Steamboatin' Jamiesons
The untimely demise of the Jamieson brothers
The Jamiesons were five brothers who came from Brodick, Scotland in the 1850s to pursue careers as steamboat pilots. Although a popular means of transport, Steamboat travel in the 1850s was still in its infancy and fraught with peril. Within the short span of 7 years, each of the 5 Jamieson Brothers would succumb to an untimely demise.
THE STEAM ENGINE: The most important part of a steamer is - of course - the steam engine and the boilers. In early times heated by wood, then by coal and today by diesel, the boilers are producing hot steam, which powers the engine with its enormous pressure. The engine then transforms the steam pressure to paddlewheel-rotation.
The engineer was an important man, because he was the one to control the engine and the only one who knew about the pressure, the boiler possibly could resist without bursting and causing a total disaster. The higher the pressure, the faster the boat. So the engineers often had to go to the limits, because the boat had to go as fast as possible.
Many steamboats (and their passengers) died by boiler explosions.
April 8, 1854 – An unnamed Jamieson brother was said to have perished in the explosion of the Steamship Gazelle.
The Gazelle was the first side-wheeler to operate on the Upper Willamette River in what is now the U.S. state of Oregon. Less than a month after her trial voyage, she suffered a catastrophic boiler explosion, the worst such explosion ever to occur in the Pacific Northwest states.
On the morning April 8, 1854 the Gazelle, bound for Corvallis had been at the Canemah dock for about ten minutes. To make a speedy departure, the engineer had tied down the safety valve to build up steam. According to one source, steam was "howling from escape pipe with a deafening roar," The chief engineer moved the Gazelle to the Willamette Company's wharf-boat, where he stopped the steamer, and took off running.
About one minute later, at about 6:40 a.m. both boilers exploded on Gazelle.[
About 60 people had been on board Gazelle. At least twenty people were instantly killed, and almost everyone else was injured, including four people who died later.
The steamship Portland was a small sidewheeler, 90 ft (27.4 m) long, had been launched at Portland three years earlier. Owned by Alexander S. Murray, Jack Torrance, & Archibald Jamieson, the Portland was designed to run between Oregon City and Portland. Alongside the SS Enterprise, they ran under the name the Citizens' Line.
March 17th 1857 - With Arthur Jamieson in command, the Portland had come down river and landed passengers at Canemah. Having encountered trouble with the rudder about twenty miles upstream, and pending more thorough repair, the rudder had been lashed with ropes for temporary use. The Portland was starting back across the river under very low steam, when the rudder reportedly became uncontrollable. The boat went broadside onto the breakwater, but then spun round and headed stern first over the falls.
Just before it reached the brink, Jamieson jumped off the boat into the water, which was only waist deep, but the current was strong enough to carry him over the falls. His body was later recovered from swirling waters below the falls.
Smith Baird Jamieson, captain of the Fraser River steamer Fort Yale, had a boiler explosion at Union Bar on April 14, 1861 a mile above the town of Yale. The blast was so great that a 90-pound chunk of the boiler was blown a quarter mile inland.
The death of Captain Jamieson held a personal tragedy, for he was about to marry, on his next trip down to New West minster, Miss Sue Robinson, the ingenue of a San Francisco theatrical troupe then playing in the Royal City.
This ticket was recovered from the wreck of the Fort Yale. The ticket belonged Francis Jones Barnard, who was the purser on the ship and who miraculously survived.
*Courtesy of the BC Provincial Archives (MS 2434)
August 2nd, 1861, Capt. Archibald Jamieson, former master of the Willamette steamer Enterprise, and brother James Baird Jamieson, second engineer, were killed when their new steamer, Cariboo, exploded near Victoria, British Columbia
This animation was created by Scott Kiborn for Atomic Cartoons.
Bruce Coughlan - lead vocals, guitar
Laurence Knight - electric bass & vocals
Mike Sanyshyn - fiddle
Geoff Eyre – drums
Chris Stevens – banjo
Peter Padden - vocals
Produced by Laurence Knight
Engineered & mixed by John Ellis
Mastered by Craig Waddell at Gotham City Recorders, Port Coquitlam, BC