Puget Sound Navigation Company steamer INDIANAPOLIS at dock on the Seattle-Tacoma run, probably in Seattle, ca 1912 (TRANSPORT 886)

PH Coll 794.51
The first of three large inland steamers of steel construction purchased from the Great Lakes for the Puget Sound Navigation Company by Charles E. Peabody and Joshua Green, the S.S. INDIANAPOLIS first arrived in the Puget Sound on February 9, 1906. She was purchased from the Arnold Transportation Co. where she had served a brief stint on the Chicago-Michigan City route and was originally built by the Craig Shipyards in Toledo, Ohio, in 1904. The INDIANAPOLIS registered 765 tons with dimensions 180 x 32 x 18.6 ft. The engine was of triple-expansion steam type. She served the daily Seattle-Victoria route initially, transferring to the Seattle-Tacoma route in May 1907 in direct competition with the FLYER. The INDIANAPOLIS struck and sunk the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer EXPLORER in heavy fog in 1907, killing 2. On December 14, 1910, the INDIANAPOLIS struck and sunk the steamer KITSAP. In 1933 the vessel was extensively rebuilt at the Lake Washington Shipyards, emerging as a single-ended steam ferry with a capacity of 30 automobiles and 750 passengers. A turntable was installed at the after end of the main deck designed to turn automobiles to face the single entrance at the bow, and innovation which did not prove particularly practical. Retaining her 16-knot cruise speed, the INDIANAPOLIS served the Edmonds-Port Townsend route on a 90-minute schedule. In 1938 the Puget Sound Navigation Co. sold the INDIANAPOLIS to the Seattle Iron & Metals Corp. for scrapping. (Source: Newell, Gordon, ed. "The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest." Seattle: The Superior Company, 1966.)
Subjects (LCSH): Indianapolis (Ship); Ships--Washington (State); Piers & wharves--Washington (State)