page_title: Bailey Gatzert (sternwheeler)
section_title: Renewed competition with other steamers
hierarchical_section_title: Bailey Gatzert (sternwheeler) / Renewed competition with other steamers
caption_attribution_description: English: Sternwheelers Charles R. Spencer and Bailey Gatzert in Cascade Locks, on the Columbia River, May 26, 1896. From an old stereograph. The archival source misidentifies the vessel in the foreground as the Chas. Encer and provides no identification for the vessel in the background. These vessels were unique on the Columbia River and are beyond doubt Charles R. Spencer and Bailey Gatzert. Image name says 1896. The correct year was 1906. (Locks were not complete in May 1896, and the Charles R. Spencer had not been built yet at that time.)
context_page_description: The Bailey Gatzert was a famous sternwheel steamboat that ran on the Columbia River and Puget Sound from the 1890s to the 1920s. This vessel was considered one of the finest of its time. It was named after Bailey Gatzert, an early businessman and mayor of Seattle, who was one of the closest friends and business associates of John Leary – the person who financed the ship.
  Bailey Gatzert probably carried more passengers than any other Columbia River steamer. It was considered to be one of the most beautiful river boats, mainly because its upper deck ran all the way out to the bow.
context_section_description: In the spring of 1908, both the Gatzert and its competitor, the Charles R. Spencer, began their summer operations on the same day, May 4, 1908, with talk of a pending rate war between the management of the two steamers, both of which had been recently rehabilitated and were reported to be in top mechanical shape.  The steamers raced that day to Vancouver, Washington and then up the Columbia River Gorge to The Dalles.  Preparations for the race had been going on quietly for week beforehand.  The Spencer and the Gatzert were reported to have been at that time the fastest steamboats in the world.
  Both steamers, with Fred Sherman in command of the Gatzert, and Ernest W. Spencer on the Spencer, left their docks on Portland at 7:00 a.m., passing downriver through the harbor at the double slow bell, with the Spencer leading.  At 7:06 a.m. they passed through the Steel Bridge.  To comply with a municipal ordinance restricting speed on the river, the boats took 13 minutes to reach the Portland Flour Mills, a distance they could cover in 4 minutes if moving at speed.  At the flour mills, the race began in earnest.  The Spencer held a lead of half a boat length down to Linnton, Oregon, where the Gatzert increased its speed and whistled a signal to the Spencer indicating its intent to pass.
  But the Spencer held the right of way and turned closer to the Oregon shore when the boats reached the junction of the Willamette and the Columbia, increasing its lead to three boat lengths on the stretch into Vancouver, which Spencer reached first, covering the 17 mile distance from Portland to Vancouver in 65 minutes.  Both boats embarked a few passengers at Vancouver, and the Gatzert, with a better position at the dock, was able to cast off first, and keep and maintain a lead of two boat-lengths to the Cascade Locks, transiting the locks before the Spencer.
  Gatzert arrived at The Dalles at 2:32 p.m., with Spencer coming in 18 minutes later.  Bailey Gatzert departed The Dalles at 2:50 p.m., even before the Spencer had arrived, returning to Portland, where the steamer tied up at 8:05 p.m., making the total running time for the round trip as 13 hours and 5 minutes.  No freight was carried on either boat.
  In May 1908, both the Regulator Line and its competitor, the independent steamer Charles R. Spencer, cut their passenger ticket prices to $1 per person one-way from Portland to either Astoria or The Dalles.  Previously the rates had been $1.50, and Capt. Ernest W. Spencer, master of the steamer Spencer, was willing to see the rate cut to 50 cents.
  The Gatzert was rebuilt in order to beat my boat, but I'll show them and the public that the Regulator Line and the whole Northern Pacific Railroad that owns it can't beat the Spencer.  I've got some speed that I haven't used yet.  And I've also got some fight in regard to cut rates.  If those Gatzert fellows have started in for a scrap, I'm a man who likes to scrap.  I've been in the steamboat business a long time and I think I've learned how.
caption: The steamers Charles R. Spencer, foreground, and Bailey Gatzert, background, both crowded with passengers, in the Cascades Locks, May 28, 1906 (from an old stereocard).
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