Shaver Many Shaver tugs, including the Port- SHAVER TRANSPORTATION: land and Sommer S, seen here assisting a bulk carrier on the FROM STERNWHEELS TO STERN DRIVES lower Willamette River, are equipped with line-handling cranes. Photo cour- ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER tesy of Shaver. SHAVER TRANSPORTATION OF PORTLAND, By Peter Marsh The wooden sternwheelers of that era Oregon has been a fixture on the Columbia were all driven hard and not built to last long. River since 1880 when George Washington Manzanillo, he After 15 years, Shaver’s top two boats were Shaver progressed from supplying wood to fuel steamboats scrapped and the steam engines were removed and re-used to operating his first sternwheeler. On the Hendersonin new boats carrying the same name. However, 1901 saw the began hauling freight to the downriver communities as far as launch of a sternwheel tug that proved to be the exception: the Clatskanie, Oregon. By 1893, Shaver and his two sons James lived a charmed life, despite numerous mishaps. It W. and George M. Shaver were ready to incorporate and open was sunk and rebuilt in 1912, rebuilt and re-engined in 1929, theirGeorge own boatyard. W. Shaver Sarah Dixon and sunk and raised again in 1950. They launched two luxurious passenger carriers named It survived into the 1950’s and became famous for its the and the after himself and appearance in the movie “BendHenderson of the River” starring James his wife. There was fierceT. J. Potter, competition among the numerous- Stewart. This film included an old-time steamboat racePortland down, passenger carriers on the run to Astoria, especially from the the Columbia River,Henderson with the going up against famous sidewheeler owned by the Oregon Rail the heavily disguised steel-hulled sternwheeler way and Navigation Company (ORNC). This rivalry was only built in 1946. The was still going strong when it resolved in 1896, when Shaver was persuaded to take its boats was struck by its tow in 1956 near Astoria, which ended its off the Portland/Astoria run in return for a monthly subsidy. 55-year career. 20 Pacific Maritime • July 2015 • www.pacmar.com Shaver MOVE TO TOWING - When the Corps system With the arrival of the rail of eight dams and locks was way in Astoria in the 1890’s, the completed in 1975, it became riverboat industry was forced to possible to barge wheat from change course. Shaver navigated the farms of SE Washington’s around this issue by shifting to Palouse country down the Snake barge towing and ship handling. River to deepwater grain docks By 1914, the fleet consisted of- in the Portland area. Shaver seven steam tugs. Shaver was began a barge-building program Thealso Jamesahead ofW its rivals in adopt to meet the demand, for service ing diesel engines. They built all the way to Lewiston, Idaho, , in 1923 with 300- 365 miles from Portland. The HP and a “screw propeller” and company currently owns 18 converted several of their steam Shaver’s latest tug, the 78-foot Sommer S, built specifically (covered) barges with capacities ers to diesel with propeller drive. for service on the Columbia River, is fitted with a Markey of 2,500 to 4,000 tons. The barge electric hawser winch forward and four Beebe electric fleet has a combined capacity of In 1938, when the US Army- winches for barge work aft. Photo by Peter Marsh. Corps of Engineers constructed almostHenderson 62,000 tons. the first dam on the Colum Surprisingly, the scrapping of bia River, Bonneville, Shaver the did not mark the responded by providing upriver Portland end of the steam era for Shaver.- barge service to the head of navigation at The Dalles, 48 miles From 1947 to 1980, the Port of Portland’s own steam-driven above the dam. During the post-war boom years, Shaver was operated by local tug companies. Although out operated two-dozen steel-hulled diesel tugs towing logs and dated, this 219-foot sternwheel tugPortland was the most powerful barges on the river and along the West Coast, and docking ship-handling tug and the workhorse on the Willamette River. ships. The company extended service further up the Columbia The 1980 announcement that the was being retired When the new Dalles dam and lock came on stream in 1957. led the three tug companies then active on the river – Shaver, congratulations! Foss Maritime applauds Shaver Transportation for 135 successful years on the water. www.foss.com • Always Safe. Always Ready. www.pacmar.com • July 2015 • Pacific Maritime 21 Shaver HIGH-LIFT RUDDERS TRANSFORM STEERING ON SHAVER’S UMATILLA Brix and Willamette – to design a tug MODERN TECHNOLOGY While many of Shaver’s newer tugs employ ASD propulsion, the high cost of that could replace it. purchasing and maintaining azimuthing drives and the Shaver got a running start by having risk of grounding them two naval architects on its staff, Donald on the reefs of the upper Columbia and Snake Rivers Hudson and James Tower, design a set led the company to try a of features that are now standard in the radical option to improve industry, including a broad bow and the steering on one of their stern and angled bulwarks set inboard. conventional push boats, the Their design would be equipped with 3,400 hp 89-foot Clearwater. the new azimuthing drive propulsion They ordered a pair of units manufactured by Maritime Indus- Defl ector high-lift rudders tries in Vancouver BC. designed and built by Shaver won the contract and chose Lowell Stambaugh in Nichols Bros. Boatbuilders, in Freeland, Naselle, Washington near Washington to build the powerful azi- the mouth of the Columbia. muthing stern drive (ASD) or z-drive These were installed in the design in 1981. The arrivalPortland of the 107- existing nozzles and made foot, 3,000-HP (recently upgraded to a dramatic improvement The Defl ector high-lift rudders use a fl ap on the 4,000 hp) tractor tug made to handling, giving the crew trailing edge to create greater thrust. Note that Shaver the first operator on the US West the vital extra control they the fl anking rudders forward of the propellers Coast with this revolutionary technol- needed when working a face aft and are only turned off center when reverse gear is engaged. Photo by Peter Marsh. ogy. “It was definitely the first one on train of barges through the the West Coast. There was only one BPA locks in bad weather. other z-drive around at the time, and The experiment was so that one was on the East Coast,” Shaver successful that in 2012, when the company was planning a re-power of its Portland smallest tug, the 65-foot by 24-foot Umatilla, they decided to replace not only the Transportation president Steve Shaver engines, but also the two steering and four fl anking rudders with Defl ectors. confirmed. The exceeded all expectations, and has served in the Shaver’s port engineer Dennis Malloy rented a small dry dock that was towed port faithfully for more than 30 years, to their moorage on the Willamette River in NW Portland in January 2015. The Umatilla was lifted out and the entire propulsion and steering systems while the Canadian stern drives are still were removed, and new Sheffi eld type 37 nozzles were attached and the six in great shape. new Defl ector rudders, with new 6” shafts, tubes and tillers were installed. (z-drives are no longer produced in the Northwest – Maritime Industries The tug’s original engines, a pair of 700 hp Detroit Diesel 149 V-8 two-strokes, ultimately became part of the Ulstein were replaced by twin Tier 2 MTU V-8 4000’s that had previously been fi tted to a yacht and warranted by the MTU/Detroit dealer Pacifi c Power in group, and is now owned by Rolls Royce Ridgefi eld, Washington. They were rated at 1,140 HP continuous at 1,800 Marine.) rpm. This has increased the available power by more than 800 HP and By the early 1990s, Shaver was dramatically increased the bollard pull from 28,000 lbs. to around 40,000 lbs. ready for a new tug that would con- With the increased power and greatly improved steering, the 65’ tug is tain all the latest ideas. So Steve Shaver now comparable to Shaver’s 70-foot Lassen with 3,700 HP. “The Umatilla went to Vancouver to ride on the new can now handle ship and barge-handling jobs that would previously have ASD tugs Robert Allan had designed needed one of the company’s big ASD boats,” Malloy noted. He also for C.H. Cates & Sons. He came away stressed the importance of the boat retaining its 8-foot draft, 5 to 6 feet less convinced that Vancouverthis was the future of than his ASD tugs, and the rudders being protected by heavy shoes. the industry. So Allan drew up the lines This may be the world’s fi rst application using four fl anking ( forward facing) for the 79-foot , which was high-lift rudders. However, Stambaugh already has an order from an operator on launched by Martinac in Tacoma, Wash- the Mississippi River for another set of six Defl ectors. He has built fl ap rudders ington in 1993. for vessels up to 200 feet long, including a Great Lakes ferry and an offshore tug. This was a sophisticated boat with “I think this proves that there is an alternative to expensive ASD drives,” he features like electric winches, a crane commented.