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S.S. IROQUOIS 1901 Length: 214' Beam: 34' (as built; expanded to 49' in 1928) Built: 1901 for Arnold Transport Co. Passengers: 400 day, 160 night passengers in 53 cabins  40-50 autos.

A trio of passenger steamers moved from the Great Lakes for service on Puget Sound: the Chippewa (covered elsewhere on the site as she served as a Washington State Ferry late in her career), the Iroquois and the Indianapolis.                  The Iroquois was built in 1901, a 214 foot coal-burning passenger liner with two large, raked funnels.  Proving unprofitable on the Lakes, she was sold and purchased by Puget Sound Navigation and arrived from her journey around South America in 1907.  PSN was quick to rebuild her as an oil-burner, then assigned her to the Victoria run.           In the years leading up to the World War I, the Iroquois and Chippewa tried to  give the Candian Pacific Railroad steamships a run for the money on the Victoria -Seattle route.   The CRP ships were faster and a rate war began, with PSN dropping their prices to an unheard of low rate.  Though  ships were both very popular, PSN couldn't  really match the service offered by CPR and eventually quit trying, concentrating more on service on Puget Sound.            WWI put the vessels in lay up,  with the Chippewa becoming a training vessel.  By the end of the war, both vessels were languishing at the pier, a victim of the growing need for auto carries on the Sound.             The Chippewa went in for an extensive refit to be converted into an auto ferry, but at the time Black Ball  felt that such a refit on the  Iroquois was not  justified and they sold her.  She  returned to the  Great Lakes in 1920.       Again, she couldn't make a profit for her owners on the Lakes.  In 1928, Black Ball purchased her again and brought her back to Puget Sound. This time around, PSN had more concrete plans for the steamer.

The Iroquois as she looked for many years both on Puget Sound and on the Great Lakes.   At right, A rare postcard of the Iroquois back at work on the Great Lakes in 1923.  Author's collection.

Entering the shipyard she had her lower decks cleared out to accomodate autos.  He public rooms were rebuilt, including a Ladies Lounge, Men's' Smoking Room  and state rooms.   Black Ball then assigned her to the Port Angeles- Victoria run, retiring the Olympic.     So as not to compete with the CPR "Princess" boats,  she became  the   "Night Boat" to Victoria, leaving Seattle at midnight to arrive in Victoria first thing the next morning after picking up addtional passengers.             With her finely appointed public rooms, the  steamer became  tremendously popular vessel, though the conversion left her somewhat top heavy and she gained a reputation as being a  "roller."  Still, she sailed   the route for 18 years.  By the 1940's though she was becoming dated and her original steam plant was becoming  increasingly expensive to run.            With the debut of the Chinook in 1947, Black Ball was ready to retire the near-50 year old vessel, offering her for sale.

After being remodeled as the "Night Boat" operating from Seattle to Port Townsend, Port Angeles to Victoria, the Iroquois lost some of her trim lines.   At right, the elegantly appointed Ladies' Lounge was an ideal place to watch the scenery pass outside.   Author's collection.

Black Ball Transport,  and independant subsidiary of  PSN, purchased the Iroquois  with the intent of using her to haul freight  between Seattle, Port Townsend, Port Angeles and Victoria.   BBT  sent  the  ferrry went into the yard to be rebuilt.             The refit to the old steamer was extensive.  Her  staterooms were removed, and the Ladies' Lounge moved from the stern to the bow  to become the  wheelhouse.   Her troublesome steam engines were removed and replaced with diesel engines.           The flat, bizarre looking vessel that emerged from the yards in 1954 looked nothing like the trim passenger steamer she had been built as.  Still, the ever dependable Iroquois chugged up and down the Sound, becoming a familiar sight to people for the next two decades.           After spending several years mothballed sold  the old vessel off to interests in Alaska.  She was used as a processing vessel for the next ten years until at the age of 80 the old boat was simply worn out.    The ferry was , disposed of by her owners by being intentionally sunk in the cold, deep waters of the Gulf of Alaska in 1982.

At left, the Iroquois after being remodeled into a bizarre looking diesel freighter.  The bright-red former steamer would be a common sight on the Seattle waterfront for the next two decades.    At right, her cargo deck.  Williamson/MOHAI.

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And to the bottom of the briney deep... After a career as a crab processor, the Iroquois was finally worn out.   At left, moments before before the explosives in her hull were set to go off to sink her..  At right, the Iroquois begins her plunge to the bottom of the ocean. Courtesy PSMHS/MOHAI.