This view of the Mercer is off the port beam, obviously in Lake Union, looking NE toward Capitol Hill, Seattle (text by Vern). The second view, below, was probably taken in Lake Washington or Puget Sound. Neither picture is dated, but must be from around 1930.
Operating this steam launch around Puget Sound, Hood Canal, Admiralty Inlet, Lakes Washington and Union and through the ship canal — and living on it during the summers — was an important part of the adolescence certainly of the older children Keith and Vern. (Keith would have been 14 and Vern 12 when the Mercer was acquired.) Dad said that his brother Keith had always had an interest in marine architecture (and later was involved in boat building), and Vern thought that his father had bought the Mercer to encourage him in these interests. Vern later claimed on an application for officer candidate school that he learned navigation on the Mercer.
Why was it eventually sold? Vern used to say that Mabel was worried about the younger children around the water. Was there another reason? W.S. was a businessman, and no doubt sold or traded it when it made sense to him to do so. We know that the used it to advertise his real-estate business and rented it for charters. He had originally acquired it for cash and real-estate.
One way or another, the years that the Mercer was in the family bulked large in everyone’s imagination, even long after it was gone. And no wonder. What an awesome way to explore waterways of the Pacific Northwest!
Does anyone have any other information?
Notice the sign for “W. S. Robison & Co., Realtors” on the rail foreward of the second set of davits.
Two more undated views of the Mercer under way, unknown location. Figures visible aft of the pilot house on the upper deck in the view below.
Some time before 1929 [i.e., before acquiring the Mercer] the Robisons had for a few years the Sally Ann, a 32-foot cabin cruiser (about half the length of the Mercer). The undated photo above left shows Mabel and some of the children on the after deck of the Sally Ann with someone (W. S. Robison?) forward.
Above right, meanwhile, is an unnamed sloop also owned by the family, probably sometime before the Sally Ann. This looks like a moorage on Lake Union.
From a page of undated handwritten notes under the heading “The Mercer,” written by my father, Vern Robison, probably from the mid-1990s. I have supplied missing words in brackets for clarity and for some commentary:
“[The Mercer] belonged to a man we called Captain Cook — Dad traded some cash and property for the boat. It was 65′ [but] as I recall it was actually 64’9” to be under a legal requirement on crew or something (will check with Keith).
“It had seats like a bus inside, which we had removed and put in bunks: eight that folded to make four davenos [a local term for couches] in the main cabin. The front cabin was the dining room and kitchen. 12 and 14 [obscure] boats on top. Power: steam engine, 2 cycle (push power both ways in cylinder so worked like a 4 cycle. [It] ran just enough for us and excellent for slow trolling. We used it like a summer home, often for [outings of] a week at a time. [We kept it] at the dock at Shady Beach on Lake Washington. I remember [a] trip across [the] Sound to Bremerton, Whidby [Island], Hoods Canal, Canada.
“It was our second boat. 1st boat [was the] ‘Sally Ann,’ 32′ [with a] 2 cycle gas engine. [It was] too small for us and slow and rolled a lot in wind or rought water. Had it for 2 or 3 years. We moored both at [the] south pier of Lake Union Drydock.
“I remember 2 years we took a charter party out [on the Mercer] on Lake Washington north of Sandpoint to watch the university crew races. 50 people on board! Lots of boats on the water. [We] had to go slowly and with care.
“This was Prohibition time [1920 – 1933]. I remember taking out a couple of drinking parties for hire. Dad wasn’t much of drinker, and they got him high! When they were out in the Sound no neighbors could report them.
“In picking up people on Mercer Island I remember nosing right in to the shore and laying out a plank to pick them up.
“When we first got the boat Keith knew more about it than any of us — he was the chief engineer. The bottom of the boiler fire-box was filled with a layer of and. Keith thought it should be cleaned out so he emptied it. It was insulation! On the next trip we tied up at a powder dock in Everett [and] we caught fire under the boiler! The guard had us get away from the dock fast and we ran water with a hose to put out the fire. They had to replace the sand the next day before we could go.”