While sorting artifacts for Northwest Seaport the other day I came across a box of red and blue wool bunting. It turned out to be an 8’ flag with the word “Monticello” on it. The letters are in white on a red field with blue borders, the flag is swallowtail shape. 

A quick google search turned up three US Navy ships of that name, the first of which was a screw-steamer that served with distinction in the Civil War. Digging a little further, though, I came up with the steam ferry Monticello, which was the flagship of the Monticello Steamship Company and operated in Puget Sound in the early 1900s, a prominent member of the ‘mosquito fleet’ of passenger ferries. A friend at Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society confirmed the find and filled me in on the boat’s history.

She was built by Crawford & Reid ship builders of Tacoma in 1906, measured 125’ long and 21’ in beam. She served all over Puget Sound but primarily on the Port Blakeley run. The boat changed hands several times, and was owned by Moe Brothers, Port Blakeley Mill Co., and Puget Sound Freight. The steam engines went out and it was converted to diesel in 1936 and rebuilt as the freighter Penaco. She changed owners and industries a couple more times, and finally went down with her boots on off the Aleutian Islands as the crab boat Sea Venture in 1962.  

Pictured above is a locally famous scene, when Monticello ran out of steam and had to be towed in (or pushed, as it turns out) by the gas tug Klickitat. “End of the age of steam” and so-forth. On the bow, it seems likely, is the flag. 

Monticello has a wikipedia page. Image credit goes to University of Washington Archives.