Wapama, also known as Tongass, was a vessel last located in Richmond, California. She was the last surviving example of some 225 wooden steam schooners that served the lumber trade and other coastal services along the Pacific Coast of the United States. She was managed by the National Park Service at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park until dismantled in August 2013.
Wapama was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1984; the designation was withdrawn in 2015.
Design
Wapama was a two-masted, wooden schooner with a beam and a depth of , net tonnage of 524, but a gross tonnage of 945. The Wapama was constructed in by St. Helens Shipbuilding Company, a subsidiary of the Charles McCormick Lumber Company, on Sauvie Island in Columbia County, Oregon in 1915. James Price was the master builder of the ship and oversaw a crew of 85–100 men at the company during the time of the Wapamas construction. The shipyard launched the incomplete Wapama, described as "little more than a finished hull", in a celebration on January 20, 1915. The ship was then towed to San Francisco by the Klamath for completion, but the ship drifted free during the tow and had to be caught by the tug Goliah of Merchants and Shipowners. The tow was completed by the first ship built by the St. Helens Shipbuilding Company, the Multnomah. Through February and March 1915, Main Street Iron Works installed the engine whilst the accommodations for passengers and crew were also completed. The Wapama officially entered into the service of the McCormick Lumber Company on April 29, 1915 and it cost a total of $150,000. The San Francisco Examiner reported, "The vessel will have accommodations [sic] for forty-five cabin passengers and fifteen steerage. The lumber carrying capacity will be 1,100,000 board feet."
Service
Early on, the ownership of the Wapama was operated by the Charles R. McCormick Lumber Company, but changed for legal or corporate reasons. In 1915, it was sold to the Wapama Steamship Company for $10 and evidence indicates that additional investors owned a stake in the ship. In November 1922, the ship was transferred to the McCormick Steamship Company, after all other shareholders were bought out. In September 1925, it was transferred to the Charles R. McCormick Lumber Company. Throughout its service in the McCormick company, the Wapama transported passengers and cargo from San Francisco to the Northwest. In the Northwest, the ship would load lumber and passengers before returning to San Francisco. The ship would occasionally tow other vessels, like the lumber schooner Alpena and the whaler Bowhead, but were opportunistic and done at sea. The crew originally numbered 31, but was consolidated to 26 in 1927.
The ship was sold to the Los Angeles-San Francisco Navigation Company of Claudine C. Gillespie, Albert E. Gillespie, and Charles Gillespie on May 20, 1930. It served as a passenger and cargo ship between the two cities and included a service that allowed passengers to transport their automobiles as well. It was sold to Erik Krag, president of the Viking Steamship Company, a subsidiary of Inter-Ocean Steamship Corporation, a company run by Erik Krag and Harry Brown, for $12,500 on April 20, 1937. The ship made two passenger runs, at lost, before it was sold to the Alaska Transportation Company for $27,000 on December 23, 1937.
Now under the ownership of the Alaska Transportation Company the ship was renamed the Tongass on February 4, 1938. The ship was refitted for cargo service by the Lake Union Dry Dock and Construction Company and completed in May 1938, the alterations raised the ship to 999 gross tons and 524 net tons. Only the record of its final run remains, but the ship carried "passengers, mail, and general cargo to Alaskan port towns and returned with a cargo mainly composed of frozen fish. The crews on the Alaska run usually numbered around thirty men and included a pilot and purser."