The steamboat Rosalie operated from 1893 to 1918 as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet

Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet

The Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet was a large number of private transportation companies running smaller passenger and freight boats on Puget Sound and nearby waterways and rivers. This large group of steamers and sternwheelers plied the waters of Puget Sound, stopping at every waterfront dock...

, also operating out of Victoria, B.C. In 1898, Rosalie went north with many other Puget Sound steamboats to join the Klondike Gold Rush

Klondike Gold Rush

The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...

.

Construction

Rosalie was built at Alameda, California

Alameda, California

Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...

 in 1893 originally for the Alameda ferry service. She was 136 ft (41 m) long, 27 ft (8 m) on the beam, with 9 ft (3 m) depth of hold. The vessel was powered by a compound steam engine

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

.

Opposing the Southern Pacific Railroad

Oakland merchant John L. Davie utilized the Rosalie in 1894 to demonstrate that monopolistic and corrupt practices by the Southern Pacific Railroad

Southern Pacific Railroad

The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....

's Big Four could be resisted. He employed the vessel as a ferryboat competing against the established monopoly service across San Francisco Bay, but at first was blockaded by Southern Pacific ships. In one incident, as the Southern Pacific's Alameda entered its namesake estuary and ignored her whistle, the Rosalie crashed into the rear end of the Alameda. The railroad relented and the Rosalie continued freely competing with the Southern Pacific ferries.

Puget Sound service

Rosalie was brought north from California to run from Puget Sound

Puget Sound

Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...

 to Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. After two Alaska voyages, Rosalie was purchased by Capt. D.B Jackson, then doing business as the Northwestern Steamship Company, to serve on Puget Sound with the older sidewheelers George E. Starr

George E. Starr (steamboat)

The steamboat George E. Starr operated in late 19th century as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet and also operated out of Victoria, B.C. Geo. E. Starr also served for a time in California and on the Columbia River.-Construction:Geo. E...

 and Idaho. Rosalie was then placed on the Tacoma-Seattle-Victoria route, under Capt. Charles W. "Big" Ames as master and Capt. William Williamson as pilot. When news of the Klondike gold strike hit Seattle, Rosalie was pulled from service (this on July 25, 1897) for some reconstruction to prepare to go north again with the gold seekers. Capt, George T. Roberts (b.1849) replaced Captain Ames, and George Lent, a partner in the Alaska Steamship Company, took over as engineer. Charles E. Peabody (1857-1926) assumed the all-important financial position of purser.

Return to Alaska

By 1898, Rosalie was controlled by the Washington & Alaska Steamship Company in which among others, Peabody, then acting as Rosalie 's purser, was interested,. The company ran six sailings a month from Seattle, to Mary Island, Metlakatla

Metlakatla

Metlakatla may refer to:* Metlakatla, Alaska* Metlakatla, British Columbia...

, Ketchikan, Wrangell

Wrangell, Alaska

Wrangell is a city and borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. At the 2000 census the population was 2,308.Its Tlingit name is Ḵaachx̱aana.áakʼw . The Tlingit people residing in the Wrangell area, who were there centuries before Europeans, call themselves the Shtaxʼhéen Ḵwáan after the nearby Stikine...

, Juneau, Dyea, Haines Mission

Haines, Alaska

Haines is a census-designated place in Haines Borough, Alaska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population of the area was 1,811. Haines was formerly a city but no longer has a municipal government...

 and Skagway with the Rosalie among other vessels.

Return to Puget Sound as boom fades

Rosalie ran in on the Alaska route from 1897 to 1900. By 1900, the extreme boom for transport to the Klondike golf fields had faded, and Rosalie was returned to Puget Sound, this time as the first vessel in the ownership of Joshua Green

Joshua Green (seaman and banker)

Joshua Green was an American sternwheeler captain, businessman, and banker. He rose from being a seaman to being the dominant figure of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet, then sold out his interests and became a banker...

. Green had secured six mail route contracts on Puget Sound and was looking to buy other vessels in addition to Rosalie to serve the contracts. Green set Rosalie running between Puget Sound and British Columbia points. In 1903, Captain Roberts was appointed master of the new inland steamship Clallam

Clallam (steamboat)

The steamboat Clallam operated for about six months from July 1903 to January 1904 in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. She was sunk in a storm on what should have been an ordinary voyage to Victoria, British Columbia.-Construction:...

 which soon thereafter sank in the Strait of Juan de Fuca

Strait of Juan de Fuca

The Strait of Juan de Fuca is a large body of water about long that is the Salish Sea outlet to the Pacific Ocean...

 with the loss of 54 lives, including all the women and children on board.

On January 11, 1907, Rosalie assisted at the wreck of the Alice Gertrude

Alice Gertrude

Alice Gertrude was a wooden steamship which operated on the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound from 1898 to January 1907, when the vessel was wrecked at Clallam Bay.- Career:...

which in a fog had run around on Clallam Reef. In 1908, Rosalie managed to ram the then new steam ferry West Seattle

West Seattle (steam ferry)

West Seattle was a side-wheel driven steam-powered ferry built in 1907.-Design and construction:West Seattle was built in 1907 at Tacoma, Washington at the Heath yard for the West Seattle Land and Improvement Company...

. Also in 1908, the Puget Sound Navigation company, which had purchased the steel steamer Chippewa found the newly acquired ship expensive to operate, and so Rosalie replaced Chippewa on the Victoria run in the off-season. Rosalie was standing by at Colman Dock

Colman Dock

Colman Dock, also called Pier 52 is an important ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington. The original pier is no longer in existence, but the terminal used by the Washington State Ferry system, and is still called “Colman Dock”-Location:...

 on May 19, 1912, when Flyer had extended her gangplank improperly, causing it to collapse and throw people that had been on it into the water. The crew of Rosalie lowered a boat to assist the fireboat Snoqualmie and the launch Skeeter in rescuing the people; sadly despite these efforts, two passengers were drowned.

Out of service and destruction by fire

By 1918, Rosalie had been taken out of service and laid up in the West Waterway in Seattle. On June 22, 1918 the vessel was destroyed by fire. No one was injured.

University of Washington on-line images

• Geo. E. Starr and Rosalie at piers in Seattle This photograph shows Rosalie with the older sidewheeler Geo. E. Starr
  George E. Starr (steamboat)
  The steamboat George E. Starr operated in late 19th century as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet and also operated out of Victoria, B.C. Geo. E. Starr also served for a time in California and on the Columbia River.-Construction:Geo. E...
  
  in the background, showing the contrast between the two types of vessels.
• Rosalie with sails set This photograph shows the Rosalie flying her auxiliary schooner rig. Steamers built before 1900 commonly carried auxiliary sails in case of engine failure or a shortage of fuel.
• Passengers on Rosalie posing in front of wheelhouse, 1899 This photograph shows well the details of the pilot house and forward cabin and railing structures of the Rosalie as well as the 1899 clothing fashions of the passengers.