A FAMOUS STEAMER

Evening Star, Issue 16993, 15 March 1919, Page 3

A FAMOUS STEAMER

THE DORA 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 has put her on a southern run. Alaskans (says tho New York 'Evening Post') will miss the Dora, for during these many years they have come to look to her for almost everything. Tlie hundreds she had carried back and forth will regret to learn of her passing from the run. To the fishermen, prospectors, and natives of the westward, the Dora was the newspaper, the grocer boy, the mail carrier, the supply bearer, and even a Santa Claus. Every year just before Christmas she made it a point to leave Seward in time to get 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 one girl christened Dora. For over 35 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 15th of each month leaving Seward on a 2.200 mile trip to Dutch Harbor, Unimak Pass, and other points and back. Onco in a while she would venture north into the Bering Sea with supplies. The log of the Dora was one thrilling event after'another. Occasionally in the winter she would pull into Seward with ice from her topmast to waterline. Gales drove her ashore scores of times, frequently forced her to run foi shelter, but never sent her down. She bore but few scars of her many battles with the elements. Once the Dora was lost for 80 clays, and nearly the entire world watched the progress of the search for her. It happened in 1906. Gales blew her off her rur and carried her south over tlie 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 Katmal. Alacka'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 she fought a cale for two days to get away from danger. Her path was' lit by lightning and the noise of her engines was drowned by the mountain's roar. Ashes covered her decks and penetrated into every part of her hold. A a life-saver the Dora had a record higher than any other boat in Western Alaska waters. " In 1906 she picked up passengers of the wrecked ship. St. Paul, who had been marooned six weeks nn Semedi Island. Tn 1909 she rescued passengers of the cannery ship Columbia, and in 1912 she brought back the men and women from off tho wrecked Olympia. In all, she has saved hundreds of lives.