short stories / By Heidi Walters

Tales from the Madaket

(Oct. 25, 2007) 
Relaunching the Madaket , 1989

The Motor Vessel Madaket harbors a veritable boatload of stories in its weathered Doug fir planks. From 1910, when she was built, to 1972, when the Samoa Bridge went up, the Madaket (originally named the Nellie C ) ferried scores of mill workers and their families and other folks back and forth between Samoa and Eureka and other points along Humboldt Bay.

GALLERY >

“We’ve had over 400 millyards on Humboldt Bay since white settlers established here 150 years ago,” said Janet Wood on Monday afternoon, sitting with Dalene Zerlang on the sun-drenched deck of the Madaket , docked at the end of Commercial Street in Eureka. The now-community-funded Madaket runs as a harbor cruise boat these days — for birthday parties, class reunions, nature excursions, harbor district meetings, you name it.

The Nellie C with captain, circa 1910

On June 6, 2010, this last of the bay’s ferry boats will be 100 years old. She’s the oldest passenger vessel in continuous service in the United States. And her keepers — her crew, volunteers and the Humboldt Bay Maritime Museum — want to throw the old gal a party. They also want to collect stories and photographs from folks who’ve crowded onto the 12-foot-by-49-foot Nellie C/Madaket over the years. Wood, who crewed this summer on the Madaket as deck hand/bartender and became so addicted to the lifestyle that she’s stayed on as a volunteer, is helping Zerlang of the Humboldt Maritime Museum organize a “Hundred Years of Madaket ” bash. She says all Madaket memories are welcome, whether they’re from that drunken get-together a few weeks ago, or from everyday travel in decades past.

“We had an elderly gentleman in his 80s who came on board, and he was telling me he used to ride this boat everyday,” said Wood. “He had his three daughters and his granddaughter with him, and while the captain was up there narrating, he was down here narrating his own stories. He said he’d ridden it when he was a kid — when he was a teenager he lived in Eureka and he was dating a girl over in Samoa. And he almost started crying when he saw the postcard showing what she used to look like.”

The Madaket’s sister ships, in the teens. Photos courtesy Humboldt Bay Maritime Museum.

“There was a baby born here,” added Zerlang. “He’s still alive; he lives in Ferndale.”

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