Submitted by Mark Thompson-Klein, director of the Lopez Island Historical Society and Museum

Captain Sam Barlow (third step up in center) with his crew on the Steamer Rosalie. Of all the men who guided steamers through the treacherous waters of the San Juans and Puget Sound, none was more skillful, nor more fondly remembered, than Captain Sam Barlow. Captain Sam possessed uncommon navigation skills, remembered Lopezian Oscar Anderson, whose first job was as a crewman on Barlow’s last command, the ferry Rosario. In those days, Anderson points out, the only navigation aids were, “a compass, a lead line, a whistle and a clock.”

When the weather got thick, Barlow checked his instruments, but relied on his senses. In fog, he shed his Captain’s cap, and pulled on an old, black felt hat with a wide brim, which he turned down over his ears. “It picked up the echoes better,” Anderson explains. Then, with the engines stilled, he listened for his landmarks—the bark of a particular dog, the clucking of chickens at a given farm, the wash of waves against a rock or shore, and the reflection of the whistle blast.

You’ll hear more about Captain Sam Barlow (and other fascinating Lopezians) at Lopez Legends, Myths and Yarns 2, Nov. 4, 3 p.m. at the Port Stanley School.