A FAMOUS STEAMER

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 142, 11 March 1919, Page 9

A FAMOUS STEAMER

THE DOHA OP ALASKA. The Dora, a famous little steamer which for years has braved the bad waters lying off that remote part of Alaska west of Seward, strung out along the mainland .Unalaska, and the Aleutian Islands, will point her bow no more to the northward. Her owners have put her on a southern run. Alaskans (says the New York "Evening Post") will miss the Dora, for during these many years they have come to look to her for almost everything. Th« hundreds she had carried back and forth .will regret to learn of her passing from the run. To the fishermen, prospectors, and natives of tho westward, the' Dora' was tho newspaper, the grocer boy, the mail carrier, tht>. supply bearer, and even a Santa Claus. Every year just before Christmas she made it a point to leave Seward in time to gej;, the Christmas mail and packages west before the holiday. . , Children of the westward were named after the boat their parents had come to love. It is said there is. hardly a town or fishing village on the run that cannot boast of at least ono girl christened Dora.

Eor over thirty-five years the Dora's run has been in northern waters. It has been claimed, she operated on the most northerly winter route in the world, the ICth. of each month leaving Seward on a 2200-xuile trip to Dutch Harbour, Uuimak Pass, and other points and back. Once in a while sho would venture north into the Bering Sea with supplies. Tho log of the Dora was one thrilling event after another. Occasionally ( in the winter sho would pull into Seward with ice from her topmast to waterline. Gales drove her ashore scores of.times, frequently forced her to run for shelter, but never sent her down. She bore but few.scars of her many battles, with the elements. Once tho Dora was lost for eighty days, and nearly the fntiro world watched the progress of tho search for her. It happened in IMG. Gales blew her off her run and carried her south over the Pacific nearly to Honolulu. Ultimately she limped into Puget Sound, after what was said to be one of the most remarkable of the many remarkable experiences of the brave shins of the North Pacific. When the top of Mount Katmnl, Alaska's great volcano, blew off in 1912 the Dora was calling at villages along Sherikoff Island. She. was caught in a smothering cloud of dust and volcanic ash. In stygian darkness 6he fought a gale for two days' to git away from danger. Her path was lit by lightning and the noise of her engines was drowned .by tho mountain's roar. Ashes covered her decks and penetrated into every part of her hold. .Is a life-saver the Dora had a record higher than any othoi boat in Western Alaska waters. In 190G shs_ picked un passengers of the wrecked ship. St. Paul, who had been marooned 6ix Weeks' on Somedi Island. In 1909 she_ rescued passengers of the cannery ship Columbia, and in 1912 she brought back the men and women from oft' Hie wrecked Olympia. In all, she has saved hundreds of lives.