C.C. Cherry

History
Name:	C.C. Cherry
Route:	Puget Sound
Completed:	1896
Out of service:	1930
Identification:	US registry #127139[1]
Fate:	Abandoned
General characteristics
Type:	inland steam towboat
Tonnage:	54 gross; 37 registered
Length:	68.7 ft (20.94 m)[1]
Beam:	16.4 ft (5.00 m)[1]
Depth:	7.0 ft (2.1 m) depth of hold.[1]
Installed power:	steam engine
Propulsion:	propeller
Crew:	six (6)[1]

C.C. Cherry was a small steam tug and general utility vessel that worked on Puget Sound from 1896 to 1930.

Career

CC Cherry was built in 1896 for Capt. E.A. Smith. The first use of the vessel was hauling fish from the San Juan Islands to a Canadian cannery^[2] One of the early masters of C.C. Cherry was the prominent steamboat man William Williamson (1859-1930), who later commanded the well-known steamship Flyer from 1896 to 1904.^[2]

Explosion of the Virginia

C.C. Cherry was working as a tug in July 1928, when the small gasoline-powered tug Virginia exploded at the entrance to the Lake Washington Ship Canal. The engineer was killed, and the captain was blown through the roof of the pilot house and into the water. He was then rescued by the crew of C.C. Cherry.^[2]

C.C. Cherry is reported to have been abandoned in 1930.^[3]

Notes

1. Annual List 1909, at 163.
2. McCurdy Marine History, at 4, 389, and 407.
3. Newell, Inland Sea, at 205.

References

• Newell, Gordon R., ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, Superior Publishing Co., Seattle, WA (1966)
• Newell, Gordon R., Ships of the Inland Sea, Superior Publishing Co., Seattle, WA (2nd Ed. 1960)
• U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, Bureau of Statistics, Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States (for year ending June 30, 1909)