Chippewa

Few vessels on Puget Sound led as interesting a life as the well-loved Chippewa. Built in 1900 in Toledo, Ohio, she was used as a passenger vessel of the Arnold Transportation System on the Great Lakes. She was powered with twin triple expansion steam engines fed by four oil-fired water tube boilers. The steamer was purchased by the Puget Sound Navigation Company (Black Ball Line) in 1907. Having made her way to the east coast, she left New Jersey on 18 February 1907. The Chippewa then took over the Seattle-Tacoma route until the outbreak of World War I. During the war years, she was used as a school ship for the merchant marine. After the war, the Chippewa sat unused on Lake Union. Steamers were becoming extinct on Puget Sound. Many of the old wooden “Mosquito Fleet” passenger steamers were being scrapped or converted to carry automobiles. In 1926 Black Ball invested heavily in the Chippewa. The steamer underwent major refurbishment at the Lake Washington Shipyard at Houghton. Her bow and stern cut off and her interior was extensively modified.