Monticello 2 (steamboat)

Monticello, steamship built 1906.
History
Name:	Monticello (2)
Owner:	Moe Bros., Port Blakeley Mill Co., Kitsap County Trans. Co.; Peninsula Transportation Co.; McDowell Trans. Co.
Operator:	Matthew McDowell for a time
Route:	Puget Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca (after 1936 conversion to freighter)
Builder:	Crawford and Reid shipyard at Tacoma
Completed:	1906
In service:	1906
Out of service:	1962
Fate:	Foundered off Aleutian Islands
Notes:	Renamed Penaco in 1936
General characteristics
Tonnage:	196-tons
Length:	125 ft (38 m)
Beam:	21 ft (6 m)
Depth:	6.3 ft (2 m) depth of hold
Installed power:	steam engine
Propulsion:	propeller-drive
Notes:	Converted to diesel power 1936

The steamboat Monticello (2) operated in the early 1900s as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet. The vessel went through several reconstructions and remained in service until 1962, when she was lost in Alaska waters. Her later names were Penaco and Sea Venture. (This Puget Sound steamer should not be confused with the smaller Monticello (1), which also ran on Puget Sound, but was built in 1895 for Captain Z.J. Hatch of the Monticello Steamship Company.

Monticello was built in 1906 by the Crawford and Reid shipyard at Tacoma for the Moe Brothers to run her with their other boat, Advance, in opposition to the Kitsap County Transportation Company’s boats on the Seattle-Poulsbo route. Monticello was 125' long, 21 on the beam, drew 6.3 feet (1.9 m) and was rated at 196 tons.

Late in the year 1906, Monticello under the command of Capt. Chris Moe, collided with her chief rival, Kitsap, under Captain Alf Hostmark. Following an investigation, both masters were censured by marine inspectors Whitney and Turner (who, apparently coincidentally, had been present in Portland, Oregon earlier that year at the launching of Kitsap.)Monticello seems to have been operated out of Seattle from the Galbraith Dock (Pier 3), the so-called “Mosquito Fleet” dock.

In January 1907, Moe Bros. sold both Monticello and Advance to the Port Blakeley Mill Co., which used them to replace the Sarah M. Renton. In 1908, the company put Monticello on the popular Navy Yard (Seattle-Bremerton)route, running in opposition to the Puget Sound Navigation Company’s steamers Athlon, Tourist, and Inland Flyer. Gasoline-engined vessels were mounting a serious challenge to steam power at about this time, and gasoline power seemed to be vindicated when in 1912 Monticello broke down and had to be towed into Seattle by the gasoline tug Klickitat.