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Gig Harbor Now and Then: The Vine sailed into local history
With this, the debut of Gig Harbor Now and Then, Vince Dice, the editor of Gig Harbor Now, has placed his employment in great peril by trusting me to provide a worthwhile column of Gig Harbor Peninsula history.
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How it works
I’ll try to do that by presenting small but interesting bits that by themselves couldn’t support a full story, and would therefore otherwise never see the light of day. They will be presented in the form of a question, after a brief description of the subject of the week. The answer to the question will be given in the following column, two weeks later. That will allow for public comment or discussion on Gig Harbor Now’s Facebook page before the answer is revealed. The next question will appear along with the answer to the previous question.
The questions, answers, and brief explanations of both are intended to challenge, inform, and entertain. On occasion, they will also attempt to correct some of the popular errors of local history.
Each question will be given a rating according to its degree of difficulty. The ratings will range from easy (1) to very, very difficult (5). There are no prizes for knowing — or guessing — the correct answer, other than the deep satisfaction of being right. That’s more than enough reward, isn’t it? After all, the value of deep satisfaction doesn’t erode from inflation like your paycheck does.
Typically, Gig Harbor Now and Then will feature a single question, but the column starts off this week with three, all concerning the same subject.
The questions will not always pertain strictly to Gig Harbor. They will range throughout all of Pierce County west of the Narrows, and possibly push a bit north, to Olalla, and west, to Burley, both in Kitsap County. To begin, however, we will focus on Gig Harbor, going back 133 years, to the dawn of industry there.
The Vine on the day of its launch, October 15, 1890. Photo provided by Lita Dawn Stanton
The Vine
The beautiful, sleek schooner Vine is fairly well known as being the first ship built in Gig Harbor, by the Gig Harbor Lumber Company. Unfortunately, that’s one of the errors of local history. In fact, it was the second ship built there.
It was a rare combination of personal yacht and cargo ship, constructed in 1890 of the finest materials, and luxuriously appointed. The owner of the Vine, Captain John Burns, was a fairly wealthy sailor of many years’ experience. This week’s questions are:
- Where in Gig Harbor was the Vine built?
- Who owned the land upon which the Vine was constructed?
- The first cargo of the Vine was Gig Harbor-milled lumber, delivered to California. It was the ship’s shakedown cruise, having been loaded in Gig Harbor before being towed to Tacoma for completion of the rigging. What was the crew’s primary complaint upon arrival in San Francisco?
The first question has a degree of difficulty of 1. The second question is rated 3, and the last a 5.
Do you know the answers to any or all of the questions? Can you find the answers? They are all somewhere online, although they’re buried pretty deep.
Gig Harbor Now and Then will have the answers two weeks from today. In the meantime, you’re invited to visit the Gig Harbor Now Facebook page and post your guesses and other thoughts about the Vine, and read what others have to say about it. The odds are pretty good we’ll all learn something new about the history of the Gig Harbor Peninsula.
With a tip o’ the hat to Chuck Luce!*
* Luce is a former editor of a University of Puget Sound alumni magazine, who got the author started down the path of writing for publications and periodicals.