Admiralty Inlet is a

strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean channe ...

in the U.S. state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

connecting the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca to

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

. It lies between Whidbey Island and the northeastern part of the

Olympic Peninsula The Olympic Peninsula is a large arm of land in western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the ...

Boundaries

It is generally considered to be the northern part of Puget Sound's Main Basin. Its northern boundary is defined as a line running between

Point Wilson Point Wilson is at the end of the Quimper Peninsula, a northeast extension of the Olympic Peninsula and the northeasternmost point of Jefferson County, Washington, United States, approximately two miles north of the Port Townsend business distric ...

and

Point Partridge Point Partridge is the most westerly point of Whidbey Island, the largest island in Puget Sound. The point lies north of the Fort Ebey military reservation and south of West Beach. The primary importance of Point Partridge is as the northern an ...

, and it extends south to the southern end of Whidbey Island and Point No Point on the Kitsap Peninsula, where it joins the Central Basin of Puget Sound's Main Basin. Admiralty Inlet's area is , with a volume of . Its shoreline is in length. Its mean depth is .Features Of Puget Sound Region: Oceanography And Physical Processes
Chapter 3 of th

King County Department of Natural Resources, Seattle, Washington, 2001. Though only wide at the narrowest point (between the

and Admiralty Head Lighthouse, Admiralty Head lighthouses), it is through this passage that nearly all the seawater flows into and from

during daily

tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * Tidal (album), ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * ...

variations. Tidal currents can reach six

knot A knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including hitches, bends, loop knots, and splices: a ''hitch'' fastens a rope to another object; a ' ...

s in the area northeast of Point Wilson. All sea vessels must pass through Admiralty Inlet to enter or leave Puget Sound, except those small enough to use Deception Pass or Swinomish Channel. This fact led to the selection of

Port Townsend Port Townsend is a city on the Quimper Peninsula in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The population was 10,148 at the 2020 United States Census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County. In addition to ...

on the Quimper Peninsula as the official port of entry for the Puget Sound region during the early days of commerce in the area. It also led to the federal decision in the late 1890s to construct

Fort Worden Fort Worden Historical State Park is located in Port Townsend, Washington, on originally known as Fort Worden, a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps base constructed to protect Puget Sound from invasion by sea. Fort Worden was named after U. ...

Fort Casey Fort Casey State Park is located on Whidbey Island, in Island County, Washington state. It is a Washington state park and a historic district within the U.S. Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve. Admiralty Inlet was considered so strate ...

, and Fort Flagler around Admiralty Inlet as a "Triangle of Fire" for the protection of Puget Sound from a hostile fleet. The first Europeans to find and map Admiralty Inlet were the Spanish of the 1790 expedition of Manuel Quimper. It was Quimper's pilot, Juan Carrasco, who sighted the inlet. Thinking it was a bay he named it ''Ensenada de Caamaño'', after the Spanish naval officer Jacinto Caamaño. Two years later Admiralty Inlet was given its present name by

George Vancouver Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what a ...

, after his ultimate commanders, the

Board of Admiralty The Board of Admiralty (1628–1964) was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. As that position was not always occupied, the purpose was to enable management of the day-to-day operational requi ...

. The Spanish name was later given to Camano Island.

Present day

Today a great deal of maritime freight traffic passes through Admiralty Inlet to the major shipping ports at

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and Tacoma, and of

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

vessels to the Naval facilities in Puget Sound. The Keystone-

run of the Washington State Ferries crosses the inlet and serves as a link for State Route 20. A

tidal power Tidal power or tidal energy is harnessed by converting energy from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity using various methods. Although not yet widely used, tidal energy has the potential for future electricity generation. Ti ...

project was canceled due to costs of monitoring wildlife.

References

External links

* {{coord, 48, 09, 44.44, N, 122, 43, 28.55, W, display=title Bodies of water of Island County, Washington Bodies of water of Jefferson County, Washington Straits of Kitsap County, Washington Straits of Washington (state) Puget Sound