Florence K
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Beeline ex Florence K
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Florence K |
| Port of registry: | Port Townsend, WA |
| Route: | Puget Sound |
| Completed: | 1903 |
| In service: | 1903 |
| Identification: | 121282 |
| Fate: | Probably scrapped, post-1945. |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | inland steamboat; later steam ferry |
| Tonnage: | as built: 143 gross; 97 regist. |
| Length: | as built:93 ft (28.35 m);later: 97 ft (29.57 m) |
| Beam: | as built: 20 ft (6.10 m); later:26 ft (7.92 m) |
| Depth: | 6.5 ft (1.98 m) depth of hold |
| Installed power: | steam engine |
| Propulsion: | propeller |
| Capacity: | as ferry: 18 automobiles. |
| Notes: | Rebuild as steam ferry in 1924 and renamed Gloria. Renamed Beeline in 1926. |
Florence K was a steamboat that was operated on Puget Sound from 1903. This vessel was later renamed Gloria and was rebuilt as a steam ferry and renamed Beeline.
Florence K was built at Tacoma, Washington in 1903 for E.L. “Cap” Franks and his associates who were doing business as Eagle Harbor Transportation Co. Among the principals of the company was Capt. J.A. Jensen (1851-1933), who had been in charge of the Quartermaster Harbor drydock when it was the only such drydock on Puget Sound.
Steamboat safety regulations were strict in theory in 1903, but loosely enforced. Following the sinking, in January 1904, of the Clallam, where a variety of safety rules had been violated, the steamboat inspectors swept through the Puget Sound steamboat fleet, fining sixteen vessels, including Florence K $750, a considerable sum then, for various safety deficiencies.
The safety deficiencies included inadequate fog horns; rather a steam driven horn, the vessels were using hand-held tin horns driven by a hand-bellows, or a weak manual horn simply blown by mouth, insufficient fire axes and fire buckets, not enough oars in the lifeboats, no plugs in the lifeboat drains, lack of life preserver notices and instructions, no load capacity marked on lifeboats, and boat falls and davits in poor condition. Inspectors strictly counted the total numbers of persons boarded on each vessel, and gave notice that there would be no more remissions of fines for equipment defects. (It had been the custom that heavy fines imposed on steamboats would be remitted upon a showing of compliance by the vessel's owners.)
Florence K was placed on a route from Tacoma to Vashon Island running with Sentinel.Florence K was also placed on the Seattle-Winslow route for the Eagle Harbor Transportation Co., until 1915 when the company put the new steamer Bainbridge on the route, and shifted Florence K to the Seattle – Port Washington route. Like many other Puget Sound steamers, Florence K used Pier 3 (now Pier 54) as its Seattle terminal.
Florence K. was the first vessel on the scene at the sinking, following a collision, of the steamer Dix, in Elliott Bay on November 18, 1906. Forty-five people drowned, and the Dix sinking remains one of the worst transportation disasters in the history of the state of Washington. Florence, under the command of Capt. Cyprian T. Wyatt (1877-1952) and chief engineer, E.L. Franks, picked up the first survivors and took them to Port Blakely. It is reported that at some point Florence K was acquired by Kitsap County Transportation Co..
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Wikipedia