Catalyst to Adventure

April-May 1998

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

 

The Catalyst is a US vessel which travels the Pacific Northwest in US and Canadian waters. At 74' long, she carries a 14-foot inflatable outboard utility boat, a 15-foot rowing dinghy, two double sea kayaks and four single sea kayaks, and up to 12 guests.

The Catalyst began life as the University of Washington's first oceanographic research vessel. She was launched at Seattle in 1932, after Professor Thompson began a personal crusade to establish a school of oceanography at the University. With the help of a $60,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation he started both the school and the construction of the Catalyst.

The design was largely based on the experiences of the University's scientists who had suffered through many research expeditions aboard poorly equipped converted fishing boats. Every aspect of the boat's construction, from the location of the engine to the size of the vessel, was centered around the needs of the laboratory scientists.

She spent the next eleven years collecting data, primarily in Puget Sound. The information collected from the decks of the Catalyst in the 1930s form the foundation for today's understanding of the region's water quality.

The bombs that fell in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 soon had affect on the Catalyst. In 1942, Dr. Thompson offered Catalyst to the Navy to help in the war effort. The Navy conscripted the boat, mounted a machine gun on top of her pilot house and racks of depth charges on her stern. She reportedly spent the war years patrolling the Aleutian Islands for Japanese submarines.

After the war, the Navy sold Catalyst as surplus. She was purchased by an Alaskan mining company and handsomely refit. The main house was moved forward and the wheelhouse was placed atop it. Hatches, fore and aft, were created to access new holds. Ostensibly the work was done to carry tungsten ore, but so much attention was paid to accommodations and trim that it's suspected the owners used her more as a private yacht. Catalyst did haul ore south to Seattle, but also carried supplies and, perhaps more importantly, guests north through the Inside Passage. After all that work, the company only had the boat for two years, but every owner since has benefited from the beautiful work they did.

Over the next forty years, the Catalyst was owned by a few lucky owners who used her for everything from a mail packet to a floating dentist's office. The waters of Alaska, Baja California, and Hawaii have all passed beneath her keel.

Now she has been restored to her original purpose, learning about the ocean world. Only this time it is adventurous travelers, not research scientists, who benefit from her mission.

Contact: catalyst@olympus.net or http://www.olympus.net/catalyst/