The flagship of this flotilla was Francis H. Leggett, which Hammond named after one of his business partners and commissioned to be the largest ship in the Pacific lumber trade.

[3] After some years of success, the practice was banned by the United States Congress in 1912 after several rafts broke up in storms, spreading large logs up and down the coast and creating a hazard to shipping.

[4] On September 17, 1914, Francis H. Leggett departed Grays Harbor, Washington, for San Francisco, California, with a load of railroad ties lashed to her deck.

While the weather was calm in Grays Harbor, it worsened as the ship steamed south, where a 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) gale was blowing off the coast of Oregon.

Both ships responded to the call for help, but by the time they arrived on the scene, Francis H. Leggett had sunk, leaving only its cargo of railroad ties still afloat.