AH-WR-0899

Fleetwood

Express Passenger Steamer · United States · Lost 1898, after roughly a decade on Puget Sound · Puget Sound & Discovery Bay

A record-setting Columbia River and Puget Sound express steamer, stripped and left to rot on the beach at Dockton in 1898.

Become Captain of Record

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Historically Reconstructed. Drawn from partial documentation of this vessel together with her known class and configuration. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Fleetwood was built in 1881 at Portland for Capt. U.B. Scott and ran express service on the Columbia River before being sold in 1888 to Capt. Z.J. Hatch and brought to Puget Sound. There she ran the Olympia-Tacoma-Seattle route, at times making the roughly 80-mile round trip with no intermediate stops. After about a decade of Sound service, she was stripped of usable material in 1898 and abandoned on the beach at Dockton in Quartermaster Harbor, where photographs from 1905 and 1909 show her breaking apart.

Vessel

Built: 1881
Builder: Not established
Yard: Portland, Oregon
Material: Wood
Length: 111 ft
Beam: 32 ft
Tonnage: 135
Propulsion: Steam, propeller
Owners: Capt. U.B. Scott (Columbia River); Capt. Z.J. Hatch (Puget Sound)

Loss

Date: 1898, after roughly a decade on Puget Sound
Cause: Intentional sinking
Location: Beach at Dockton, Quartermaster Harbor, Vashon Island
Water: Quartermaster Harbor, Puget Sound
Voyage: Not established
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: 0
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Broke apart on the beach over subsequent years; photographed disintegrating in 1905 and 1909.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: Not established
Accuracy: Position not established
Nearest: Dockton, Vashon Island, Washington
Region: Puget Sound & Discovery Bay

Evidence

Overall confidence: Partially documented (62/100)

The precise wreck footprint on the Dockton beach and any surviving remains today are not established in the sources reviewed.

Wikipedia (Fleetwood (steamboat))
Construction, dimensions, ownership, and Puget Sound service history.
Vashon History (Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association)
1898 abandonment at Dockton and description of the vessel breaking apart on the beach.
Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society photo archive
1905 photograph documenting the wreck at Quartermaster Harbor.