Clatsop County OR Archives Biographies.....Gunderson, Captain Charles S. February 3, 1854 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com August 31, 2010, 3:22 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 579 - 583 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company CAPTAIN CHARLES S. GUNDERSON. The hero of many thrilling episodes as a pilot and captain, Charles S. Gunderson is now living retired at the age of seventy-four years and for the past half century has made his home in Clatsop county. 'He was born in Bergen, Norway, February 3, 1854, a son of Gabriel and Bernthine Gunderson, who, there spent their entire lives. The father was a deep water sailor and pilot who followed the sea for many years and became familiar with nearly all the ports of the world. In his family were nine children, four of whom survive, namely: Mrs. Dina Winsens, who resides in Norway; Charles S., of this review; Derby, who is living retired at Seaside, Oregon; and Mrs. Charlotte Ekstrom, a resident of Astoria, Oregon. Charles S. Gunderson inherited a love of the sea from his Viking ancestors which expressed itself early in life. He attended the public schools of his native land in the acquirement of an education and was confirmed in the Lutheran church when a youth of fourteen. As a boy he served a five years' apprenticeship at the sailmaker's trade and then shipped in that capacity on a sailing vessel from Norway. He afterward became a sailor on the Great Lakes and in 1876 arrived in Astoria, Oregon, where he was first employed in loading lumber on the bark Whistler at Knappton, Washington, across the river from Astoria. The following summer he fished for salmon on the Columbia and was on the first fishing boat which drifted out (against his wish) over the bar. After two days and nights they were rescued by a tugboat and towed to Astoria. A little later he was offered a job as deck hand on the tugboat which had rescued the fishing boat. He had been brought up in a small boat, was familiar with ships of all kinds and was used to rough water and hard work. Liking his job, he stayed with it even though his shipmates generally found it too hard and the pay too small. Mr. Gunderson was soon promoted to a higher grade with better pay, working under the famous mariner and martinet, Captain George Flavel, a man of vision, who kept his weather eye open all the time and had full control over the shipping on the lower Columbia for many years, surrounding himself with as loyal a set of men as ever could be found. In 1878 Mr. Gunderson received an offer to go to Chicago and take charge of a vessel. The idea of being master pleased him and he continued in charge thereof until the vessel was sold, when he returned to Oregon and again joined the bar tugs. In 1881 he was offered the position of pilot and procured a license from the state of Oregon and also from the United States local inspector, being the youngest pilot in point of years who had up to that time ever been given such a license. He realized that it was up to him to make good. The Columbia bar had an ugly name. There was little water there and the wheat-carrying boats of Portland were being built larger and with deeper draft. The tugboats were small and of little power. Tacoma was contending for the trade and the Puget Sound papers delighted in printing stories about the terrible Columbia river bar. Oregon naturally did not want to lose its trade and it was up to the men in charge of the shipping to make good. The channels across the bar would shift so that when a ship had crossed out in safety one year and came back the next it would find but little water in its previous course. This was true of the Bessie, whose captain after a year's absence attempted to sail in without a pilot. The vessel stuck on the bar and when the following day Captain Gunderson took a rescue boat out he found but little of the Bessie left above water. The Fern Glen ran on Clatsop Spit and capsized there. Captain Gunderson was one of the volunter crew who manned the life-boat and assisted in saving her crew. The bark Rival parted her hawser and went on Peacock Spit, but her crew was saved. Another ship struck bottom going out and sank twenty-five miles off shore. The bark Corsica was towing out just a mile ahead of Captain Gunderson on board another bark of similar size and draft. The former struck bottom, while Captain Gunderson's ship ran clear. The captain of the Corsica had to abandon his ship and Captain Gunderson and the men on the tug stood by that night and saw her sink. The Corsica had steamed fast ahead, while Captain Gunderson had slowed his ship down as he saw the sea running. On one occasion he piloted a tramp steamer outbound for China with lumber and with a high deck load. The Captain was to be taken off the ship by a tugboat. It was usual for the tug to send a small boat alongside the ship for the pilot after getting out to sea, but the tug in question had no small boat and it was not safe for her to come alongside the large steamer in a seaway. Captain Gunderson did not relish the idea of going to China, so told the captain of the tug to come up parallel with the ship, then steer away at right angles and back in toward the ship, and that when she got close to the side he would jump overboard on the tug's stern. He did this but said he would never repeat that performance, which caused much sensation among those who witnessed it. He thought that he would never land, as the tug fell off between two seas, but he made it, and the old Swedish captain of the tug said: "That was a good yump, by God!" On another occasion when Captain Gunderson was beating about off the bar with the pilot boat, a small schooner came close and asked if there was a pilot aboard. Captain Gunderson inquired whither he was bound and was told to Astoria and that he wanted a pilot if one could get on board. This was all the Captain needed. The small boat was gotten out and he, with two seamen, rowed toward the little schooner, which was head on to the sea, carrying a cargo of salmon and the Chinese cannery workers, together with a deck load of cedar lumber. Her jib boom went under water when she met the seas, and the end of her main boom went under when her bow was in the air, while the seas were washing over her rails. Captain Gunderson saw that the only way to get on board was to back his boat as near to the main boom as possible and then to make a jump for the boom lift when the end was under water. This he did, watching his chance to slide down to the boom and onto the deck. He then ordered the Chinese below, set more sail and sailed in over a very badly breaking bar to Astoria. These and many other incidents which proved his personal courage and demonstrated his notable skill as a pilot showed the important part that Captain Gunderson played in connection with the maritime interests of the northwest. As the years passed the shipping business was increasing and the ships were becoming larger and of deeper draft, but the water on the bar was not deepening. The building of the south jetty was of some benefit, but it was not until the dredge Chinook went to work there that a material increase in the depth of the water was noted. Meanwhile Captain Gunderson and others were working at disadvantage, for loaded ships were necessarily detained inside when the bar was too rough to cross in safety. At times chances were taken which did not always prove successful. In the late '80s the complaints of the shippers of Portland against the cost of towage on the bar were so strong that the astute Captain Flavel decided to give it up and so informed Captain Gunderson, requesting him to transmit such information to the other pilots. As the law of Oregon then prohibited a pilot to be employed as such by a tugboat owner and the state had built and maintained a pilot schooner off the bar, the pilots working for Captain Flavel had previously obtained their licenses from the territory of Washington and would be thrown out of employment when he quit. They decided to pool their resources and obtain a vessel suitable for such service, having meanwhile made arrangements with the Oregon pilots to enter into partnership with them, and as shipping was good, to keep two schooners outside on duty. Captain Gunderson was selected to go to San Francisco and either buy or build such a vessel. Not finding one there, he made a contract with a shipbuilder and had the eighty-ton schooner C. G. White built and with Captain Staples and crew sailed for Astoria. The day after her arrival she went on her station off the bar in connection with the Oregon boat, the Governor Moody. While the Washington pilotage fees were much larger than those prescribed by the Oregon laws, they charged only the lower rate and paid the tugboats a certain percentage of such fees for such service as they might render. At the next session of the Oregon legislature the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company was given complete control over the pilotage and towage and their house flag was flying over the pilot boat owned by the state. The owners of the C. G. White were told neither themselves nor the vessel were wanted, and though they had owned the C. G. White but eighteen months, they were obliged to sell for such price as they could obtain. Captain Gunderson with two friends then bought a small steamer and he ran as her master on the river for three months, when he was offered a pilot's position by the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company. As he was doing well with his little boat, he declined the offer and soon the large corporation found the pilot service unprofitable, so that all pilots were again free to run the state's pilot boat under the supervision of the state pilot commission, who held them strictly to account. The Governor Moody, while in charge of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company and in command of a comparative stranger on the coast, was wrecked on McKinzie Head. Four years after Captain Gunderson had become part owner of the steamer, the railroad from Seaside to Portland was completed, which made their run unprofitable, so he disposed of his share in the vessel and with the schooner Jessie and three other pilots started in opposition to the Oregon pilots. After some months his partners were spirited away by the Oregon pilots and he was left alone, so he decided to again obtain an Oregon license and buy a share in the pilot boat Joseph Pulitzer, which was owned and operated by the pilots. All went well for several years until the port of Portland was granted the privilege by the legislature to have control of the pilot service. Captain Gunderson was one of the five chosen to continue the work and thereafter was employed by the port of Portland on a monthly salary until the commission decided to cut the salary ten per cent. Not willing to accept the cut, he resigned and a few months later he was offered his former position and former salary, which he again declined. When the port of Portland decided to give up control of the pilotage, he was asked to take charge, which he finally did, and was given a free hand with the understanding that the pilotage to be charged ships would be lower than allowed by the state of Oregon. This agreement was faithfully carried out for several years, the port of Portland contributing a certain sum per month for the maintenance of the pilot boat Joseph Pulitzer, which was kept cruising outside the bar. After several months this was deemed too expensive, however, and Captain Gunderson was requested to bring the vessel to Portland to be laid up. Later she was sold and subsequently was lost on the beach in Alaska. In 1911 Captain Gunderson was appointed by the governor a lieutenant commander and member of the naval board of the naval militia of the state of Oregon and so remained for three years, when that branch of the service was discontinued by the legislature. In 1917 he offered his services to the government and was asked to assist in piloting the personnel for the coast defense. He passed the physical examination and was at the point of being enrolled when it was discovered that he was beyond the age limit. As his service was desired, the matter was referred to the admiral of the district and by him to officials at Washington, D. C., who sent word back that on account of his age he could not be accepted. In 1923, however, he was appointed by Governor Pierce a member of the state pilot commission and was elected its president, was reappointed in 1925 and served as president for four years, or until the end of his term in 1927. Well may Captain Gunderson feel pride in the fact that in the more than thirty-three years of his active service as pilot on the Columbia river bar he never lost a ship or, so far as he knows, damaged one, and never was he called on by either the officials of the federal government or the state pilot commission to explain any act of omission of duty. When he realized that age was coming upon him, he decided to quietly withdraw while his record was clear and clean. He still manifests a deep interest in maritime affairs and keeps posted on all things pertaining thereto. He loves to take a trip out over the bar to note the changes and to wonder and approve of the many aids to navigation now given the pilots and other marines and to think back over the days when he as a pilot had to struggle without such aids. There was no light on Tillamook Rock, or on North Heal, or Desdemona Sands, or Fort Stevens, Tanzy Point or Lower Sands, or the Astoria port docks, nor were there any light ships or lighted buoys on the bar or river, and still he and other pilots often towed ships in at night, and Captain Gunderson personally has sailed ships from the sea to Astoria at midnight without the aid of a tug. A fact worthy of note is that Captain Gunderson's appointment as a member of the naval board of the naval militia of Oregon, of which he acted as lieutenant commander from 1911 until 1914, came from Governor Oswald West, democratic executive, and that Captain Gunderson is a republican was a mark of esteem and a high tribute to his capability. A business block which he owned was destroyed in the conflagration at Astoria in 1922, but this he immediately replaced by a fine, modern Class A building of concrete and steel that occupies one of the best locations in the business section of the city. In 1883 Captain Gunderson was united in marriage to Annie Andersen, a native of Wisconsin and a daughter of Samuel and Inger (Knutsen) Andersen, both of whom were born in Norway. The father, a sailor and fisherman, emigrated to the United States in 1851 and settled in Wisconsin, where he followed agricultural pursuits until 1872. In the latter year he came west, locating at Seabeck, Washington, where for a number of years he engaged in fishing and packing salmon. Subsequently he purchased property and built a home at Coos Bay, Oregon, where he continued active as a fisherman until the time of his death in 1886. His widow, Mrs. Inger Andersen, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Gunderson, at Seaside, Oregon, in 1920, when ninety years of age. Mrs. Gunderson is the only survivor of the several children of Samuel and Inger Andersen. Captain and Mrs. Gunderson are the parents of two daughters. Bernthine, born in Astoria, is the wife of Dr. Samuel B. Foster, a veterinary surgeon of Portland, and they have a son, Samuel Gunderson Foster, who is eight years old. Ethel Ivy Gunderson, also born in Astoria, pursued the grammar school course there and subsequently took a commercial course in the Portland Business College, after which she studied stenography and shorthand in the Behnke-Walker Business College of Portland. She then worked as a bookkeeper in Astoria for two years and next took a nurses' training course at St. Vincent's Hospital of Portland. Following her graduation she went to New York city, where she pursued postgraduate work in a hospital for babies, while subsequently she removed to Chicago and there continued her postgraduate studies in a hospital for crippled children. Returning to Portland, she completed her high school work, which she felt had been neglected, and then spent a year at the University of Oregon. Miss Gunderson came back to Portland to take a position in a hospital and at the same time continued her university class work, being graduated in 1928, when the University of Oregon conferred upon her the degree of Bachelor of Arts. This is a record of which her parents are justly proud, for she has acquired higher education through her own earnings and by her ambitious spirit and undaunted determination has proved her Viking blood. Captain Gunderson has been a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for the past forty-seven years and has passed through all of the chairs. He also belongs to the Scandinavian Benevolent Society of Astoria and to the Chamber of Commerce. His wife is very fond of fishing for trout and also manifests a keen love of flowers. The Gunderson home at Seaside is a riot of bloom in the summer season, many summer visitors declaring that the Gunderson gardens make a visit to Seaside well worth while. Mrs. Gunderson specializes in dahlias, as the cool and moist climate of Seaside is especially favorable to their finest development. At the annual dahlia show held at Seaside, Mrs. Gunderson usually is awarded the lion's share of the prizes. In 1928 her blooms captured fourteen blue ribbons, twelve red ribbons and eight honorable mention, besides the first prize for collection, for size, perfection and variety and color. They are unsurpassed anywhere. After the dahlia show is over, Mrs. Gunderson generously bestows choice bouquets of these magnificent flowers upon her many friends. 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