H.B Kennedy

Built expressly for the Port Orchard Route, the H.B. Kennedy’s launching coincided with Seattle’s Alaska Yukon-Pacific Exposition. She was large, fast, and luxurious, carrying 1,000 passengers at 17 knots, or 45 minutes on the Bremerton-Seattle run. The competition to elect a sponsor for her christening helped to drive ticket sales and anticipation of the new vessel. In about 1918, H.B. Kennedy was renamed Seattle. She was converted to a car ferry in 1924. She worked as such until 1937, her last service on the Seattle-Suquamish run.

A postcard of the (at the time) premiere ferry to Bremerton: the S.S. Seattle. Author’s collection, colorized.