“She was built as a gasoline schooner, and her mission was going to be working in Alaska bringing fish from the deep-sea fishers into port,” says Stewart Brand. “She was so strongly built that she didn’t have much cargo space, and so she flunked out.” The Mirene, as the boat is known, found work ferrying goods and passengers throughout the Pacific Northwest, and in the ‘30s she was converted into a diesel tug for hauling rafts along the Columbia and Willamette rivers. Her sturdy wood hull sur…
