The

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

''Elfin'' operated on

Lake Washington Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It borders the cities of Seattle on the west, ...

and

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 ...

from 1891 to 1900. The vessel served as an important transportation link in the area when roads and railways were poor or non-existent, and there were no bridges across the lake.

Construction and launching

''Elfin'' was built at Pontiac, on the north side of Sand Point, on Lake Washington in 1891. The vessel was ( or )) long, with a beam of . Power was provided by a two-cylinder compound

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

. The builder was Edward.F. Lee. The first owner was Capt. Frank Curtis, whose prior vessel, the ''Squak'', had been sunk in a storm during Christmas, 1890. The vessel was launched in April 1891. Other steamers on the lake, ''Kirkland'', and '' Mary Kraft'' brought spectators to the launching.

Operations

''Elfin'' first carried passengers on July 4, 1891. Frank Curtis was in charge, with his sons Al and Walter as mate and deckhand. Irving Leake was the engineer. ''Elfin'' made six round trips per day, starting at 7:10 a.m from Yarrow Bay (then called Northup’s Landing), to Kirkland then Houghton, and then west across the lake to the foot of Seattle’s Madison street. Fares were 10 cents each way. In the first two years, the most passengers transported in a single day were 180. Average monthly passengers in the first half of 1892 were 1,070 a month. In 1896 the vessel' s capacity was expanded, and the

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was moved to the

boat deck A deck is a permanent covering over a compartment or a hull of a ship. On a boat or ship, the primary or upper deck is the horizontal structure that forms the "roof" of the hull, strengthening it and serving as the primary working surface. V ...

Destruction and partial salvage

Early in the morning on December 2, 1900, while moored at a dock, ''Elfin'' was destroyed in a fire. The machinery was salvaged, to be installed in a new vessel, ''Peerless''.

Notes

External links

Ely, Arlene, ''Our Foundering Fathers: The Story of Kirkland'', Kirkland Public Library, 1975
{{Puget Sound propellers Steamboats of Washington (state) Steamboats of Lake Washington Propeller-driven steamboats of Washington (state) History of Washington (state)