From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tenino (sternwheeler)
Tenino (sternwheeler)
Following a reconstruction or major salvage in 1876 this
vessel was named the New Tenino.
Design and Construction
Tenino was built in 1860 by R.R. Thompson at the mouth
of the Deschutes River on the upper Columbia River for
the Oregon Steam Navigation Company ("OSN"). , which
by the time Tenino was built was becoming the most pow-
erful transportation company in the American part of the
Oregon Country. John Gates, the OSN principal engineer,
Tenino
supervised construction of Tenino and became her first
Career engineer. The engines were new from the OSN shops.[2]
Name: Tenino; later, New Tenino
Owner: Oregon Steam Navigation Company[1]
Operations
Port of US 24491; after 1876 rebuild: US 130067[1]
registry:
Builder: R.R. Thompson and E.F. Coe
In service: 1861
Out of 1879[1]
service:
Fate: Dismantled at Celilo[1]
Notes: First steamboat to operate on Columbia River
above The Dalles
General characteristics
Type: shallow draft, inland passenger/freighter,
wooden hull
Tonnage: 329 gross
Length: 135 ft (41 m); after 1869 rebuild: 136 ft (41 m):
after 1876 rebuild: 136 ft (41 m)[1]
Beam: 25 ft (8 m); after 1869 rebuild: 26 ft (8 m); after
1876 rebuild: 32 ft (10 m)[1]
Depth: 5.5 ft (2 m) depth of hold; after 1869 rebuild:
5.9 ft (2 m)[1]
Installed steam, high-pressure boiler, twin engines, Advertisement for the Tenino and other steamers of the Oregon
power: horizontally mounted, 17" bore by 72" stroke, 19 Steam Navigation Company, published in the Walla Walla
horsepower nominal[1] Statesman, April 5, 1862.
Propulsion: sternwheel
OSN built Tenino to run with Colonel Wright which was the
Notes: rebuilt or salvaged as New Tenino
first steamer on the Columbia above Celilo. Tenino was a
bigger and more powerful vessel than Colonel Wright the
The Tenino was the second steamboat to run on the Co-
first steamboat on this stretch of the river.[3] Both boats
lumbia River above Celilo Falls and on the Snake River.
were owned by the powerful monopoly of the Oregon
Steam Navigation Company.
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tenino (sternwheeler)
Demand for passage and freight shipments up the Co- building a new vessel, so this may be a matter of charac-
lumbia was very great in the early 1860s. Although only a terization of the work. For example, when Rossland on the
moderate sized vessel, it was not necessary to haul large Arrow Lakes was rebuilt, in the off-season of 1909-10, the
amounts of cargo for a vessel to be profitable at that that upper works were jacked up, the old hull removed, and
time on the river.[2] Tenino proved to be one of the most a new hull slid underneath the old deckhouse structure,
profitable boats yet to appear on the river.[3] As Profes- which was then lowered down onto the new hull.[5]
sor Mills described it:
[T]he Tenino made money as fast as the purser Successor vessel dismantled
could collect and stuff it into a carpetbag. On a sin- The New Tenino was dismantled in 1879 at Celilo.
gle upriver run in May, 1862, when the gold rush
was at its roaring best, the Tenino gathered in
$18,000 for fares, meals, berths and incidentals --
Notes
the bar.[4] [1] ^ Affleck, Edward L., A Century of Paddlewheelers in
the Pacific Northwest, the Yukon, and Alaska, at 21 and
Tenino’s first captain was Leonard Wright, who had taken 26, Alexander Nicolls Press, Vancouver, BC 2000
Colonel Wright far up the Snake River. Later captains were [2] ^ Wright, E.W., ed., Lewis and Dryden Marine History
Charles Felton, E.W. Baughman, J.H.D. Gray, E.F. Coe and of the Pacific Northwest, at 100-101, Lewis & Dryden
Thomas and John Stump. The company ran Tenino hard Publishing Co., Portland, OR 1895
and by 1867[2] or 1869[1] the vessel had to be rebuilt. [3] ^ Mills, Randall V., Sternwheelers up Columbia -- A
Century of Steamboating in the Oregon Country, at 40,
Salvaged or reconstructed 43, 81, and 83, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
(1977 reprint of 1947 ed.) ISBN 0-8032-5874-7
In 1876, Tenino struck a rock while moving down river. [4] Mills, at 81
Her hull was too old to be worth salvaging, so OSN re- [5] Turner, Robert D., Sternwheelers and Steam Tugs -- An
moved the engines and installed them in a new stern- Illustrated History of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s
wheeler, called the New Tenino.[2] Another source states British Columbia Lake and River Service, Sono Nis
that Tenino was rebuilt a second time in 1876, and it was Press, Victoria BC 1984 ISBN 0-919203-15-9
this reconstructed vessel that was known as the New Teni-
no.[1]. A reconstruction could be almost the same as
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tenino_(sternwheeler)&oldid=461594475"
Categories:
• Steamboats of Oregon
• Steamboats of the Columbia River
• Steamboats of the Snake River
• Steamboats of Washington (state)
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