Alida

History of the S.S. Alida

The S.S. Alida, formerly known as the Tacoma, was owned by the Starr Bros. of Portland. Described as a “neat little craft” she had a short 20 year history due to both her lack of sea-worthiness and competition from bigger, faster boats. After her first year of service the Starr Bros. put a larger steamer, the North Pacific, on the Victoria mail run and Alida was given inland ports from Olympia to Seattle, and on to Port Townsend. The Starrs’ faced stiff competition from the larger steamers the Eliza Anderson and Olympia.

Competition among the Mosquito Fleet boats gave way to races and betting covered by the papers of the day. An Olympia paper, The Washington Standard, reported one such occasion in 1873: “‘The steamers Zephyr and Alida engaged in their usual weekly race last Wednesday, blowing their whistles at the same moment, casting off lines together, and starting from the dock almost abreast. The captains and owners show considerable pluck, but as the victory is always on one side — in favor of the Zephyr — we fail to see the object of this strife.’ …This race exemplified the rivalry between a side-wheeler (the Alida) and a stern-wheeler (the Zephyr). More than once in the history of the little steamers, the operators of side-wheelers attempted unsuccessfully to drive stern-wheelers from the scene with unproven safety concerns.” (“Race,” October 11, 1873)

For more information on S.S. Alida, see our Inside Passage blog by Eleanor Boba (here)

Route: Puget Sound, between Olympia, Port Townsend and Victoria BC
Built by: Mr. Hammond of Olympia
Built for: Mr. Nash (who had the federal contract for mail delivery) but turned over to the Starr Brothers
Built: 1870
In service: 1879
Out of service: 1890
Fate: Fire while anchored off Gig Harbor
Notes: Brush fire sent embers on the wind which set fire to the ship. However an article in the Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer from 1884 notes “the Alida is not expected ever again to turn a wheel” (”Steamboat Matters,” April 16, 1884)
Type: Inland steamship
Tonnage: 473
Length: 115’ (35m)
Depth: 6’ (2m) depth of hold
Decks: Upper deck 12 state rooms, one ladies’ cabin, a dining saloon 60’ long, and a promenade deck forward of the pilot-house, one aft of the ladies saloon.
Installed power: One boiler with six ten-inch flues and forty-four inch tubes, with a heating surface of twenty-two hundred feet; double engines of two hundred horse power, with 14.5 inch cylinders; and one mast with a jib-sail.
Propulsion: Sidewheels

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