George E. Starr (steamboat)

George E. Starr
History
Name:	George E. Starr
Owner:	Puget Sound Steam Navigation Company’s (the “Starr Line”) ; La Conner Trading & Trans. Co.
Route:	Puget Sound, Strait of Georgia, Admiralty Inlet, Strait of Juan de Fuca, Alaska, Columbia River, California
Builder:	J.F.T. Mitchell shipyard at Seattle
Completed:	1878
In service:	1879
Out of service:	1921
Fate:	Abandoned, Lake Union
General characteristics
Type:	inland steamship
Tonnage:	473
Length:	148 ft (45 m)
Beam:	28 ft (9 m)
Depth:	9 ft (3 m) depth of hold
Decks:	three (freight, passenger, boat)
Installed power:	single-cylinder walking beam steam engine
Propulsion:	sidewheels

The steamboat George E. Starr operated in late 19th century as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet and also operated out of Victoria, B.C. Geo. E. Starr also served for a time in California and on the Columbia River.

Geo. E. Starr was built at Seattle in 1878 at the shipyard of J.F.T Mitchell for the Puget Sound Steam Navigation Company’s (the “Starr Line”) international route to Victoria, B.C..Starr was a sidewheel steamer with a single-cylinder walking-beam engine, 148' long, 28' in beam over the hull, and 9 foot depth of hold, and rated at 473 tons.

In 1881, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, under Henry Villard bought out the Starr Line and all their steamers, including Geo. E. Starr, Isabel, Alida, Otter, and Annie Stewart. The new management ran Geo. E. Starr hard in a rate war with an older sidewheeler on the Sound, Eliza Anderson. In 1889, the Eliza Anderson nearly sank Geo. E. Starr in a fog-bound collision off Coupeville. In 1892, the Starr was transferred south to California for a year. When she returned, she was under the control of the Northwest Steamship Company, and ran between Seattle, Port Townsend and the mill ports.

George E. Starr was one of the first vessels, along with the sternwheeler Fannie Lake, Annie M. Pence, Utopia, and Rapid Transit, purchased by Joshua Green and his partners of the La Conner Trading and Transportation Company.Geo. E. Starr was considered sufficiently elegant at that time to allow President Rutherford B. Hayes, visiting Seattle, to spend a night in one of her cabins.

When the Alaska Gold Rush started in 1897, many older vessels were pressed into service in an effort to make money off gold seekers headed for the north country. Geo. E. Starr was no exception. Under Capt. E.E. Caine, the Starr was made ready to, and did in fact depart for Skagway and Dyea on August 3, 1897 with 90 passengers and a cargo of 100 horses.

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