Local Historic Ships
Steam Ship Capital City:The steamship Capital City was a frequent Olympia-run stern-wheeler could transport 300 passengers. She’s pictured here at Percival’s Dock on Olympia’s Budd Inlet. Her route often included a popular stop at Boston Harbor near the inlet’s mouth. Along with the S.G. Simpson, Bailey Gatzert, Mizpah, Fleetwood and Greyhound, she was known as a “fast boat,’ and races for bragging rights to “speediest boat” were common.
(Courtesy of Washington State Archives) |
She was sold to the Olympia-Tacoma Navigation Company in 1903, and put on the Olympia-Seattle run. She was fined $500 by the State in 1904 for transporting barrels of gasoline in a dangerous manner. She was transferred to the Bremerton-Port Orchard run, and ended her days as a Columbia River tow boat. She is pictured here on the Olympia-Seattle run, loading passengers at the Boston Harbor stop.
Courtesy of Mary Hall, Thurston County Auditor.
Courtesy of Mary Hall, Thurston County Auditor.
Old Ironsides: The USS Constitution visits Olympia
The USS Constitution was laid down in 1797, a 44 gun frigate with 21 inch oaken sides. She fought against Barbary Pirates in 1803, and in the War of 1812, startled the nautical world by capturing five Royal Navy ships from the most powerful navy in the world. During one of those fights, a US sailor saw a British cannon ball bounce of the Constitution’s oak side. “Huzzah!” he cried. “Her sides are made of iron!” Hence, the nickname. She became the symbol of the United States Navy. |
The first time she was considered for breaking up, in 1830, she was saved by a poem from the young Oliver Wendell Holmes, the one that began: “Aye, tear her tattered ensign down, long has it waved on high.” Public sentiment was aroused by the poem and caused the Navy to decide against destroying the ship. She became a Naval Academy training ship during the Civil War. By 1906, she required $100,000 in repairs. By 1924, she needed $1,000,000. It was raised from school children’s pennies ($154,000), and the remainder from lithograph and souvenir sales and a congressional appropriation.
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Having been saved from the wrecking yard, she was towed in triumph around the two coasts of the United States by the USS Grebe, a minesweeper. As she visited Puget Sound, two Foss tugs towed her through the Narrows and to Olympia, where she is shown at high tide, pre-Capitol Lake, in Olympia Harbor, 1933, below the Washington State Capitol. She remains in commission today, in Boston. In the companion photo, school children line up to board her on Percival’s Dock, 1933.
Courtesy of Mary Hall, Thurston County Auditor. |
HMS Discovery
Vancouver’s flagship, this survey sloop of war was 337 tons and 96 feet long. She carried 135 men, stores for a five-year voyage, and ten four- pounder cannon in broadside. Owing to a recent mutiny aboard HMS Bounty, she carried a larger Marine detachment than usual, and her consort, HMS Chatham, a brig that normally would have no Marines, carried a contingent of ten Royal Marines. Her four ship’s boats; cutter, launch, longboat and gig, under the commands of Puget, Vancouver, 2nd Lt. Joseph Baker and Sailing Master Joseph Whidbey, charted almost the entire South Puget Sound. |
HBC Steamship Beaver
In August 1835, the HBC steamer Beaver left London for Fort George (later, Astoria) and the mouth of the Columbia River, arriving in March 1836, the first steamboat in the Pacific. HBC Governor George Simpson had lobbied for the ship to be built, citing the advantage she would give HBC over Americans in the fur trade among the inlets and coves of the northwest coast. The 187 ton side wheel paddle steamer carried 31 men including 12 “axe men” to cut the many cords of wood she’d burn in one day. She was also rigged for sail, and served as a trading and passenger ship, and was briefly chartered by the Royal Navy. After her last 18 years as a private towboat, she was wrecked in Vancouver, B.C. in 1888. She was a frequent visitor to Fort Nisqually and South Puget Sound, first with the HBC, and later as a privately owned tugboat towing log rafts to Olympia. (Courtesy of Washington State Archives) |
Gig, Cutter and Launch
The boats used by Puget and Vancouver for the South Sound exploration; cutter, launch. Longboat and gig differ in size and qualities under sail or oars. This ship’s boat photo shows the visual differences among gigs (closest), cutters (middle) and launches (distance). Gigs were shorter, narrow and light, designed for both sail and oar. Cutters were also shorter than the larger boats, broader, deeper, and better sailed. Launches were lower freeboard, longer and good for rowing. The longboat (not pictured) was more “ship-like” and sailed well. This photo was taken a century after the Vancouver visit, yet the relative boat proportions and qualities remained the same, according to W E May’s “Boats of Men of War.” Courtesy of British National Maritime Museum.
The boats used by Puget and Vancouver for the South Sound exploration; cutter, launch. Longboat and gig differ in size and qualities under sail or oars. This ship’s boat photo shows the visual differences among gigs (closest), cutters (middle) and launches (distance). Gigs were shorter, narrow and light, designed for both sail and oar. Cutters were also shorter than the larger boats, broader, deeper, and better sailed. Launches were lower freeboard, longer and good for rowing. The longboat (not pictured) was more “ship-like” and sailed well. This photo was taken a century after the Vancouver visit, yet the relative boat proportions and qualities remained the same, according to W E May’s “Boats of Men of War.” Courtesy of British National Maritime Museum.
USS Porpoise and USS Vincennes
Pictured here are the Brig Porpoise and Ship Sloop Vincennes in Puget Sound in 1841. The late Patrick Haskett was a veteran tugboat skipper from Olympia, Washington whose paintings have hung in the Peabody Museum, and that command the attention of hundreds of maritime art collectors. This reproduction of a watercolor from his very early years was an illustration in his book on the Wilkes Expedition in Puget Sound for his senior thesis at The Evergreen State College, published in 1974 by the Washington State Capital Museum. (Courtesy of Deborah Haskett) |
USS Vincennes
Wilkes’ flagship sloop of war in his seven-ship squadron, the Vincennes spent six months in Puget Sound, most of it in South Sound waters. This watercolor is attributed to Wilkes, himself, when he charted Antarctica. Naval officers were expected to draw and paint geographic features, in the days before cameras. As the Vincennes entered Admiralty Inlet, she took aboard a Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) pilot who guided Wilkes to his primary South Puget Sound anchorage off Sequalitchew Creek near Fort Nisqually, the South Sound HBC trading post. |
Steamer Active
Pictured here is the U. S. Coast Survey Steamer Active. This brig-rigged steamer (to the right in photo) cruised the waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan Islands for two decades, her soundings helping to strengthen the US claim to Haro Strait as the border between British Canada and the USA (The ship to the left is HMS Satellite). Her commander, James Alden, (first here with Wilkes) frequently visited Olympia and Fort Steilacoom in South Puget Sound during his involvement in the Indian Wars of 1855 and the Pig War, 1859-72. The United States Coast Survey is the antecedent of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). It was a prestigious assignment of for a 19th Century naval or army officer. Isaac Stevens, Washington’s first territorial governor, was a US Coast Survey officer, and later a Civil War Union Army general.
Pictured here is the U. S. Coast Survey Steamer Active. This brig-rigged steamer (to the right in photo) cruised the waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan Islands for two decades, her soundings helping to strengthen the US claim to Haro Strait as the border between British Canada and the USA (The ship to the left is HMS Satellite). Her commander, James Alden, (first here with Wilkes) frequently visited Olympia and Fort Steilacoom in South Puget Sound during his involvement in the Indian Wars of 1855 and the Pig War, 1859-72. The United States Coast Survey is the antecedent of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). It was a prestigious assignment of for a 19th Century naval or army officer. Isaac Stevens, Washington’s first territorial governor, was a US Coast Survey officer, and later a Civil War Union Army general.
Sloop Decatur
The sloop of war Decatur was powered by sail only, and at a disadvantage in the uncertain winds of the south Puget Sound. She was sent north from San Francisco in July 1855 because of rumored Indian discontent. Several more useful US steamers soon joined her, including Active. Decatur’s commander, Captain Isaac Sterrett, built the Seattle blockhouse for city protection in October as the Indians armed themselves for battle. Sterrett sailed to Fort Steilacoom to consult with the Army in November. Decatur was damaged in a raging December storm and beached in Seattle. In late January 1856, the Decatur was refloated and her sailors successfully defended Seattle against the Indian attack January 26. |
Eliza Anderson
The 140-foot side-wheeler Eliza Anderson began on the Olympia to Victoria, B.C. run in 1859 and ran for many years. One of her pilots was “Captain” John Butler of Port Townsend, originally an Olympia farmer, who was indicted but never tried for the murder of Tlingit chief Tsus-sy-uch at Butler’s Olympia area farm in 1854. The farm, on the Budd Inlet cove now named for Butler, was sold by him to well-known early Thurston County settler, William Winlock Miller. |
The Olympian
This “stately and beautiful side wheeler” the Olympian, is part of the tale of two “Olympians.” As described by maritime historian Gordon Newell, the iron-hulled Olympian was built in Wilmington, Delaware in 1883, her length of 262 feet making her among the largest of the Mosquito Fleet. The luxurious steamer with her big walking-beam engine ran the Olympia-Victoria route. She was faster than her rival on the Victoria run, the North Pacific. Her salon was 200 feet long, with crystal lamps and Wilton carpets, together with 50 deluxe staterooms and curved stairways inlaid with polished ebony. (Courtesy of Washington State Archives)
This “stately and beautiful side wheeler” the Olympian, is part of the tale of two “Olympians.” As described by maritime historian Gordon Newell, the iron-hulled Olympian was built in Wilmington, Delaware in 1883, her length of 262 feet making her among the largest of the Mosquito Fleet. The luxurious steamer with her big walking-beam engine ran the Olympia-Victoria route. She was faster than her rival on the Victoria run, the North Pacific. Her salon was 200 feet long, with crystal lamps and Wilton carpets, together with 50 deluxe staterooms and curved stairways inlaid with polished ebony. (Courtesy of Washington State Archives)
The officers of the opulent Olympian, some shown here, were numbered by the dozens. The Mosquito Fleet officer corps had a high turnover rate. Olympia’s officers included, as a sample, Captains O.A. Anderson, John Dixon, and A.F. Hennessey. Engineers included Charles J. Clark, Alexander Cummings and Scott DeLauncey. Henry Carstens served as purser, and Angus McCulcheon as steward. They did their best to make the steamer a paying vessel to operate, but she was extremely expensive to run, lost money, and went to the Columbia River in 1887. She returned to Puget Sound’s Victoria run, was eventually laid up, and then, on her way back to the Atlantic, sank in in the Straits of Magellan. She was remembered fondly for many years, as Gordon Newell described her, “the stately roll of her paddles and the ponderous curtseying of the walking-beams.” (Courtesy of Washington State Archives)
S. G. Simpson
The 115 foot S. G. Simpson was named for a Mason County logging magnate and was built by Crawford and Reid Shipyard of Tacoma in 1907. She served the tortuous waters of Hammersly Inlet on the Shelton-Olympia run until 1927, when she was converted to a Skagit River towboat. She was the last sternwheeler on the Shelton-Olympia route. (Courtesy of Kae Paterson) |
Mizpah
The 55 foot Mizpah was built in Olympia in 1901. She carried freight and passengers on the Olympia-Kamilche-Oyster Bay mail route until 1915, when she was rebuilt as a steam tug for the Capital City Tug Company of Olympia. Her later owners included Volney Young, and Doc and Mark Freeman. (Courtesy of Kae Paterson) |
Bailey Gatzert
The Stern-wheel Steamer Bailey Gatzert was built in 1890 in Ballard and for two years ran the Olympia-Tacoma-Seattle route before being moved to the Columbia River as an excursion boat on the Portland-Astoria route, where her classy interior and speed made her immensely popular. She was named for a former Seattle mayor, and in 1917, was purchased by Puget Sound Navigation Company and returned to Puget Sound for the Seattle-Bremerton run. “Tall and elegant,” Olympia historian Gordon Newell commented, “she raced like a foam-tracked express,” at 18 knots, one of the faster boats on the Sound. |
City of Shelton
Appropriately, the 100-foot steamer City of Shelton was built in Shelton (1895) and ran on the Shelton-Olympia run. She was often in competition with a tiny screw steamer, the Marian, which had an experimental triple expansion engine that drove her very fast, small as she was. Marian’s crew delighted in calling City of Shelton “Old Wet-Butt,” from the spray of her stern-wheel. One Friday night, both boats loaded with loggers yearning for the bright lights and bars of Olympia, they raced from Shelton down Hammersly Inlet to Budd Inlet, where the Marian, ahead, was running her engine at unsafe speed and snapped her shaft. Her stern-wheel rival ignominiously towed her into Olympia, and everyone headed for the Pine Tree Saloon. The rough-hewn skipper of City of Shelton, Ed Gustafson, was a beloved figure among his logger passengers. (Courtesy of Washington State Archives) |
Vashon
Captain Chauncey “Chance” Wyman commanded the steamers Verona, Vashon (shown here), Messenger, and Clara Brown, all frequently on the Olympia-Seattle run. His wife Gertrude was the first woman licensed as a steamboat commander in Puget Sound. He was known as a “dog-bark skipper,” and when commanding the steamer Sophia had trained his dog to bark during foggy days. Wyman would steer for the dog on his homeport dock at Quartermaster Harbor, finding the dock in the fog. Once, the dog was chased from the dock by a waiting passenger who had grown tired of the yapping, and ran up the beach. Wyman ran the Sophia aground trying to follow the bark. |
Capital City
The steamship Capital City was a frequent Olympia-run stern-wheeler could transport 300 passengers. She’s pictured here at Percival’s Dock on Olympia’s Budd Inlet. Her route often included a popular stop at Boston Harbor near the inlet’s mouth. Along with the S.G. Simpson, Bailey Gatzert, Mizpah, Fleetwood and Greyhound, she was known as a “fast boat,’ and races for bragging rights to “speediest boat” were common. (Courtesy of Washington State Archives) |
City of Aberdeen
The City of Aberdeen, a veteran of the Seattle-Olympia run, was captained by the notorious John T. “Hell-roarin’ Jack” Shroll, who never met a dock he couldn’t destroy, and who loved to race. Steamship skippers in Puget Sound were a competitive lot. According to the late Gordon Newell in his “Ships of the Inland Sea,” the fastest ship in the Sound was the screw propeller steamer Flyer. Shroll knew he could never beat her unless he cheated and unless the Flyer was unaware she was in a race! As Flyer one day entered Commencement Bay in Tacoma, and slowed to dock, she little knew that Shroll was close behind her with racing in mind. He had moved all his cargo forward to lift his stern wheel higher and increase its turning speed. Shroll carried a cargo of bacon, and told his engineer, “Throw the bacon in the boiler!” The higher temperature in the boiler raised the speed even more and City of Aberdeen edged by the slowing Flyer, her bacon fueled smoke stack emitting a strong odor, giving Shroll bragging rights of a sort. Tacoma smelled like bacon for a week! (Courtesy of Kae Paterson) |
Delta V. Smyth’s sold his tug boat fleet, including the converted steamer Audrey, to Foss Towing Company in 1961. The Smyth family, including his son Wayne and his grand daughter Sarah Smyth-McIntosh, has remained connected to the towing industry, and the family is a strong supporter of the Kiwanis-sponsored vintage tug race and festival, Olympia Harbor Days, held every Labor Day weekend and in its 44th year. (Courtesy of Kae Paterson)
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Audrey
Many steamers were later converted to towboats after passenger business dropped off post WW I with better roads and motor vehicles. The Audrey was an example. She was built 1909 and ran from Anderson Island in the Nisqually Reach to Pierce County’s Key Peninsula. In 1947, she was purchased by Delta V. Smyth, well known Olympia tug company owner, who converted her to a tug. (Courtesy of Kae Paterson) |
The Olympia Towing Company was another enterprise of Olympia’s Samuel Willey family. The family owned towboats for three generations. Samuel’s sons Lafayette and George carried on the family tradition. The company and the three tugs pictured here were sold in 1989 to Dunlop Towing of La Conner. Dunlop’s tugs are frequent participants in the Olympia Harbor Days tug races. (Courtesy of Mark Freeman)
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Favorite
This painting is by Karla Fowler, a widely admired marine artist whose paintings grace many a gallery and private collection. For many of Olympia Harbor Days’ 44 years she has drawn the logo for each race showing a selected vintage tug participant. Favorite was the “logo tug” for the 2005 race. Favorite was built in 1937. Karla’s painting is of Favorite in the 1983 race. It is in the collection of Phil Martin, Friday Harbor. The late Bill Somers featured it for years in his Stretch Island Museum of Puget Sound, which was located near Grapeview, Washington. (Courtesy of Karla Fowler) |
Iola
Built in 1885 on Hammersly Inlet (also known as “Big Skookum” Inlet), the 64-foot Iola ran the Olympia-Vashon-Seattle route until 1915. One day off Vashon Island, Captain John Vanderhoef’s wife fell overboard while shaking out a tablecloth, unbeknownst to her husband. Thomas Redding, on shore, heard her cries for help and rescued her from his skiff. Two years later, Redding bought Iola, and is pictured here, sitting on the bow. (Courtesy of Kae Paterson) |
Parthia
Parthia is another of Karla Fowler’s “logo tugs,” representing the 1992 Olympia Harbor Days. She was built in Olympia in 1906 and is still towing. Parthia was not only a 2016 Harbor Days winner (first in the “under 400 horsepower” race), but she was sold to a new owner during the festivities. (Courtesy of Karla Fowler) |
Virginia V
All five “Virginias” were owned by Nels Christensen, the first in 1908. The Virginia V is still afloat, built in 1922, and now owned by an historic foundation and active as a charter vessel on Puget Sound. She is one of the last survivors of the “Mosquito Fleet,” and still a frequent visitor to Olympia, often during the annual Kiwanis Olympia Harbor Days tugboat races on Labor Day weekend. The “Mosquito Fleet” refers to the hundreds of steamships that were Puget Sound’s main means of transport from 1850 until the 1900s. So called because they “buzzed around” the Sound like mosquitos. She is pictured here in an early configuration from the 1930s. (Courtesy of Washington State Archives)
All five “Virginias” were owned by Nels Christensen, the first in 1908. The Virginia V is still afloat, built in 1922, and now owned by an historic foundation and active as a charter vessel on Puget Sound. She is one of the last survivors of the “Mosquito Fleet,” and still a frequent visitor to Olympia, often during the annual Kiwanis Olympia Harbor Days tugboat races on Labor Day weekend. The “Mosquito Fleet” refers to the hundreds of steamships that were Puget Sound’s main means of transport from 1850 until the 1900s. So called because they “buzzed around” the Sound like mosquitos. She is pictured here in an early configuration from the 1930s. (Courtesy of Washington State Archives)
Telegraph
The stern-wheeler Telegraph was built in Everett in 1903. She had no direct connection to Olympia, excepting the circumstances of her curious renaming, which made her the second Olympian. Telegraph was a fast, 750 horsepower passenger steamer that could do 18 knots. Her officers included Captain Gil Parker and Engineer B. van Hein. In 1912, she was secured at Seattle’s Colman Dock when the steel-hulled Alameda’s engineer mistook “slow astern” for “full speed ahead” and rammed full speed into Telegraph, sinking her. She was raised, renamed Olympian, converted to a towboat and ended her days on the Columbia River in 1924. Yet another Olympian was a propeller diesel tugboat built in Olympia in 1907. (Courtesy of Washington State Archives) |
George E. Starr
In 1884, a rate war raged among the owners of the Mosquito Fleet. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company, owned by E. A. and L. M. Starr, Portland businessmen, hit upon a scheme to knock out the Finch and Wright Company, owner of the Eliza Anderson. The Starr’s flagship, the side-wheeler George E. Starr, was much faster than the Anderson. The Starr would stalk the Anderson on every stop of the Olympia-Victoria run, and at the last minute, as crowds waited to board the next boat, would speed ahead of her rival and board the bulk of the waiting passengers. She was built in Seattle in 1879, a fast steamer, but one that rolled badly in any kind of sea. She confined her runs to the South Sound, and in 1911, moved to the calmer waters of the Columbia River. (Courtesy of Washington State Archives) |
T.J. Potter
The 240-foot long side-wheeler T.J. Potter was one of the fastest steamers on the Olympia-Tacoma-Seattle run. She was built in Portland, in 1888, sailed on the placid waters of the Columbia, and then spent two years in Puget Sound, including service to Olympia. Potter rolled horribly, “cavorting,” as described by Gordon Newell. She returned to the Columbia and served until 1920. Her name is inscribed on Olympia’s Percival Landing Kiosk honoring vessels of the Mosquito Fleet that served the State Capital. (Courtesy of Washington State Archives) |
Tarry Not II
Built in 1924 for Joe Bucan by the Bucan Brothers. It is said that Joe could navigate her through dense fog, aided only by a pocket watch and a compass. While moored and working in Olympia for much of her career, the Tarry Not II was later owned by the late Steve Wilcox and owner of Sea Blossom Seafoods of Thurston County. Sources say he salvaged it off a beach. Steve is seen here waving from the Tarry Not II with the another survivor of the Mosquito Fleet, Virginia V, in the background(Courtesy of Steve Wilcox). Tarry Not II also served as the Sea Blossom Seafood’s company boat. She was originally used as a freight and passenger steamer, often calling at Arcadia, Mason County. The late Franz Schlottman, onetime owner of the 1910 tug Sand Man, used to ride her as a 10-year old to Olympia from his Griffin Peninsula home. She's now owned by George Kurzman of Olympia and board member of the SSMHA. |
Lady Washington
Lady Washington is a replica of Robert Gray’s consort to his ship Columbia Rediviva, both exploring and trading here in 1792, was built during the State Centennial celebration, 1989, and is owned by the Grays Harbor Historic Seaport. She is the State of Washington’s official “tall ship.” She is a frequent visitor to Harbor Days and other Olympia events. She has appeared in numerous motion pictures and television productions. |
USS Olympia
No examination of 19th and early 20th century South Puget Sound maritime history is complete without a look at USS Olympia. Although never a visitor to Puget Sound, her name ties her firmly to the region. She was designed in 1898, coincident with Washington statehood, and was Commodore George Dewey’s flagship as his squadron destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay, May 1, 1898, a battle that gave birth to the American Century. She fought with valor in World War I, intervened in the Russian Revolution, and in 1921, returned the body of America’s first “Unknown Soldier” to the USA. Since 1957, she has been a museum ship at Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum on the Delaware River. Her silver tea service is on loan from the US Navy to the Governor’s Mansion. An active Washington State citizen’s group, the Washington State Friends of the USS Olympia (FOTO), strives to help maintain her and to educate the citizens of the State as to her significant place in world history.
No examination of 19th and early 20th century South Puget Sound maritime history is complete without a look at USS Olympia. Although never a visitor to Puget Sound, her name ties her firmly to the region. She was designed in 1898, coincident with Washington statehood, and was Commodore George Dewey’s flagship as his squadron destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay, May 1, 1898, a battle that gave birth to the American Century. She fought with valor in World War I, intervened in the Russian Revolution, and in 1921, returned the body of America’s first “Unknown Soldier” to the USA. Since 1957, she has been a museum ship at Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum on the Delaware River. Her silver tea service is on loan from the US Navy to the Governor’s Mansion. An active Washington State citizen’s group, the Washington State Friends of the USS Olympia (FOTO), strives to help maintain her and to educate the citizens of the State as to her significant place in world history.
Willie
Another steamer owned by the Samuel Willey family was Willie, a 67-foot stern-wheeler built in Seattle in 1883 for use on the Nooksack River near Bellingham, Whatcom County. The S. Willey Navigation Company bought her to replace a smaller steamer on the Shelton-Olympia run. (Courtesy of Mason County Historical Society) |
Oregon
Shown here in 1919, the battleship Oregon (BB-3) is most famous for her 14,000-mile dash around South America from San Francisco to join the US fleet at their victory over Spain at Santiago Bay, Cuba, in the Spanish-American War in 1898. She is seen here visiting Olympia during the 1919 US Pacific Fleet Review Week in Seattle. Oregon was the “President’s Review Ship” for Woodrow Wilson as he reviewed the fleet. It was protocol for the president to pay a courtesy visit to the governor of the state during a visit, hence the presence of his flagship in South Puget Sound. Oregon was also in Puget Sound on four occasions from 1901 to 1923 for refits at Bremerton Naval Shipyard. (Courtesy of Olympia Tumwater Foundation, used by permission) |
Washington State’s Golden Jubilee celebration in July 1939 saw six battleships of the Pacific Fleet drop anchor in Tacoma’s Commencement Bay for a week. Five are pictured here. The battleships were the Idaho, New Mexico, Mississippi, California, Pennsylvania, and the Arizona. The latter three were at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. USS Arizona was lost. Pennsylvania and California were raised and refitted at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. (Courtesy of Tacoma Public Library)
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USS New Mexico
While in Tacoma for the Golden Jubilee celebration, sailors from USS New Mexico traveled up Sound to Thurston County’s Saint Martin’s College (now St. Martin’s University, Lacey, WA) for a baseball game against a student team. The score was not recorded. (U.S. Navy photo, courtesy of NavSource OnLine) |