The Lady Washington's Troubled Waters

OLYMPIA - It is mid-morning and a unique history lesson is about to begin. Twenty-six students from this city's Garfield Elementary School scamper up a ramp to the majestic Lady Washington and enter a world of two centuries ago.

A bearded crewman in tricorn hat welcomes them aboard the replica of the double-masted brig of Capt. Robert Gray, Boston explorer who found "the Great River of The West" - the mighty Columbia - in 1792.

The students touch colorful beads like the ones Gray brought from Boston for trade with the Indians. They stroke smooth sea-otter pelts he got in return. They finger hard chunks of tea Gray brought back from China along with spices in exchange for the pelts.

They look at a coil of rope with knots every 42 feet. They learn this was the speedometer of its day. Weighted at the end and tossed over the stern, it was hauled back after sand had run through a 28-second time glass. The knots were counted, and to this day the speed of ships is measured in knots.

They discover that the ship's cannon was more than a weapon. It was the radar of the past. In dense fog, it was fired toward land and a crewman would start counting like kids waiting to rush in a touch football game: "Massachusetts one, Massachusetts two, Massachusetts three." Or something like that.

Even then, they knew that sound traveled roughly 1,000 feet per second. When the echo of the cannon returned to the ship, a crewman would divide the seconds he had counted by two to account for the round trip of the sound. This tried and true method saved many a ship from going aground in the fog.

You don't have to be a kid to find all this fascinating. History afloat. Lessons of the past. Inspiration for the future.

"Our focus is to give a feel for how it was," says Les Bolton, executive director of the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority, the nonprofit public-development authority that built and launched the $2-million ship as a Washington Centennial project in 1989. "But we use it to let kids know the age of exploration isn't over - that it's just begun.

"We'll ask kids to name some explorers. They usually say Columbus. We'll ask: `What about Marie Curie or Jonas Salk? Or Bill Gates?' Bill Gates is a great explorer. He's taken software where it's never been."

The scene at Percival Landing here has been repeated throughout the state. A few days ago, the 112-foot (from bowsprit to the end of the boom on its stern mast) ship was at Gig Harbor. Before that, Kirkland. This weekend it sails for Tacoma, then Port Orchard. It will summer in Aberdeen.

It provided tours, seminars and cruises for almost 8,000 students this past year.

But the Lady Washington has been sailing through troubled waters that threatened to put it in permanent dock in Aberdeen. That would be a shame.

The Lady Washington's troubles began at 10 a.m. on Oct. 17, 1991, when it was 318 miles up the Columbia just below the Snake River near Pasco. An automated railroad drawbridge operated by Union Pacific came crashing down on its 89-foot mast, which had been demasted to 65 feet.

Alert crewmen of the sailing ship, now also powered by a 312-horsepower engine, frantically worked the tiller back and forth - enabling the boat to wiggle out before it was shoved underwater.

Total damage: $78,000.

Bolton said the Coast Guard determined Union Pacific at fault. A claim was filed. A lower settlement offer was made. Operators of the Lady Washington sued. Union Pacific counter-sued. The matter has been in litigation since.

In the meantime, the ship's insurer, Fireman's Fund, paid $68,000 in damages - after the $10,000 deductible. Then it raised the Lady Washington's annual premium from $20,000 to $42,000 and upped the deductible from $10,000 to $25,000. It wanted what it paid out back in a hurry.

Yesterday, representatives for the ship, Fireman's Fund and Union Pacific met in Portland in an effort to resolve issues out of court. There was no final resolution.

When the Fireman's Fund policy expired a week ago, the Lady Washington shopped around and got lucky. It now is insured by the London-based Lloyd's Group for an annual premium of $29,100 and a $15,000 deductible.

"We're out of the woods for the time being," Bolton said. The Lady Washington will remain a traveling ship.

Still, accident and litigation costs have put a dent in the budget of the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority. The authority - named after the explorer who found the Columbia and Grays Harbor in another of his ships, the Columbia Rediviva - didn't ask for help. But it deserves it.

The Lady Washington is supported through relatively modest fees it charges. It has received some grants. It deserves more support. It is a worthy historical and educational candidate for corporate and individual giving.

If today's insurance climate and the leap to litigation had existed in 1792, Gray probably would have been dry-docked before finding the Great River of the West. Don Hannula's column appears Thursday on editorial pages of The Times.