130 Years of El Primero
1893 - Union Iron Works constructs El Primero for Edward W. Hopkins, nephew of Mark Hopkins. Purportedly, more than $250,000 was spent on the initial construction, which would be equivalent to approximately $10 million today.
1906 - Hopkins transfers the title of El Primero to Chester Thorne, a prominent banker in the Pacific Northwest at the time, and an eventual founder of the Port of Tacoma. Thorne relocated the vessel to the Puget Sound, and it's no wonder why. El Primero's original interior was nearly identical in style to that of Thorne’s own Thornewood Castle, still standing to this day in a suburb of Tacoma, right along the Puget Sound, and coincidentally right across the river from Anderson Island.
1907, September 9 - President William Howard Taft rides El Primero from Tacoma to Seattle on the final leg before his around-the-world cruise, from Seattle to Japan.
1909, October 1st - President William Howard Taft rides El Primero from Seattle back to Tacoma after his appearance at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
1911 - Thorne bets El Primero in a game of poker and loses to newspaper publisher, philanthropist, and Commodore of the Tacoma Yacht Club, Sidney Albert “Sam” Perkins, who gladly kept ownership of her until his death nearly 45 years later.
1939-1945 - El Primero is taken by the U.S. Navy to be employed as a patrol vessel during World War II.
1947 - The War is over, and El Primero is returned back to Perkins.
1955 - Perkins, 90, passes away, and El Primero’s title is transferred to his heirs, who later sell to Sy Devening of Puget Sound Excursion Lines.
1960s - Cy Denening* converts El Primero into a diesel powered engine before relinquishing her title to Arthur B. Church in the late sixties.
1985 - Trudy Kalke of West Vancouver, B.C., purchases the title for El Primero from Church, planning to turn it into a bed and breakfast.
2000 - Kalke solemnly retires the vessel from service in Blaine, Washington, where it remained virtually untouched for a decade.
2010 - Christian Lint, an aerospace engineer and tugboat captain from Seattle, purchases El Primero, and promptly ushers her to a dock in Port Townsend for refurbishment.
2013 - The Washington Marina hosts El Primero to the public for tours and events while Lint continues renovations.
2016 - Volunteers with the Tacoma Historical Society finish recoating El Primero’s hull.
2017 - El Primero is refitted in Port Townsend, successfully restoring many original features to a like-new condition. Following this accomplishment, Lint sails her to Astoria for further restoration.
2020 - Among other things, a storm destroys the deck at Pier 39 where El Primero is stationed. This catastrophe is the last of many unexpected setbacks culminating into feelings of hopelessness in Lint and his mission to restore it.
2022, August - El Primero is purchased by Jeff Anderson, a home-builder and freelance carpenter based in Oregon. Anderson and Lint begin plotting a course to South America, where they hope to have it docked for a year of consistent restoration work.
2022, September - Christian Lint, 72, passes away days before he and Anderson are set to embark.
2022, October - Against all odds, Anderson successfully relocates El Primero to a port in Eureka, California for restoration, with the help of some family and friends.