDryden/>  ''Shoalwater'' was fitted with two geared engines, of which historian Corning said "generated more noise than power".<ref name = Corning/>  ''Shoalwater'', as her name indicated, was designed to run when all other boats were compelled to lay up for lack of water on the sand and gravel bars that often blocked river navigation.<ref name = LewisDryden/>

==Mechanical failure and renaming as ''Fenix''==
[[Image:Leonard White (steamboat captain).jpg|thumb|upright|Leonard White (d.1870).]]
On April 30, 1853, while ''Shoalwater'' was making a landing below Rock Island near [[Butteville, Oregon|Butteville]] on the Willamette River between [[Champoeg, Oregon|Champoeg]] and Canemah, the steam ran up too fast, causing a flue to collapse. Several persons received injuries, none of which, however, resulted seriously.<ref name = Corning/>  The accident proved so expensive that the vessel changed ownership and name, this time to ''Fenix'' (the owners' method of spelling Phoenix).<ref name = LewisDryden/>

== Reaching the head of navigation ==
''Fenix'' became part of the short-lived Defiance Line, which made daily runs south from [[Canemah, Oregon|Canemah]] with the steamers [[Wallamet (sidewheeler 1853)|''Wallamet'']] and [[Canemah (sidewheeler)|''Canemah'']]. During this time, Capt. Leonard White, who was considered one of the most intrepid of all steamboat captains of the time,<ref name = Timmen>Timmen, ''Blow for the Landing'', pp. 141–142.</ref> took ''Fenix'' up the Willamette River to [[Harrisburg, Oregon|Harrisburg]], which was further upriver then any steamboat had yet been run, and well above Corvallis, which was the presumed head of navigation at the time.  ''Fenix'' is also recorded as having taken Independence Day celebrants out from Champoeg for a three-mile (5&nbsp;km) excursion cruise on July 4, 1854.<ref name = Mills>Mills, ''Sternwheelers up Columbia'', pp. 53, 54, 114–15</ref>

==Operations on Yamhill River==
Captain White sold ''Fenix'' to Captain Hereford, who with others in the Willamette Falls Company was trying to organize a steamboat line.  Hereford put ''Fenix'' on the run from Canemah up the Willamette and then the [[Yamhill River]] to [[Lafayette, Oregon|Lafayette]].  Hereford was competing with the larger steamer [[Oregon (steamboat)|''Oregon'']] and once tried to pass ''Oregon'' on a narrow stretch of the river.  The vessels collided, and ''Oregon'' shoved ''Fenix'' out of the way.  The Willamette Falls Company decided to sell ''Fenix'' and replace her with a steamer then under construction at [[Canemah, Oregon|Canemah]].  (That steamer was never launched, having burned on the ways when almost complete.)<ref name = Mills/>

==Sale to Citizens' Accommodation Line==
''Fenix'' was sold and again renamed, as ''Franklin'' and was run by the Citizens' Accommodation Line in company with ''Canemah''.  Three times a week ''Franklin'' made trips from Canemah to [[Salem, Oregon|Salem]], stopping at the many landings along the way.<ref name = Mills/>   In February 1855, ''Franklin'' was advertised as making daily trips to [[Champoeg, Oregon]] and intermediate points, and would make through trips to [[Corvallis, Oregon|Corvallis]] during the winter.<ref name = SteamerFranklin>{{Cite news
| title = Steamer Franklin
| url = http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn84022662/1855-02-17/ed-1/seq-3/
| newspaper = Oregon Spectator
| publication-place = [[Oregon City, Oregon|Oregon City, OR]]
| volume = 7
| issue = 51
| publication-date = February 17, 1855
| at = p.3, col.4
| editor = C.L. Goodrich
| publisher =
}}</ref>  Franklin was then running under the command of S.C. Alexander.<ref name = SteamerFranklin/>

''Franklin'' was later lengthened and renamed ''Minnie Holmes'', in honor of a young woman of Oregon City.  In May 1857, ''Minnie Holmes'' was running under the command of Capt. Leonard White, who had a reputation as a popular man which could help the boat financially.<ref>{{Cite news
| title = Captain Len White has charge ...
| url = http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025129/1857-05-02/ed-1/seq-2/
| newspaper = Oregon Argus
| publication-place = Oregon City, OR
| volume = 3
| issue  = 3
| publication-date = May 2, 1857
| at = p.2, col.2
| editor =
| publisher = [[William L. Adams (pioneer)|W.L. Adams]]
}}</ref>

(Minnie Holmes later married Dan O' Neill, who in 1850 had been a captain of [[Columbia (sidewheeler 1850)|''Columbia'']], the first steamboat built in the [[Oregon Territory]].  O'Neill later became a long-term steamboat purser.)<ref name = LewisDryden/>

==Conversion to sawmill==
''Shoalwater'' was unable to earn money under any name, and so in 1858 sold her to B. N. Du Rell, by whom she was taken to Salem and fitted up as a floating sawmill. The machinery was subsequently removed and permanently located on the bank of the river, where it was used in the manufacture of lumber until 1860, at which time the mill was destroyed by fire.<ref name = LewisDryden/>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
* Affleck, Edward L., ''A Century of Paddlewheelers in the Pacific Northwest, the Yukon, and Alaska'', Alexander Nicolls Press, Vancouver, BC 2000 {{ISBN|0-920034-08-X}}
* Corning, Howard McKinley, ''Willamette Landings -- Ghost Towns of the River'', Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon (2nd Ed. 1973) {{ISBN|0-87595-042-6}}
* [[Randall V. Mills|Mills, Randall V.]], ''Sternwheelers up the Columbia -- A Century of Steamboating in the Oregon Country'', at 39-41, 46, 69, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (1977 reprint of 1947 edition) {{ISBN|0-8032-5874-7}}
* Timmen, Fritz, ''Blow for the Landing'', at 228-229, Caxton Press, Caldwell, ID 1973 {{ISBN|0-87004-221-1}}
* Wright, E.W., ed., ''Lewis and Dryden Marine History of the Northwest'', at 85-86, Lewis and Dryden Printing Co., Portland, OR 1895, available on-line at the [http://www.secstate.wa.gov/history/publications_detail.aspx?p=44 Washington Secretary of State Historical Section]

==Further reading==
{{commons category|Steamboats of the Willamette River}}
* Faber, Jim, ''Steamer's Wake -- Voyaging down the old marine highways of Puget Sound, British Columbia, and the Columbia River'', Enetai Press, Seattle, WA 1985 {{ISBN|0-9615811-0-7}}
* Newell, Gordon, and Williamson, Joe, ''Pacific Steamboats'', Bonanza Books, New York, NY (1963)

{{Willamette River Steamboats}}

[[Category:Steamboats of Oregon]]
[[Category:Passenger ships of the United States]]
[[Category:Steamboats of the Willamette River]]
[[Category:Ships built in Canemah, Oregon]]
[[Category:1852 ships]]