Qualla: Sierra (motor ship)

Sierra (motor ship): Introduction

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. The engines came from Sweden. Bolinder, the manufacturer, didn't trust anyone else to install them, so the company sent a representative halfway around the world to the Matthews shipyard in Hoquiam, Washington, to supervise the work personally. When the Sierra slid into Grays Harbor in 1916, she was the first motor ship ever built on those waters -- a lumber carrier powered not by steam but by internal combustion, a quiet revolution in a harbor that had known nothing but sail and boiler. Over the next half century, the Sierra would carry timber to Chile, collide with a steamship in San Francisco fog, catch fire in Los Angeles, haul frozen reindeer meat from Alaska, and eventually earn a place on the National Register of Historic Places. Few working vessels have lived so many lives.

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Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

Sierra (motor ship): Swedish Iron, Pacific Fir

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David M. Hansen, Public domain. E. K. Wood Lumber Company commissioned the Sierra to move timber -- the core business of every enterprise on Grays Harbor in the early twentieth century. But the ship's power plant set her apart. Motor ships were still uncommon on the Pacific coast in 1916, and Bolinder's heavy-o...

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Image: David M. Hansen | Public domain

Sierra (motor ship): Fog, Fire, and Reindeer

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David M. Hansen, Public domain. Working the Pacific coast in the early twentieth century meant accepting a catalogue of hazards. On February 7, 1923, the Sierra was steaming near San Francisco when dense fog closed in and the steamship Wilhemina struck her. The collision was severe -- damages were estimated at ...

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Image: David M. Hansen | Public domain

Sierra (motor ship): Returning to Her Roots

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David M. Hansen, Public domain. After decades of service under various owners and in various configurations, the Sierra began a journey back to what she had been. In 1964, a new owner started restoring her to her original lumber-carrying configuration, stripping away the refrigeration equipment and the modifica...

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Image: David M. Hansen | Public domain

Sierra (motor ship): A Harbor's Quiet Revolution

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David M. Hansen, Public domain. Grays Harbor in 1916 was a place defined by timber and the ships that carried it. Schooners and steamers crowded the waterfront, loading lumber bound for markets up and down the Pacific coast and beyond. Into that world of masts and smokestacks, the Sierra introduced something ne...

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Image: David M. Hansen | Public domain