Steamboats of Lake Washington

Lake Washington steamboats and ferries

Steamboats on Lake Washington near Leschi Park, circa 1906.
Transit type	Passenger-only steamboats, vehicle ferries.
Route	Lake Washington
Line	Anderson Steamboat Co.; King County Ferry Dist. No. 1.
Terminals	Madison Park, Leschi Park, Mercer Is., Medina, Kirkland
Began operation	circa 1875
Ended operation	1951 (last ferry run)
No. of vessels	Fortuna, Leschi and many others.
Connections at terminus
	Connection to Yesler Avenue cable car terminus at Leschi Park

Lake Washington steamboats and ferries operated from about 1875 to 1951, transporting passengers, vehicles and freight across Lake Washington, a large lake to the east of Seattle, Washington. Before modern highways and bridges were built, the only means of crossing the lake, other than the traditional canoe, was by steamboat, and, later, by ferry. While there was no easily navigable connection to Puget Sound, the Lake Washington Ship Canal now connects Lake Washington to Lake Union, and from there Puget Sound is reached by way of the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks.

In the 1870s the sternwheeler Lena C. Gray was built in Seattle, and operated on Lake Washington most of the time, towing barges. In about 1886, Edward F. Lee established a shipyard on the west side Lake Washington. The Lee yard is believed to have built the following ships that worked Lake Washington and Puget Sound: the small steam scow Squak, Laura Maud, Elfin, Hattie Hansen (also known as Sechelt), and Mist. Other early steamboats on the lake were Kirkland and Mary Kraft.

G.V. Johnson also built a shipyard on the lake in 1888, and from it launched, among others, the steamers L.T. Haas, Acme, and City of Renton. Another early steamboat on Lake Washington was the clipper-bowed yacht-like Cyrene, built in 1891. and the C.C. Calkins. In 1893, Hattie Hansen, later to have a tragic end off Vancouver Island was built at the Lee shipyard. Hattie Hansen only served on the lake until the next year, when she was brought down the Black and Duwamish rivers and placed on the Seattle-Dogfish Bay route under Capt. J.J. Hansen.

Steamboat operations on Lake Washington eventually became almost the sole province of one firm, Anderson Steamboat Company, founded by John L. Anderson, an immigrant from Sweden. His brother, Adolph Anderson, was also a steamboat master on the lake. The company’s headquarters was at Leschi Park, and the company had a shipyard across the lake at Houghton.