SS Virginia V Cruise Around Bainbridge Island!

The Bainbridge Island Historical Museum is delighted to invite you to our cruise around Bainbridge Island. Your support allows us to preserve and share the stories of Bainbridge Island and promote understanding of our community and the world in which we live. This cruise is a fundraising event for Bainbridge Island Historical Museum, and it sold out in 2019, the last time it was held.

HISTORY: The Bainbridge shoreline began about 5,000 years ago when the surface of Puget Sound stabilized. Archaeological data from 18 sites on the Island and other nearby localities document the presence of the Suquamish over the past five millennia. Suquamish elders described villages at Lynwood Center, Point White, Battle Point and Eagle Harbor. On May 19, 1792, the British ship Discovery dropped anchor off Restoration Point between Bainbridge Island and Blake Island. Captain George Vancouver encountered a Suquamish summer encampment where many of the tribe spent the day cruising in their dugout canoes around the ship and trading with the ship’s crew. The first American expedition entered Puget Sound in 1841 with a five-ship armada led by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes who named Bainbridge Island after his mentor, Commodore William Bainbridge.

MOSQUITO FLEET: Early settlers of Bainbridge Island and Puget Sound communities soon found that the easiest and most effective way to travel from one place to another was by boat. This need led to small steamers that buzzed around the sound and came to be known as the “Mosquito Fleet.” Bainbridge Island had over 30 landings scattered along the shore. Some were makeshift docks only approachable at high tide, and others were substantial structures that could handle freight and an ever-growing number of passengers. Small communities formed around the landings and many included a store, post office and one-room schoolhouse.

The Virginia V is the last surviving wooden-hull, steam-powered passenger vessel on the West Coast, and the last of Puget Sound’s famed “Mosquito Fleet” steamers. Launched in 1922, she was the last of a line of working steamers all bearing the name “Virginia,” owned and operated by the West Pass Transportation Company. The Virginia V is still equipped with the 1898 triple expansion reciprocating steam engine built by Heffernan Iron Works of Seattle, an engine that was originally fitted into her predecessor, Virginia IV. She sailed between Tacoma and Seattle for many years. With the advent of increased use of automobiles, trucks and car ferries, she ceased service in 1938. Eventually she became known for charters and excursions and since 1980 has been operated by the Steamer Virginia V Foundation, a non-profit corporation. The United States Secretary of the Interior designated Virginia V a National Historic Landmark on Sept 5, 1992.