sailing | The Filson Journal

Rum, Sailors, & Pirates: the dark history of booze on the High Seas

The spoils of captured merchantmen vessels often yielded large cargos of rum, wine, and ale, which pirate crews put to good use. Ironically, these periods of mass intoxication would last days or even weeks, alternating with periods of going without the most basic foodstuffs and water aboard ship, until landfall or the taking of another ship could replenish supplies.

5 Min

wooden raft at sea with single sail being steered by a man

Field Notes

Taking a Closer Look at Kon-Tiki

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands.

5 Min

hand with guard device working a detail on the border of a white canvas sail

How-To's

How to Repair a Ripped Sail at Sea

You hear a sound you shouldn’t. Standing at the helm, getting a good look forward is tricky through rigging, mast, and mainsail. But that long ripping sound was not a good sign. Your crewmate below can hear the sail flogging and she pops her head up out of the hatch: “Need a hand?” While she takes the helm, you scramble forward to assess the damage. Your task now is to stabilize the situation before it worsens.

4 Min

exterior view of large shipyard building with sign reading

Profiles

Pacific Fishermen Shipyard: The Origins of Ballard’s Oldest Working Shipyard

Pacific Fishermen Inc., or “PacFish,” as it is known to the many boat builders, ship crews, employees, family members and stakeholders in the Ballard community, can be traced directly back to the year 1871. It was in this year that a 47-year-old Norwegian immigrant, ship carpenter, and operator named Thomas William Lake settled on the north side of the Salmon Bay waterfront in unincorporated Seattle and opened his own shipyard.

4 Min

Black and white image of a crowd looking at the SS Portland at Schwabachers Wharf

Field Notes

SS Portland: The Ship that Started the Boom

Both April 6, 1895 and August 17, 1896 stand out in the history of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska as the moments when miners prospecting along the Klondike River in Yukon Territory discovered gold from the sediment panned from those cold waters. From these initial discoveries, a torrent of fortune seekers would soon flood the Canadian wilderness.

6 Min

vintage black and white image of large crowd of people all in suits at the oregon improvement co. facility

Field Notes

Journey to the Yukon: Passage Aboard the Steamships from Puget Sound to the Far North

The month of July 1897 was an exciting time to be living on the West Coast. Steamships with names like Excelsior and Portland were docking in the ports of San Francisco and Seattle, respectively, loaded down with tons of gold mined from the Klondike region of the Yukon territory of Canada. Alaska was the gateway by which anyone with a desire to strike it rich could make the journey northward and, if well prepared and lucky, eventually return to civilization a millionaire.

7 Min

Profiles

For the Love of Wooden Boats: Port Townsend’s Shipwrights Co-Op

Southeast of Port Townsend is a gravel yard where large boats balance on blocks of wood and slender steel stands. Removed from the water, the vessels reveal pleasing, functional curves. Inside massive sheds, deliberate Lilliputians in warm and dusty clothing crawl in and out of the leviathans to a symphony of hand and power tools.

3 Min

Profiles

Western Flyer: The Vessel of John Steinbeck

On the morning of Monday, March 11, 1940, writer John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed Ricketts boarded the sardine seiner Western Flyer at a wharf in Monterey, California. Both men were moving slowly because a fiesta to celebrate the end of fishing season had gone on late into the night after a boat parade, a barbecue, and seine skiff races. Steinbeck and Ricketts were well-known on the waterfront—and elsewhere—so their departure on a six-week expedition drew a raucous crowd. They didn’t get away until that afternoon, and as the Flyer eased from her berth, Steinbeck noticed that the whiskey they’d loaded for medicinal purposes was gone. “Good,” he thought. “A lot of people I know won’t be getting sick for awhile if the booze does its job.”

7 Min

large derelict wooden ship docked on a black sandy/muddy beach

Profiles

The SS Bering

The story of the SS Bering begins with her launching under another name, the Annette Rolph, on July 4, 1918, in Fairhaven, California. The ship was a wood-hulled “tramp” freighter built for the trans-Pacific trade and joined the fleet of the Rolph Navigation and Coal Company. At 245 feet in length, she was one of hundreds of wood-hulled vessels produced for the maritime industry in World War I.

2 Min

two seamen one standing at a large telescope and one taking notes on a clipboard

Field Notes

The History and Meaning of Maritime Tattoos

Standing out among a variety of styles and techniques, aesthetics, and traditions, perhaps nothing is more recognizable in the tattooing world than the sailor tattoo. Steeped in maritime lore and echoing a chorus of sea shanties across well-navigated oceans, the relationship between sailors and their ink has earned its place in the identity of modern Americana.

4 Min

info graphic depicting steps of tying a figure eight knot

How-To's

How to Tie 5 Sailing Knots Recommended by US Sailing

“Tie me a figure 8”, “grab that cleat hitch”, “fasten a bowline” – next time you’re aboard or at the docks, make yourself useful to the captain and crew and earn your passage. As they say, practice makes perfect. So whether you’re learning a new skill or brushing up on your technique, keep reading to learn about the top five sailing knots recommended by US Sailing coach Chris Childers.

5 Min

will-kutscher-dirigo-II sailboat with white sails on the water

Profiles

Family At Sea

Morgan Lohrey has been sailing for as long as she can remember. Suppose it to say that a sailing life has not been an unlikely outcome given that her father is a boat captain himself. Together, they have restored the Dirigo II and now can be found at sea, amidst the winds both fair and

chad kirkland on sailboat holding a coiled rope in port townsend

Profiles

Washed Ashore in Port Townsend

Olivier Huin has spent his life amongst salt air and sawdust. A seafarer and wooden boat builder, he has travelled around the world by sailboat, often built by his own hand. Now an instructor at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Townsend, WA, he is passing along his passion, teaching the students the

Field Notes

Soul of a Boat

Over the past four decades, Port Townsend, WA has become an important hub for the building and maintenance of wooden boats on the West Coast. It is there that the history and skills of wooden boatbuilding are still taught, shaping the souls of those that go to sea. Video by Brother for Filson.

3 Min

Filson Life - Haven Boatworks, man in full-face respirator power-sands wooden boat hull

Profiles

Shipbuilding in the Pacific Northwest with Haven Boatworks

There is a rich history of maritime pursuits in the foggy inlets and jagged shorelines of Washington State. From the hand-carved canoes of the Pacific Northwest’s original settlers to the welded aluminum hulls of modern fishermen, the shipbuilders and sailors of this region are known for resiliency at sea. Nowadays, many of the boatyards

woman holds circular black object in forest in black stetson and filson jacket

Profiles

Aeolian: Sailing the Washington Coast with Jamie Swick

Jamie Swick, an outdoor and story-telling photographer specializing in film, calls Oregon home. A sailor, writer, and life-long woodswoman, her ethereal perspective on the natural world aims to capture quiet moments and the curiosity of travel. Balancing her goals of circumnavigation while simultaneously trying to become a better rock climber, her website, Land or Foam,

Rum, Sailors, & Pirates: the dark history of booze on the High Seas

Taking a Closer Look at Kon-Tiki

How to Repair a Ripped Sail at Sea

Pacific Fishermen Shipyard: The Origins of Ballard’s Oldest Working Shipyard

SS Portland: The Ship that Started the Boom

Journey to the Yukon: Passage Aboard the Steamships from Puget Sound to the Far North

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For the Love of Wooden Boats: Port Townsend’s Shipwrights Co-Op

Western Flyer: The Vessel of John Steinbeck

The SS Bering

The History and Meaning of Maritime Tattoos

How to Tie 5 Sailing Knots Recommended by US Sailing

Family At Sea

Washed Ashore in Port Townsend

Soul of a Boat

Shipbuilding in the Pacific Northwest with Haven Boatworks

Aeolian: Sailing the Washington Coast with Jamie Swick