Uriah Bonzer Scott:Layout 1 6/3/15 8:21 PM Page 1 launched the steamer LIGHT - land, where, upon his arrival, Captain WOOD, a one hundred and forty the man who had great difficulty foot boat, which drew but eight in securing enough money to Uriah Bonzer inches of water. She ran on the build his new steamer, found lower Mississippi and Red that he could now command Scott rivers. Returning to Cincinnati unlimited capital with which he Captain Uriah B. Scott was born in 1871, he built the steamer could build any kind of steam - in Lawrence County, Ohio, near CHESAPEAKE, a very fast boat he desired. The OHIO was Ironton, in 1827 and spent his side-wheeler, which he ran for a great success and made money youth on the Ohio River where two years and then sold, after - from the start, as no other boat he developed a passionate inter - ward completing the steamer on the river could come within est in steamboating. He began FASHION, with which he forty miles of the upper his steamboating career in 1859 carried the mail until the fall of Willamette points which she on the Ohio River where he 1873, when he decided that the could easily reach. worked on and built a consider - opportunity and challenge of the able number of steamers. developing Pacific Northwest Captain Scott was a frugal man was too much to ignore, and he and worked economically, and sold his boat and mail business many features of construction and went to Oregon. gave the OHIO an odd appear - ance. Her hull was broad, al - Captain Scott was a practical most flat on the bottom; much steamboatman, but was not over - like a barge. On it he built a burdened with wealth. When plain, squarish-looking deck he arrived in Oregon, he endeav - house that resembled a shed. ored to secure employment on Even though he had an engine, some of the steamers of the he had no pitmans for the stern - People's Transportation Com - wheel. For these he used lengths Uriah B. Scott pany and the Oregon Steam of hollow gas pipe. He lacked 1827 – 1913 Navigation Company. The money to buy heavy iron cast - He built the sidewheel steamer managers of these companies ings for the web of the wheel, LILY, following her with the were skeptical of his abilities so instead he framed it with VICTOR NO. 1, a sternwheeler, and would not employ him. wood. As the OHIO slowly one hundred and ten feet long, Undismayed by this lack of took form, Captains Scott's VICTOR NO. 2, one hundred appreciation, Scott, together with critics, amidst their laughter, and thirty-five feet long, and a couple of Portland business - predicted failure. They would VICTOR NO. 3, also one hun - men; L.B. Seeley and Samuel soon eat their words. dred thirty-five feet long. Brown, acquired engines and He then bought the steamer machinery from an old dredge, UNDINE from the Government, and proceeded to build the remodeled her, and named her OHIO, the first light-draft VICTOR NO. 4. She was two- steamer in the Northwest. The hundred feet long by thirty-two steamer was one-hundred forty foot beam. He subsequently feet long, twenty-five feet beam, owned the steamers R.H. and three feet six inches hold. BARNHAM and CHARLES She made her initial trip Decem - BOWEN, and constructed the ber 12, 1874, going up the river BEN GAYLORD, which he ran light as far as Eugene City. At Steamer Chesapeake. Built at Ironton, OH in 1871. Construction supervised from Portsmouth to Parkersville. Eugene she loaded seventy tons by Capt. U.B. Scott. Operated by After the VICTOR NO. 4, he of wheat and returned to Port - Parkersburg & Ohio Transportation Co Uriah Bonzer Scott:Layout 1 6/3/15 8:21 PM Page 2 gines, the engineer would respond, same light-draft advantages. The but the gas-pipe pitmans, revolting new boat was just as successful at the strain, would bend, leaving as the OHIO, and could carry the engine and wheel locked dead- a much larger cargo on the same center. Whenever that happened, draft as the older boat. In July, the OHIO would grandly plow into 1878, larger poppet-valve engines the dock with a crash of splintered were placed in the CITY OF piling. Because of this distressing SALEM and the discarded 14" The City of Salem was buil in 1875 for the tendency, most cautious wharf - x 48" slide-valve set replaced the U.B. Scott Steamboat Co. and operated on the Willamette River until 1895. boatmen went ashore when they dredging gear on the OHIO. saw her coming. She exhibited The CITY OF SALEM was When the OHIO was launched, distressing habits on the river, too. commanded by Capt. E.W. as Captain Scott knocked out When the OHIO really got digging Spencer, J.W. Newkirk, purser, the blocks, and the boat slid side - into the river on an upstream run, and Perry Scott, engineer. ways into the river, his skeptics the wooden strips that held the grudgingly admitted that she at paddle buckets in place frequently When the railroad came, practi - least floated. With a good head of worked loose. Then the entire cally ending the steamboat business steam in her boiler, Captain Scott wheel would slowly fall apart and in the valley, Captain Scott then hauled back on the throttle, the start drifting back toward the open built the propeller FLEETWOOD engines took hold, the gas pipe sea. This peculiar characteristic for the Cascade route. The pitmans picked up the load, and of the OHIO's propulsion system FLEETWOOD made her trial trip the wooden wheel turned. After developed rather large muscles on May 28, 1881 and the speedy the lines were cast off, the OHIO on the mate, who was continually little propeller made life miserable nosed into the current and headed forced to launch the skiff and row for the competing OR & N. She up the river to Oregon City. She after the sternwheel. It also devel - was much faster than any of the made her way through the locks oped in Captain Scott a vocabulary boats run by the transportation and kept going, past Yamhill, which, for versatility, originality, giant and she was becoming a real Salem and Albany. She had no and ability to work indefinitely problem for them; always carrying trouble at Corvallis or even Harris - without repeating itself, was out - capacity crowds. A rate war fol - burg where the river shoaled, and standing in a profession and an age lowed, with fares dropping to 50 at last came to Eugene, without which boasted some of the finest cents between Portland and the scraping her keel once, and no off-hand cussers the world has ever Dalles. In connection with the wonder; she drew only eight known. These annoying experi - FLEETWOOD, Captain Spencer inches of water. When Captain ences also developed Captain was operating the steamer GOLD U.B. Scott came back to Portland, Scott's driving ambition to own the DUST on the middle river between those who had jeered were waiting most perfect inland steamers that the Cascades and The Dalles, and with checks in hand, ready to help could be built. finance his next venture. It seemed as though being wrong wasn't The odd-looking craft cleared ten nearly as important as making thousand dollars during the first money. three months of service for Captain Scott and his partners and in 1875 Traveling on the OHIO was always the U.B. Scott Steamboat Company an adventure. Because she was was incorporated by Scott, Seeley, somewhat jerry-built she tended, Brown, M.S. Burrell and Z.J. Hatch. every now and then, to come apart The new company built the steamer at the seams. Every so often, as CITY OF SALEM (151' x 33' x The propeller steamer Fleetwood was built in 1881 by Capt. Scott and ran be - she headed toward a wharf, and the 4.6'), a larger, faster and finer boat tween Portland and the Dalles and later pilot would call to back the en - that the OHIO, yet possessing the Portland to Astoris on the Columbia River. Uriah Bonzer Scott:Layout 1 6/3/15 8:22 PM Page 3 at 7 a.m., make numerous landing along the way to Astoria and be back in her dock in Portland between 8 and 9 p.m. the same day. On July 2, 1887, the TELEPHONE made a record for speed on the Astoria route that has never been equaled in regular service, covering the 105 mile distance between The TELEPHONE in 1894 running at high-speed on her daily run to Astoria. Her average Portland and Astoria in four hours running speed was 21 miles-per-hour and she was capable of exceeding 25 miles-per-hour thirty-four and three quarter min - when pushed. She never turned down the opportunity to race and in over 33 years of run - ning, she was never passed by another boat. utes at an average running speed of just a nick under twenty-three when the fight reaches its peak, Captain Scott once again demon- miles-per-hour. The record is Spencer sold the GOLD DUST to strated his genius in hull construc - particularly noteworthy considering the OR & N, leaving the FLEET - tion by building the world's fastest the conditions under which the run WOOD without an up-river con - stern-wheeler and, what many con - was made; a good portion of the nection.