Fairy
Passenger Steamer · United States · Lost 1857 · Puget Sound & Discovery Bay
Puget Sound's first scheduled steamship, sunk by her own boiler off the Steilacoom wharf in 1857 and never found.
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The Vessel and Her Loss
Fairy was a small wooden sidewheel steamer brought to Puget Sound in 1853 aboard the sailing ship Sarah Warren and put on the Olympia-Seattle run with stops at Steilacoom and Alki, the first scheduled steamship service in the region. On October 22, 1857, her boiler exploded as she left the Steilacoom wharf for Olympia, injuring everyone aboard except the engineer, though no one died. The vessel sank at the site and has never been relocated, despite renewed searches by maritime historians in the 2010s.
Vessel
- 1853
- Not established
- San Francisco, California
- Wood
- 30 ft
- Not established
- Not established
- Steam, sidewheels
- Not established
Loss
- October 22, 1857
- Mechanical failure
- Off the Steilacoom wharf, Puget Sound
- Puget Sound
- Steilacoom, Washington → Olympia, Washington
- Not established
- Not established
- 0
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Steilacoom, Washington
Wreck has not been located; search efforts were ongoing as of 2018 reporting.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Partially documented (60/100)
The wreck's location has not been found; depth and present condition are not established in the sources reviewed.
Build, service, 1857 explosion, and ongoing search for the wreck.
Construction and route details, citing Mosquito Fleet of Southern Puget Sound.
