WT Preston
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The W.T. Preston is a specialized sternwheeler that operated as a snagboat, removing log jams and natural debris that prevented river navigation on several Puget Sound-area rivers from Olympia up to Blane, including the Skagit, Stillaguamish, and Snohomish rivers. Dead trees that reached Puget Sound often became half-submerged "deadheads" that could pierce the hulls of wooden vessels. The federal government began building snagboats to remove obstructions and facilitate river based commerce. The W.T. Preston was named in honor of the only civilian engineer to work for the Army Corps of Engineers at the time of her construction in 1929. The Preston used the main single expansion reciprocating steam engines, as well as many pumps and other hardware from her 1882 predecessor, the Skagit.
The 163-foot, wooden-hulled vessel pulled snags, performed light dredging, and otherwise worked the waters of Puget Sound until 1939; when, the Army Corps of Engineers built a new superstructure atop a welded steel hull and transferred the stern wheel, main engines, smokestack, foredeck equipment, and other items onto the second W.T. Preston. The mission of the W.T. Preston changed throughout the years. As rivers were used less and less for transportation of goods, the Preston began to dredge, fight fires, and perform other general work. Throughout her commission, she even retrieved a sunken military bomber, and several automobiles.
The US Army Corps of Engineers operated the Preston out of the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, in Seattle, Washington. This boat served the Puget Sound for more than forty years before the Army Corps retired her in 1981. Her replacement, the Puget, still operates today.
The W.T. Preston was the last operational steam boat in the Puget Sound, and is now permanently dry berthed on the waterfront near Cap Sante, in Anacortes, Washington. The vessel is a National Historic Landmark and a designated city historic landmark, owned and operated by the City of Anacortes' City Museum.
