Minnie A. Caine was a four-masted wooden schooner built by Seattle shipbuilding the Moran Brothers in 1900. One of the schooner's initial short-term co-owners, Elmer Caine, named her after his wife, Minnie. From 1900 to 1926, the schooner was operated out of San Francisco by Charles Nelson Co., one of the largest transporters of lumber in the United States at the time. The schooner transported lumber across the Pacific Ocean from the Pacific Northwest to ports in Australia and Americas, but after 1920, her scope of operations became limited to the West Coast lumber trade. By 1926, the company could no longer run a sailing ship profitably, and the Minnie A. Caine was moored in a marine boneyard in California.
In 1931, the schooner was purchased by Olaf C. Olsen and turned into an unrigged fishing barge operating off the Santa Monica Pier. After a severe storm in September 1939, the Minnie A. Caine was grounded in Santa Monica Bay. Three months later, her wreckage became a threat to a California highway and had to be incinerated. A cabin clock from the Minnie A. Caine is preserved on the in the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
The schooner became widely known for a series of incidents immortalized by her portrayal in literature. Twice, the Minnie A. Caine suffered damage that amounted to 50% of her cost, but was successfully salvaged. The salvage operation after her grounding in 1901 lasted three months and was featured in Scientific American. The fire that almost destroyed the schooner in 1917 in Adelaide inspired fiction from Peter Kyne, Joan Lowell, and Corey Ford.
The Cradle of the Deep, an autobiography written by silent movie actress Joan Lowell in March 1929, topped the non-fiction category of The New York Times Best Seller list. The autobiography purported that Lowell had spent her childhood on the Minnie A. Caine, and provided details about many unusual and frightening experiences. It was soon discovered that the autobiography was a hoax, resulting in a nationwide literary scandal. Later that year, Corey Ford published Salt Water Taffy, a parody of The Cradle of the Deep that in turn, also became a bestseller.
Construction
Construction of the Minnie A. Caine began in Seattle in December 1899. At the time, Seattle was benefiting from the early years of the Nome Gold Rush, which propelled the small town to its later prosperity. One of the beneficiaries of the rush was Seattle citizen and a future millionaire Elmer Caine, who made his starting capital by transporting eager new colonists from Seattle to Nome and other Alaskan ports, rising from the captain and ticket agent of a small steamer to a prominent shipowner.
In 1899, aiming to diversify shipping interests and maximize profits, Caine ordered several vessels built simultaneously, with the intent to finance them in partnership with other shipowners. Unlike the other ships, which were built to service coastal Alaskan routes, the Minnie A. Caine was designed for the long-distance lumber trade. Caine named the vessel after his wife, Minnie, although he owned only approximately ⅓ of the ship. Half belonged to the Charles Nelson Co., a San Francisco shipping company that specialized in lumber trade, and the remaining one-sixth was owned by local associates of Caine from Seattle.
The Minnie A. Caine was the first sailing ship constructed by the Seattle shipbuilding company Moran Brothers, which generally specialized in steam-powered vessels. The vessel's price was $55,000 ($1,500,000 in 2020 dollars). One worker died during the ship's construction when the scaffolding collapsed in May 1900. The construction was supervised by George Monk, Ed Monk's father. On October 6, 1900, at 2:30 pm, in front of 3,000 spectators, the Minnie A. Caine was launched broadside, creating a spectacular splash. The same day, the vessel was christened by Nellie Moran, Robert Moran's daughter.
Specifications The Minnie A. Caine was a wooden, single-deck, four-masted schooner with two tiers of beams. She was long, wide and deep, and designed to be operated by a crew of ten. All four masts were equipped with topmasts; the foremast was outfitted with a single yard and a square sail.
The schooner could hold up to of lumber (1,000 M). Up to 30% of the load could be placed on a deck that was constructed with a minimum of fixtures and equipment. She was equipped with bow and stern ports to facilitate lumber loading and unloading operations.
History of voyages
Lumber trade, 1900–1919
After her launch, the Minnie A. Caine was utilized in the trans-Pacific lumber trade. She typically carried a full load of lumber from Washington state or British Columbia to ports in Australia, Hawaii, Mexico, Chile, or Peru. Until the late 1910s, the economics of the trans-Pacific lumber trade depended on payment opportunities for return cargoes. Return cargo loads typically included a load of coal from Newcastle, Australia to Honolulu where coal was in demand for the local sugar industry, followed by a load of sugar for San Francisco. Alternatively, a load of coal could be taken from Australia all the way to the Pacific Northwest; for example, in 1907 the Minnie A. Caine brought coal to Nanaimo, British Columbia and loaded her next cargo of lumber at the same port.
The Minnie A. Caine's most typical cyclic voyage was the Seattle–Sydney–Newcastle–Honolulu–San Francisco–Seattle route. On average, this route took her nine months. A one-way trip to Australia lasted approximately three months, and the loading and unloading processes were complicated, so docking could take weeks, after which the schooner often waited for return-trip cargo. This route was also the Minnie A. Caine's maiden voyage. She was scheduled to leave Puget Sound for Sydney on October 25, 1900. From the day of launch, the Minnie A. Caine's captain was J. K. Olsen.
Although initially the Minnie A. Caine operated under multiple owners, by 1903, Charles Nelson Co. has consolidated the ownership of the schooner and re-registered her to the port of San Francisco. The company operated multiple vessels and was growing to become one of the largest lumber transporters in the United States.
The grounding of 1901
The Minnie A. Caine's maiden voyage did not return to Seattle until December 23, 1901, having been delayed in San Francisco port by the "strike trouble" there. Her next assignment was to pick up a load of lumber from Chemainus, a logging town in British Columbia, and deliver it to Callao, the main port of Peru.
The schooner left Port Townsend, Washington on December 24, 1901. As she should pass through Haro Strait and the narrow passages around Salt Spring Island, she was pulled by a small -ton tug, Magic. On Christmas Eve, as the coupled ships were passing Victoria, British Columbia in the northeastern part of Strait of Juan de Fuca, it encountered a severe storm that covered the entire area and was described as "the worst storm seen in many years."
The roll of the larger vessel—the Minnie A. Caine—soon reached critical amplitude, and at 2:00 a.m., the hawser had to be severed to save the Magic from overturning. The steam-powered Magic managed to reach Port Townsend safely, pouring machine oil around herself to "keep the seas down." The crew of the Minnie A. Caine "heroically" attempted to sail through the storm, but the gale gradually ripped all her sails, and the schooner ended up thrown ashore on a rocky beach on northwestern Smith Island.
The crew was safe and found refuge inside the Smith Island lighthouse. Subsequent inspection of the schooner revealed damage to her bottom, and she was generally believed to be a complete loss. At the time, the estimated cost of salvage and repair—from $60,000 to $65,000 (from $1,600,000 to $1,700,000 in 2020 dollars)—was higher than her original price.
Salvage operation of 1902
It turned out that only Elmer Caine's share of the schooner was covered by insurance (in the amount of $17,500 ($465,000 in 2020 dollars)). The largest share, owned by Charles Nelson, was uninsured, and he sent his nephew, James Tyson, to investigate the possibility of salvage to the avoid $35,000 ($930,000) loss. The damage to the ship was not as severe as originally feared, but re-launching the vessel was problematic. Charles Nelson Company and Caine's insurance underwriters joined forces to organize the salvage, but all offered bids were too high.
Finally, the parties agreed that Robert Moran of Moran Brothers would attempt the salvage. The operation was led by Moran employee Captain Klitgaard. The salvage became "widely followed" and its details were featured in the Scientific American. The operation was complicated by the remote location of the wreck site, as all supplies, including fresh water, had to be delivered from Port Townsend. Caine allocated another of his ships, the tug Wallowa, to assist with transportation. The tug transported supplies to host and feed the 40 people involved in the operation, and brought back surviving fittings, including the removed topmasts,) from Smith Island.
The actual salvage started in February 1902. The 40 workers used heavy timber to construct skids to direct the schooner into the water. They employed hydraulic jackscrews to dislodge her from the sand onto the skids while the Wallowa pulled the Minnie A. Caine towards the water. The schooner was moved 45 feet, but a March storm destroyed weeks of work, pushing the schooner back to its original location. The procedure had to be restarted in April. The Wallowa attempted to pull the vessel 85 feet towards the water, but her power was insufficient. On May 4, a more powerful tug, the Tyee, from the Puget Sound Tug Boat Co., was chartered, but it took the simultaneous application of two tugs—the Tyee and the Tacoma—on May 9 to return Minnie A. Caine to the water.
The schooner was tugged to the Moran Brothers' dock in Seattle, where she underwent repairs until starting a voyage to San Francisco in September 1902. The salvage operation ended up costing almost $20,000 ($530,000), with subsequent repairs at Moran's costing an additional $10,000 ($270,000), which amounted to almost half the vessel's value. Because Elmer Caine used his own tug and men during the salvage operation, he ended up owning a 50% share of the vessel. However, by 1903, he sold his share to Charles Nelson Co. which became the Minnie A. Caine's sole owner.
1906–1909 incidents During one of the voyages from Washington state to San Francisco in November 1906, the Minnie A. Caine saved the crew of another San Franciscan schooner, the Emma Caudina, which was wrecked off Grays Harbor. Three years later, on December 27, 1909, the Minnie A. Caine itself reached Grays Harbor in miserable condition after encountering a typhoon. The schooner was sailing from Haiphong, French Indochina, to Bellingham, Washington, and the typhoon carried away all her sails and destroyed most of her provisions. The crew was suffering from severe hunger. Captain J.K. Olsen became stricken with heart disease, and on arrival was taken to the Hoquiam hospital in critical condition. G. Nelson became the Minnie A. Caine's new captain.
Australian incidents of 1917–1918