One hundred years ago, Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole and Ray Harroun reached record speeds of almost 75 miles per hour as he won the inaugural Indianapolis 500 that year. The U.S. Supreme Court dissolved Standard Oil. that same year and federal spending topped 500 million dollars. In 1911, William H. Taft was president, the U.S. population approached 94 million people and demonstrators in New York City demanded that women be granted the right to vote. And across the country in Seattle, the fishing vessel Tordenskjold slid down the ways at a little shipyard in the Scandinavian community of Ballard.
Of all the events that transpired 100 years ago, the Tordenskjold is one that endures and is the subject of a new documentary to be shown at the Nordic Heritage Museum in April.

As Tordenskjold celebrates her centennial, she is neither relic nor museum piece. The Tordenskjold leads a small fleet of hard working commercial fishing schooners that compete head to head with modern boats on the Alaska fishing grounds.

"They had really good carpenters and really, really good material to work with," owner Marvin Gjerde said. "I don’t know how far they had to go to get the vertical grain fir she was built with. They were probably still logging on Capitol Hill in those days and it was just the finest material you could possibly use."

Gjerde has owned and operated the Tordenskjold since 1979. He’s still making a living with his century-old boat.

"You make a good living at it. You know they’re efficient boats, they’re fairly inexpensive to operate. They’re easily driven so you don’t burn a lot of fuel," he said.

Nobody is quite sure how many of the historic schooners are left. "At one time, I was told there were 100 schooners in Seattle," said Per Odegaard, owner of the Vansee. "And now in' the Seattle area that I know of, we’re down to about 20. There’s a few here and there, a couple in California, a few in Alaska but I don’t believe there’s 30 left."

The Vansee is an 87-foot traditional wooden schooner, built out of fir, sawn fir frames, and old-growth timber.

"Obviously, these boats were heavily built, that’s one of the reasons they lasted so long. It’s very similar to a sailboat style when you see the lines of it," Odegaard, who started longline fishing in 1967.

John McHenry owns the Seymour, which targets halibut and sablefish just like the Tordenskjold and her sisters.

An anomaly in the clannish halibut fishery, McHenry has been a fisherman for 36 years. McHenry has been a fisherman for 36 years. For McHenry, operating a 98-year-old boat is no hobby.

"It’s not really a form of nostalgia that has kept the Seymour going. It’s still a very safe, effective platform to catch our fish. At first glance it would appear as though it was a dinosaur but we’ll be out with modern boats competing neck and neck and when we pull up to the fuel dock we usually win that contest," he said.

Anomalies like McHenry aside; halibut fishing has always been a family affair.

"The boats in the Seattle fleet here, all of them are second or third generation, says Wade Bassi, owner of the Polaris.
"It gets handed down from father to son to next son and it kind of stays in the family."

Produced by John Sabella, the 30-minute PBS style documentary celebrates the Tordenskjold and her sisters and will premiere at the Nordic Heritage Museum on Wednesday, April 20.

The event begins with a reception at 6:30 p.m., the screening at 7:30 p.m. and a follow up discussion with the vessel owners at 8 p.m.
Tickets are priced at $10, which includes complimentary hors d’oeuvre. There will be a cash bar.
To order tickets, call (206) 789-5707 or email: rsvp@nordicmuseum.org. Seating is limited to 220.
To order copies of the documentary, call John Sabella & Associates, Inc. at (360) 379-1668
or follow this link.