It's a boat from here. She's a
national historic landmark, and now the Virginia Five
is being spruced up as she prepares to hit 100.
They don't fool around. Time is money, man.
Another centenarian, the Fremont Tugboat Company,
is not slowing down despite its age.
Afternoon cap. this is fireboat chief Seattle.
And with all the vessels maneuvering on area
waterways, this group works to keep people safe.
These stories and more next on CityStream.
Hi, I'm Enrique Cerna, and welcome to a special maritime edition
of CityStream from Pacific Fishermen Shipyard
in Ballard.
This shipyard was established more than 70 years ago
after the end of World War two, at that time, 400 fishermen and their wives
paid $300 for a share in this co-op,
which gave them a place to fix their boats.
But the history of this site, and its maritime connections
date back 150 years.
This shipyard not only repairs the modern vessels, it also provides
specialized care to older wooden boats like the steamship the Virginia Five.
She's the last steamer from the old mosquito fleet,
which once served ports up and down Puget Sound.
In June the Virginia Five turns 100 years old, and as producer
Randy Eng shows,
she's getting a major renovation ahead of her big day.
We got to save the good stuff.
We've got to save Virginia five.
We brought the
Virginia Five into Pacific Fishermen Shipyard in Ballard, and we
thought the vessel just needed some areas of rot replaced,
and it turned out that we had a lot more water than we were expecting.
Essentially taking two of these planks off, it's a very small window to see what you're looking at.
So we thought, well, we'll take off a couple more and a couple more.
And we got to the point where
we realized the rot was in the bow stem.
So then we decided, well, we need to change that.
And then it just kept it just kept growing.
Almost the entire starboard side had a lot of fungus related rot.
That meant that we needed to replace frames and planks on most of the starboard side.
It's a historic ship, so we have to use the right wood.
It has to be old growth Douglas Fir, which tends to be more rot resistant.
we've had to source that from a couple of places on the Olympic Peninsula.
They're very small sawmills.
One plank
before we even do anything
is about $2,000.
The structural integrity of these comes from
long lengths of wood, and you can look and see how
all this how many we've done.
What I like about the Virginia is that it's
Douglas Fir on Douglas Fir frames, and
It's all Fir. It's a boat from here and it's and it's just big.
It's just a big, cool wooden boat, which
there's not a not a lot of these around.
Well, it's to keep the ship alive.
I think that and to give the past the future, I think is really important.
And in as much as out of thousands of ships like this over
a century and a half of American history, there are only two of are left.
The West Pass Transportation Company
was a small company that operated steamships on Puget Sound,
and those steam ships were part of what's known as the mosquito fleet.
The mosquito fleet was the informal name for steamers that served
the Puget Sound
communities, the peninsula communities, the island communities and the bigger cities.
The communities were established around their waterfront, and this was
their means of communication and travel and transportation of all kinds.
Carried there,
people carried their mail, carried their freight, carried their livestock, their produce.
So it was very much, I like to tell people.
A Metro bus and a UPS truck, all in one rig for those communities.
Virginia Five was actually built on the beach
in Maplewood, which is on the Kitsap Peninsula kind of across from Vashon Island.
Then it was launched in March of 22... 1922
and then brought over to downtown Seattle, where the engine was installed
and it had its maiden voyage in June of 22.
They weren't meant to last.
Some of them would break down or sink, so these ships would be beached
and just burned up when they were no longer serviceable.
As built,
Virginia Five's purpose was to provide work at a freight and pastor transportation for
the people along the West Pass, so it did that and into the late 1930s.
By that time, public road networks was getting much better.
The bridges were built and the highways were improved
and cars became the dominant way of getting around in the area.
The owners of the ship did what they could to make a living.
You know, for a while, the ship sailed on the Columbia River was the last
steam vessel to operate on the Columbia River and passenger service .
It was unsuccessful there.
It came back up into the Sound.
It served under contracts with the Army and then
went into the excursion boat business where people would spend a day on board,
going to a destination... its just a fun trip.
You can buy a ticket and ride with us on scheduled excursions.
We have a, you know, a seasonal schedule for it and we do private charters, so
weddings, family events, sometimes company events
and we do those both dockside and underway.
The ship can
pay it's routine consumable cost... rebuilding it like
this is not something you could do on a business model.
The process for the
steaming of the plank and the hanging of a steam plank is
we steam it for an hour, for each inch of thickness.
These planks are two and a half inches, so two and a half hours.
We take it out of the box and it's a big rush of excitement.
We get it to the boat and then we put one of these screw
jacks against the top edge of the plank.
Up there,
all the rest of them will go on the bottom edge
of the plank and they will twist it into place.
And then that's it.
Just like that.
In order to try and preserve the trade,
I have had people up and teach them, but
really it's hard because it's not like it used to be where there's
a bunch of this work to do.
If we weren't able to continue to
maintain it, preserve it and share it with the public,
it would be a real loss to this community and to the entire United States,
It's a really bold move to operate and not to just put it on a shelf and stuff it and mount it.
But to run it and keep it a living ship, and that's what makes
this ship so special is that it is still a living vessel.
The Virginia Five is the good stuff.
And we hope that Virginia Five will survive for another hundred years!
as a floating event space for weddings, fundraisers, and holiday parties.
Now, if you'd like to learn more about this historic vessel, visit
the Virginia Five foundation website at VirginiaV.org,
and if you get a chance, watch the 22 minute documentary
in the video section of the website.
Next on CityStream, the maritime theme continues
as we visit a mighty little company known for pushing
people around.
The waters
from Salmon Bay to Lake Union are home to hundreds of large boats,
barges, and houseboats. Every now and then they need to be moved or repositioned.
One company willing to give them a nudge has been at it for more than a century.
Brian Callanan hits the water with a Fremont tugboat company.
Lake Union is known as a fast
paced, intense center of industry in Seattle.
But head to its northern shore and there's a startup
a lot of businesses could learn from.
All cases all go.
Oh, I don't fool around.
Time is money, man.
That's Eric Freeman of the Fremont Tugboat Company established in 1915
and now a century later, still going strong.
Morning until night just running around.
Whenever the phone rings, we move.
Fremont Boat Company.
We move just about everything that people will pay us for from,
you know, fish boats, to barges, to yachts, to floating homes.
So, how tough is it to tow a floating home?
Well, hold your breath.
You haven't seen the tight spot.
With tugs pushing 40 tons of houseboat from the front and back
in with just a few inches of clearance to spare.
Make sure you can stop the morning.
It's a high powered water ballet worth seeing.
Controlling my end also helps his,
and he goes one way, I go the other, it turns quicker.
Finally success. Thank you so much.
And then back to work.
It's a constant marathon.
I don't know what I'm on now.
30 something days straight.
No days off.
Your family's second Everything else in the world is sagging.
You got jobs to do.
You work, and that's what you do.
Oh, I want a day off.
I'm tired. I'm blah, blah.
Yeah, well, you're going to work instead.
Call it
an old fashioned approach, but it runs in the family.
You have to really make up your mind what you want to do
because it's a full time job.
Works run seven days a week just as hard as it can run.
That's Eric's dad, Mark, who owned the business for 36 years
before selling it to Eric and his business partner, Tom Belson.
Mark still does marketing for Fremont Tug, and maintains
an incredible private museum of maritime history.
I've just been one of those kind of guys that saved everything.
The Freemans have owned Fremont Tug for 78 of its 100 plus years of operation.
That's my dad there.
Mark's father, known as Doc, bought the business in 1928,
and began a family tradition of purchasing older
boats past their prime and rebuilding them for service.
I started Tugboat when I was 14 with my own tug.
Mark was salvaging logs, and doing towing work by himself as a teenager.
Don't believe it.
Well, that's his first engine down the hall.
I put everything in his scrapbooks. In the mid-fifties.
Mark spent four years in the Coast Guard at Grace Harbor,
rescuing 37 people during his career.
It's a life of service.
He's continued on the shores of Lake Union.
I've been here actively in business
since September 20th. 1959
That's a long time.
That's a real grind.
And open the door every day
and still do.
This is part of our museum.
Look around
and it's plain to see
Mark is a man who knows his history,
but he says a century in business caught him a bit by surprise.
Never thought about it, just went to work,
and, ah,
100 years is so far away
that it isn't.
Freemont Tug, 100 years old, It's quite a milestone,
but it's also just another piece to put in the scrapbook
for Mark Freeman to research and record and catalog.
I almost don't have time to talk to you.
He's still working, and so is his son.
Proud to eclipse 100 years in the business and confident for the future.
Even in a growing high tech city. Until you can move a fishbowl
by double clicking on your computer, we got a job.
The boat moving business is steady.
Yes, we have a 30 foot spot. And with nine tugs
working from Lake Union to the Ballard Locks and beyond.
Fremont Tug is a small business
that's carved out a niche in the local maritime industry.
But will it spark the interest of the next generation of Freeman kids?
I have a daughter.
If she's smart, she won't do it.
Eric's business partner and ace boat repairman Tom has some kids who might
come on board, but it's not like the old guard is giving up anytime soon.
We're going to keep her rockin as long as we can keep it going.
Dad's 82 he aint retired. I've got a long way to go till I'm 82.
I'm tired, not retired.
It's an old fashioned lesson built on 100 years of history.
A lesson that's good for any business.
Not too many secrets.
I learned it's all hard work.
That's what it really boils down to.
Being smart and,
your hard work you want to put into it.
Because if you don't, somebody else will.
We'll just see how long it goes.
Long as long as we want it.
Do you not tell somebody gets killed, died, or wants to call it quits,
but I'm not going to be the one to surrender.
This story first aired a few years ago.
Since then, we're sad to report
Mark Freeman has passed away, but the company is still going
strong. His son Doug and his business partner Tom Ballston at the helm.
We'll be right back.
There's a lot of
history here at the Pacific Fishermen Shipyard.
It's not just the vessels and the boats that they work on,
there are also the signs.
A lot of history,
some of this stuff goes back really, really far.
We we keep the dream alive here, so so is a special place for you.
So Ballard is a special place for you,
These signs that it means so much.
They do. They mean a lot.
Tyler Adams is the shipyard safety and environmental compliance manager
A Ballard native,
He says the signs are a big part of Ballard's history.
So all of the signs here at Pacific Fishermen Shipyard are beloved
local businesses that, for one reason or another, have gone out of business
and we were able to obtain their signs and put them up here
so that the community can remember what Ballard kind of used to be.
A lot of small businesses owned by families, paying wages, stuff like that.
And unfortunately, it seems a bit of a graveyard
for those type of businesses,
but at least somebody is out here reminding people of how it used to be.
First, it
started with us noticing people going out of business, and we were trying
to get their sign, contact him, ask if we could have it.
And then it started with people calling us and saying
that they're getting rid of their sign or they're they're going out of business.
Do we want the sign?
Do I have a favorite sign?
(sigh)
Probably the Viking Tavern.
Not the coolest sign here, but if you're talking an old Ballard bar
that everybody used to go and drink at, it's the Viking.
And we all miss it terribly.
I've been to almost all of them.
Captain's Nautical Supply. I used to live on a sailboat.
I went in and out of there every week.
The University meat and poultry type place
great smoked stuff.
Been to Crown Hill Hardware
A bunch of times.
Ballard Inflatable Boats fixed my inflatable boats.
You've got Zestos, everybody knows
Zestos from across the street at Ballard High School
Trident... all these great places that are not around anymore.
But yeah, we used to go to almost all of them.
Isn't that cool? It's a pretty cool thing.
So that was a Russian device that they used to lay right
above the cables that were communication cables across the Pacific Ocean,
and they would listen to communications through the cable with that device.
And one of the fishermen who's a shareholder here at Pac Fish,
was dragging some nets along the bottom.
And that thing came up in it.
So he turned it over to the Department of Defense.
They took all this secret stuff out of it and gave it back to him, and
he gave it to us.
And as of right now, yes,
those googly eyes are the largest googly eyes in the world.
Just ahead, they're often not needed,
but when they are, it's a good thing and they're ready to go.
That's next on CityStream.
Each month, volunteers
pick up trash in Seattle for Little Saigon neighborhood.
Organizers say it's one way to discourage criminal activity.
That's a bit of a problem there.
Recently, the mayor and city attorney showed up to lend a hand
and to send a message.
Producer Pete Cassam takes a look.
Before a lot of the focus police efforts,
this area was just really scary for everyone,
for the folks that worked here,
for community members who frequent this area for groceries and restaurants.
We were seeing like 50 to 100 people gather on
the corner of 12th and Jackson doing various activities,
especially a lot of crime related activities like the sale of stolen goods, drug use.
There should be a lead with the 1B already.
So you can just join that group.
Each of the team captains should have the map
and the area that you'll be focused on.
Our hopes are just to come back together as a community again
and do regular cleanups and events like this.
Empty booze bottles of beer cans, water bottles, cigarette butts.
Every little bit helps.
It's been amazing the last month and I think a lot more effort and visibility
to what's been going on in this community.
And you can see just already a dramatic change.
A lot of the stuff that you see here today, it's really grassroots efforts.
Amazing to see how much people care about this area, but it's not enough.
A lot of the businesses really love that it feels a lot more safe.
Their employees can actually come into work without having this fear
that they're going to be followed or attacked.
We're really hopeful and we're seeing the changes.
The community also wants to come together and do more to maintain this level of safety.
Hope and joy are heading in the right direction,
that these issues weren't created overnight and not going to be solved overnight.
But if I could just let people know we're heading in the right direction.
You see no criminal activity, you see cleanliness, you see hope.
And that's what One Seattle is all about.
It can spread like wildfire
and when people care instead of neglect.
And I think that helps all of us.
We came out last month to clean this up and their mound was double or triple the size,
just the small effort that has been put in the last couple of weeks.
It's a drastic change.
With all the pleasure
craft, ferries, barges, and sailboats sharing local waterways,
it gets a busy out there, and that can be tough to navigate in an emergency.
But Seattle firefighters are now better prepared
thanks to some high tech help from the Maritime Academy.
Ian Devier takes a look.
My name's Greg Anderson.
I'm a fire boat pilot with the Seattle Fire Department.
Basically, the pilot's job is the
the safety of the vessel and the crew as we're responding. All clear Greg.
Pretty much anything that happens within a block of the water
we'll go to.
Seattle's not only a port city, but it's a water city.
There are about 200 miles of shoreline,
and we're the resource that
the protects that. The kind of calls
we run on our vessels in distress, ship
fires, fires along the water, up to the Duwamish
we've had several large fires, and rescues along the waterfront.
So, we have regularly scheduled drills where will will operate
the cannons. We'll take lines underneath piers with small small pumps
as well as a number of man overboard and underway drills.
It was a particularly windy day,
and there were there were lots of challenges
around Seattle day. Seattle traffic fire boat chief Seattle.
We heard on the Marine VHF that there was a problem up north.
Boat a drift in distress up by the Edmonds, Kingston Ferry Lane.
OK, roger will stay right on the the east side of the lanes heading up there,
and then we'll cross it at Foxtrot and and make our way over.
One of our training challenges is that we don't get to we don't get to pick
the traffic that we want people to learn how to navigate around.
And this is where our partnership with Seattle Maritime
Academy comes into play.
Station call and go ahead this notion over.
We're responding to a fire over at the
harbor. The project that the Seattle Fire Department and the Seattle Maritime
Academy are doing is is pretty unique.
Leschi go ahead.
We're able to provide experience
for some of these pilots in a matter of days
that they may not get over a career. Leschi we've arrived on scene here
with setting up ferry fire. Looks like the fire
on the outer eastern and the ferry boat.
And we're going to start our fire fighting procedures. What's you ETA?
Our ETA is approximately 30 minutes.
The simulation is a fire boat pilot
and a deckhand slash watch stander.
They have to go through checking in with the Seattle traffic,
and navigating across the traffic lanes or navigating through Elliott
Bay to get to the fire area.
Elliot Bay, according to the Coast Guard,
is the most congested waterway in the state.
So, the challenges of just getting out into Elliott Bay
are sometimes significant.
They get to practice this in different kinds of conditions
that they might not get to otherwise.
Afternoon Cap. This is the fire boat chief, Seattle.
We were responding up here.
We had a report of a vessel adrift, and I was wondering
if you saw him give us a little better direction.
The information we get for the location
emergency is sometimes vague, and sometimes with latitude and longitude.
Sometimes I just saw him on the ferry.
Okay, we'll head up that direction.
Thanks much for the help. Fire Boat Chief Seattle.
We occasionally run into situations that we would like to share
with all the pilots, and see what kind of decision making processes they go through,
and we will incorporate those into the simulations.
Leschi this is a Coast Guard six five two five,
and we all know that report of a person in the water.
Have you heard that over?
We have a visual on the person in the water.
Right there. Varying 286.
Oh, yeah? You can see it. He's waving his arms.
We're developing new scenarios all the time.
This enables Seattle
fire Department to come in here several times over the next two years,
and as I mentioned, progressively get more and more challenging scenarios.
And it makes our ability to provide
these services more efficiently and certainly more safely.
And the challenges are
are pretty close to real world.
Yep, got them.
The booms come off the mast.
Yeah.
Got just a little windier than he planned for. One of the best ways I've heard
to describe the utility of the fire boats
is that while you may not need them very often
when you do need them, there's nothing to replace them.
The Seattle
Fire Department currently has four fire boats, they are stationed along
the Seattle waterfront and at Fisherman's Terminal here in Ballard.
We'll be right back.
That wraps up this edition of CityStream
from the Pacific Fisherman's Shipyard here in Ballard.
If you'd like to see some of our great programing on the Seattle channel,
just go to our website at SeattleChannel.org and click on feature shows.
I'm Enrque Cerna. Thanks for joining us.