Dart (steamboat)

Dart
Career
Name:	Dart
Operator:	McDowell Trans. Co.; Anderson Tug; others.
Route:	Puget Sound
Completed:	1911
General characteristics
Tonnage:	74
Length:	57.4 ft (17.5 m)
Beam:	17.4 ft (5.3 m)
Depth:	5.2 ft (1.6 m) depth of hold
Installed power:	steam engine
Propulsion:	propeller

The steamboat Dart operated in the early 1900s as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.

Career

Dart was built in 1911 by Matthew McDowell at Tacoma for his steamboat line’s Seattle-Tacoma-East Pass run.^[1] Dart a small vessel even by Mosquito Fleet standards, was 57.4' long, 17.4' on the beam, drew 5.2' and was rated at 74 tons.^[2]

Dart ran on the Seattle-Tacoma-East Pass route until about 1918, when Captain McDowell sold the vessel to the Wrangell concern of W.T. Hale and P.C. McCormick, who converted Dart to a motor vessel to run mail between Wrangell and Prince of Wales Island. Later, Dart was sold to Paul S. Charles of Ketchikan.interests. ^[2]

In 1925, Dart was purchased by the Anderson Tug Company and returned to Puget Sound to operate in tug work. In 1928, the vessel burned on the Sound while awaiting scrapping. Her engines were salvaged and placed in the ferry Juneau.^[2][3]

See also

• Matthew McDowell
• Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet

Notes

1. ^ Newell, Gordon R., and Williamson, Joe, Pacific Steamboats, at 120, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1958 (showing photo of Dart)
2. ^ ^{a b c} Newell, ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History, at 189, 298-99, and 389
3. ^ Faber, Steamer’s Wake, at 144.

References

• Faber, Jim, Steamer’s Wake, Enetai Press, Seattle, WA 1985 ISBN 0-9615811-0-7 .
• Newell, Gordon R., and Williamson, Joe, Pacific Steamboats, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1958.
• Newell, Gordon R., ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1966

External links

• University of Washington digital library image showing Dart approaching a landing on Puget Sound, circa 1915, a good view of this very small steamer

related topic: Washington State Ferries