❖ The Sweet SIGHTSEER ❖

SIGHTSEER (ex-VASHONA)

Click to enlarge.
Pre 1954. 

Original photo from 

the Saltwater People Historical Society©

“I spent a wonderful day in, I believe, 1961, cruising from Leschi Park to Pier 56, and return. I had written the Gray Line asking for a job. They offered me a ride instead. I spent time in the pilot house, engine room, and passenger cabin. She was maintained like a yacht. 
      When we lived above Lake Washington in the 1950s and early 1960s, I could hear her mellow whistle blow when she docked at Leschi Park at 5 pm, every day."
      The above quote was shared this day by mariner Jack Russell, Seattle. He owns Sternwheel Charters, LLC, and can be reached at 206-850-7648.

  

SIGHTSEER (ex-VASHONA)

ON 221333
99 G.t / 53 N.t. Passenger vessel.
110.1' Reg. L x 22.9' b x 22.9' x 6.5 d

1921. Built by John Martinolich at Dockton for Tacoma-Quartermaster Harbor route of the Vashon Navigation Co.

1926. SIGHTSEER received the engine from UTOPIA.

1931. Now too large for the dwindling passenger traffic on her route; it was replaced by the small freight, passenger vessel CONCORDIA, built Tacoma.

1946. Mrs. John L. Anderson sold SIGHTSEER (ex-VASHONA) to Grayline Tours of Seattle for the continuation of the Lake Washington Ship Canal-Puget Sound run instituted by the late Captain John L. Anderson.

1963 SIGHTSEER, out of service.

Above stats from The H. W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Edited by Gordon Newell. Superior Pub. 1966.