City of Seattle (steam ferry)

	City of Seattle c. 1891
History
Name	City of Seattle
Owner	West Seattle Land & Improv. Co.; Martinez & Benicia Ferry & Trans. Co.; U.S. Navy; Mare Island Ferry Company; and others.
Cost	$35,000.
In service	1888
Out of service	1947
Identification	US registry #126536
Fate	Upper works preserved as houseboat
General characteristics
Type	Steam ferry
Tonnage	272 gross; 187 regist.
Length	121.5 ft (37.03 m)
Beam	33.2 ft (10.12 m)
Depth	8.6 ft (2.62 m) depth of hold
Installed power	twin single cylinder steam engine; cylinder bores 16 in (40.6 cm); stroke 60 in (152.4 cm), 135 hp (101 kW) per engine; boiler: single return-tube boiler 5.5 ft (1.68 m)diameter and 22 ft (6.71 m) feet long; working steam pressure 100 pounds.
Propulsion	sidewheels
Capacity	500 passengers, 19 vehicles.

The City of Seattle was a side-wheel driven steam-powered ferry built in 1888. This vessel was the first ferry to operate on Puget Sound. City of Seattle was also used in the San Francisco Bay area starting in 1913. The ferry was known as YFB54 when owned by the U.S. navy in World War II, and as Magdalena during naval service and for a time following the war. The upper works of the ferry have been mounted on a barge hull, and are now in use as a houseboat in Sausalito, California.

Design and construction

The City of Seattle was built in 1888 at Portland, Oregon by John Steffan and began regularly scheduled service on December 31, 1888.^[1] The ferry had a wide lower deck, called the "driveway", which carried wagons, horses and carts, as well as all passengers. On the upper deck there was a single pilot house, facing both ends, which was built around the smokestack.^[1]

Puget Sound service

The ferry's first owners were the West Seattle Land and Improvement Company which placed the vessel on a route running between Seattle and Milton, in West Seattle. The Seattle terminus was at a dock located at First Avenue and Marion Street. Originally the fare to ride the City of Seattle was 15 cents, but it was soon reduced to 5 cents as part the owners' strategy to encourage purchase of its real estate developments in West Seattle.^[1]

In the summer of 1889, City of Seattle was making 10 trips daily on the route. The trip was popular and well-to-do persons began buying houses in West Seattle. A cable tramway was built to carry ferry passengers from the West Seattle dock up the bluff where the Improvement Company's main development projects were. The vessel was quick, and could often complete the 2-mile (3.2 km) run in less than 8 minutes.^[1]

The ferry encountered some competition, first from the small steamer Garden City, which made 17 trips per day, but that was more than the population at the time would support. Later more serious competition arose from Lady of the Lake. The Lady offered fares at 4 cents per ride, and then City of Seattle offered 40 rides for a dollar. This went on until the Lady burned one night while hauled out for repairs. There was talk of arson, but no crime was ever charged.^[1]

In 1907 City of Seattle was still on the same route, but demand had increased so much that a new and larger vessel was commissioned to handle the business. This was the West Seattle, which was built at Tacoma and entered regular service on June 27, 1907 on the Seattle – West Seattle route. City of Seattle was then shifted to run to the Luna amusement park then located at Duwamish Head. 1907 was the peak year for ferry transport on the Seattle-West Seattle run, with 103,000 passengers carried in July alone. After that, rising competition from the expanding network of street car lines over time proved too much for the West Seattle ferries, and City of Seattle was taken off the route in 1911.^[1]^[3]

California service

In 1913 the Improvement Company, through its subsidiary the Oregon & Washington Ferry & Nav. Co., sold City of Seattle to a California ferry concern, the Martinez and Benicia Ferry and Transportation Company, leaving only the West Seattle on the now money-losing route.^[3] After a hazardous voyage south in the tow of a steam schooner, City of Seattle reached San Francisco Bay and was placed on the ferry route from Benicia across the Carquinez Strait to Martinez^[1]

The new owners added second wheelhouse to the ferry, but never changed the vessel's name or the machinery. The ferry was also used on the route from Mare Island to Vallejo.

Naval service

During World War II the ferry was extensively rebuilt by the government.^[3] The ferry was taken into government service in 1944, renamed YFB54 and used for the Mare Island service.^[2] The ferry was requisitioned-purchased by the U.S. Navy from the city of Martinez and delivered to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on August 10, 1944. The ferry was renamed Magdalena on September 9, 1944. The ferry was assigned to the 12th Naval District, based San Francisco, and placed in service on November 23, 1944. The vessel was used to provide ferry service between Mare Island and Vallejo, California until the end of the war. The ferry continued operation under the 12th Naval District command until October 14, 1946, when at Mare Island the vessel was taken out of service. Later the ferry was transferred to Suisun Bay, and was struck from the Navy list on February 7, 1947. On December 25, 1947 ownership of the ferry was transferred to the United States Maritime Commission for disposal.^[4]

Later years

After the war, the vessel was acquired by the Mare Island Ferry Company and renamed Magdalena.^[2] As of 1966 the ferry was owned by Sausalito resident Alexis Tellis, and registered as a yacht. The name was still City of Seattle, and propulsion was still by sidewheels, but the steam engines had been replaced by diesel power.^[3] Later the vessel was placed on pilings, painted yellow, and used as a house and office for the owner of a marina known as the Yellow Ferry Harbor in Sausalito, California.^[2]

Present state

The upper works of the ferry have been mounted on a concrete barge and are now in use as a houseboat at Sausalito, California.^[5]

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Kline and Bayless, Ferryboats, at pages 2–3, 5–8, 25, 26, 78, 88, and 336.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Faber, Steamer's Wake, at pages 158–159.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Newell, ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History, at 96.
^ Mooney, James L., ed., Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS), Vol. 4, L-M.
^ Mullins, Jessica, “Chinese look at Sausalito houseboats as model”, posted at buoyantlfe.net Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine (accessed 05-16-2011)

References

Faber, Jim, Steamer's Wake – Voyaging down the old marine highways of Puget Sound, British Columbia, and the Columbia River, Enetai Press, Seattle, WA 1985 ISBN 0-9615811-0-7
Kline, M.S., and Bayless, G.A., Ferryboats – A legend on Puget Sound, Bayless Books, Seattle, WA 1983 ISBN 0-914515-00-4
Mooney, James L., ed., Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS), Vol. 4, L-M.
Newell, Gordon R. ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, Superior Publishing, Seattle WA 1966 ISBN 0-87564-220-9
U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, Bureau of Statistics, Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States (for year ending June 30, 1909)
Wright, E. W. (1895). Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Oregon: Lewis & Dryden Printing Co.

[Ferryboats-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Kline and Bayless, Ferryboats, at pages 2–3, 5–8, 25, 26, 78, 88, and 336.

[Faber-2] Faber, Steamer's Wake, at pages 158–159.

[McCurdy-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Newell, ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History, at 96.

[DANFS-4] Mooney, James L., ed., Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS), Vol. 4, L-M.

[Mullins-5] Mullins, Jessica, “Chinese look at Sausalito houseboats as model”, posted at buoyantlfe.net Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine (accessed 05-16-2011)

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v t e Mass transit in the Puget Sound region
Transportation in Seattle
Local and express bus	Community Transit Everett Transit Intercity Transit Island Transit King County Metro list of routes fleet facilities trolleybuses Kitsap Transit Pierce Transit Skagit Transit Sound Transit Express
Light rail	Link light rail list of stations 1 Line 2 Line T Line Future extensions: Federal Way Link 3 Line 4 Line
Streetcar	Seattle Streetcar First Hill South Lake Union Waterfront Streetcar (discontinued)
Commuter rail	Sounder N Line S Line
Bus rapid transit	RapidRide A B C D E F G H Stride S1 S2 S3 Stream Swift Blue Green Orange
Ferry	Clipper Navigation Herron Island ferry King County Water Taxi Kitsap Fast Ferries Kitsap Transit Foot Ferry Steilacoom–Anderson Island ferry Washington State Ferries
Monorail	Seattle Center Monorail Seattle Monorail Project (cancelled)
People mover	SEA Underground
Historic	Seattle Municipal Street Railway Highland Park and Lake Burien Railway Queen Anne Counterbalance Tacoma Railway & Power
Other	Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel ORCA card SODO Busway Sound Transit Trolleybuses in Seattle
Italics denote lines or services which are planned, under construction, defunct, or otherwise not operating at the present time.

v t e Steamboats of California
Particular vessels	Annie Abernathy Antelope Aquilo (yacht) City of Sacramento Bayocean Black Hawk Capital Captain Sutter Chrysopolis City of Seattle Delta King Delta Queen Eureka El Dorado El Primero George E. Starr General Frisbie Georgiana Goliah Hartford Governor Dana Ilwaco Issaquah Jack Hays Klamath (inland steamboat) Ocean Wave Magdalena McKim Mint Monarch New World Pioneer Rabboni Rosalie Sacramento San Rafael SS Senator Sitka Telephone Wallamet Washington Washoe Wilson G. Hunt Yosemite
Ferries of San Francisco Bay	Clinton Contra Costa Oakland Piedmont Solano Thoroughfare Transit Ukiah
Steamboat lines	Aspinwall Steam Transportation Line California Steam Navigation Company Contra Costa Steam Navigation Company George A. Johnson & Company Pacific Mail Steamship Company Simmons, Hutchinson & Company
Water routes	California Coast Colorado River San Francisco Bay Sacramento River San Joaquin River
Owners and captains	Joseph Barnard Benjamin M. Hartshorne George A. Johnson William Leidesdorff Charles Minturn James Turnbull Issac Warren
Builders	Domingo Marcucci John G. North Henry Owens Austin Hills Patrick Henry Tiernan
Shipyards	Hunters Point North's Shipyard Potrero Point Rincon Point Steamboat Point Sutter Iron Works Tichenor's Ways Union Iron Works Yerba Buena Cove
Lists of vessels	List of steamboats on the Colorado River List of steamboats and steam ferries on San Francisco Bay List of steamboats on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and their tributaries
Steamboats in other areas	Columbia River Willamette River Oregon Coast Yaquina Bay and river Coquille River Cowlitz River Puget Sound Lake Washington Grays Harbor Chehalis River Hoquiam River Willapa Bay Columbia River (Wenatchee Reach) Lake Crescent Arrow Lakes Upper Fraser River Skeena River