Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 14.djvu/374



334 FRED LOCKLEY

to take charge of the Sarah F. Gray, our sailboat. He put me in charge. In the latter part of June he sold the boat, but the purchasers, Whittingham & Co., of Wallula, stipulated that I must remain in charge of the boat or they would not buy it. Father told them he needed my help to build a boat, but they insisted and told him they would pay me $150 a month for my services.

"They told me that what they wanted was to make as many trips as possible while the prevailing winds were good. They gave me a mate, two deckhands and a cook. They paid big wages, paying my father $150 for my services, paying the mate $90, the cook $75 and the deckhands $60 a month each.

"This was the first boat that I ever had command of and you can imagine how anxious I was to make a record. During the month of July I didn't get very much sleep, as I was on deck to take every advantage of the coast breeze which swept up the Columbia. During the month of July I made five round trips between Deschutes and Wallula, which was not only a record up to that time, but has never been broken by sailboats on the river since. I took up from 25 to 28 tons each trip. We had the boat in operation for the full 24 hours each day. Father had sold the boat for $1200. Not only did I take advantage of the wind by night or day, but I rigged up a water sail to help us drift down the river with the current against the up- river wind. In that one month that boat not only paid the wages of myself and all the crew, but cleared in addition more than the price of the boat.

"To give you an idea of what we did to make five round trips within a month, I not only personally took charge of the boat at every bad rapid we came to, either by day or night, but I crowded on all sail, even when more cautious captains were reefing their sails. Three times during the month I had my main boom carried away. The crew soon were inspired by my enthusiasm and worked just as hard as I did to make a record.

"In the early part of August the coast breeze failed us entire- ly and we came pretty near making a record for the slowness of a trip. It took us 39 days to make one trip. Father was