Olympic
What was the official name of Sioux (steamship) from 1924 to 1941?
Sioux ( steamship ) Sioux was a steamship which was operated on Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca from 1912 to 1941 . From 1924 to 1941 , following reconstruction , the vessel operated as an auto ferry under the name Olympic . During the Second World War ( 1941-1945 ) this vessel was taken under the control of the U.S . Army and renamed the Franklin R . Leisenburg . The Liesenburg served as a ferry in the Panama Canal area under Army control , and then was sold to a firm which ran the vessel on the Surinam river in South America . Design and construction . Following the loss of the nearly-new but wooden steamship Clallam in 1904 , Joshua Green , president of the Puget Sound Navigation Company , owner of the Clallam and the dominant Puget Sound shipping concern , announced that the company would replace its wooden steamships with ones built of steel . As part of this effort , in 1910 , the steel steamers Sioux and Kulshan . were built nearly simultaneously in Seattle by the Seattle Construction and Drydock Company . Sol Duc was specifically designed for the Seattle – Tacoma . Dimensions for Sioux were 461 gross tons , length beam of and depth of hold of . Power was supplied by a four-cylinder , compound steam engine , with cylinder bores sized , and two ; stroke . Two oil-fired boilers produced steam at 250 pounds pressure , with whole power plant developing . Operations . Originally Sioux was intended to be placed on the route from Seattle to Irondale , where an important ironworks had been established , and which had provided much of the steel for the construction of the vessel . In May 1911 Sioux was placed on the Irondale route but only ran until July 1911 , when she was replaced by the City of Everett . The ironworks was in trouble financially and about to file bankruptcy , so the traffic on the route didnt appear to justify use of the new steamer . Instead , Sioux was placed on the route from Seattle to the new municipal dock at Tacoma , alternating with the Indianapolis so that a steamer left Seattle every two hours bound for Tacoma . Sioux was later placed on the Hood Canal route , running with the sternwheeler State of Washington for the rest of the summer of 1911 . Afterwards the steamships permanent route became Seattle-Edmonds-Everett . Sioux could make the run in two hours , not as fast as the Flyer , but still considered good time . When the Lake Washington Ship Canal was completed , the Sioux was the first commercial vessel to pass through the locks during the opening ceremony on July 4 , 1917 . 1912 Everett harbor accident . Sioux was involved in an accident at Everett on August 16 , 1912 , which as it was said , resulted in seriously depleting the local mosquito fleet . Steamships had no direct speed control from the bridge of the vessel . The captain signaled the engine room using a system of bells and dials called the engine room telegraph . Accidents could and did happen when engine telegraph signals were misinterpreted by the engine room . On this particular occasion , Sioux , coming in from Seattle , was approaching the Everett dock . From the bridge , Capt . William Thorton signaled the engine room for half astern to slow the vessel down . Instead the engine room gave him half ahead which caused the steamer to ram into the dock . Captain Thorton then signaled for full astern . Another mistake was made and the Sioux went full ahead , smashing into the stern of the Camano , driving Camano forward into the gasoline launch Island Flyer which in turn struck another gasoline launch , the newly built Alverene . Island Flyer was sunk as a result and Alverene was seriously damaged . Camano then sank at the dock . The small launch Arrow was demolished and the steam launches Ranger and Daphne suffered lesser damage . It turned out that an engine room assistant , known as an oiler had been left in charge of the telegraph . No one was killed although there was at least one close call . The destruction showed the vulnerability of wooden-hulled steamers , one of the reasons why the Puget Sound Navigation Company switched to steel-hulled vessels . Reconstruction as ferry Olympic . In 1923 , the Puget Sound Navigation Company decided to rebuild Sioux , then running the Seattle - Port Townsend route into an automobile ferry , and late in the year gave the reconstruction contract to the Todd Dry Dock corporation in Seattle . The reconstruction was completed in the first part of 1924 . Sioux was renamed Olympic . Sioux , renamed Olympic was placed on the Victoria , British Columbia to Port Angeles , Washington route across the Strait of Juan de Fuca , departed from Seattle on Saturday , June 14 , 1924 , making her first run on June 15 , 1924 , under Capt . Louis Van Bogaert , Chief Officer Harry Carter , and Chief Engineer I . Terado . Olympic had been scheduled to depart on Friday the 13th , but company management felt this supposedly ill-omened date would create too much adverse comment , and postponed the departure by one day . Olympic is also reported to have been run on the Victoria , BC-Bellingham , Washington route . Later years . In 1941 , the U.S . Army bought Olympic from the Puget Sound Navigation Company and rebuilt her for service in the Panama Canal area as the Franklin R . Leisenburg . After the war the vessel was sold to a firm in Dutch Guiana for service out of Paramaribo on the Surinam River . As of the late 1950s the ship was reported to be still in operation on the Surinam river . References . - Faber , Jim , Steamers Wake -- Voyaging down the old marine highways of Puget Sound , British Columbia , and the Columbia River , Enetai Press , Seattle , WA 1985 - Kline , Mary S. , and Bayless , G.A. , Ferryboats -- A Legend on Puget Sound , Bayless Books , Seattle , WA 1983 - Newell , Gordon R. , ed. , H.W . McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest , Superior Publishing Co. , Seattle , WA ( 1966 ) - Newell , Gordon R. , Ships of the Inland Sea , Superior Publishing Co. , Seattle , WA ( 2nd Ed . 1960 ) - Newell , Gordon R . and Williamson , Joe , Pacific Steamboats , Superior Publishing , Seattle WA ( 1958 ) . External links . - evergreen.com ( Olympic page ) ( accessed 06-04-11 ) ( provides several images of Sioux in service as ferry Olympic. ) - Photograph of Sioux , circa 1912 , probably in Seattle , University of Washington digital archives image TRA927 ( accessed 06-04-11 )