_{The City of Angeles–the first proper ferry on the Anacortes-Sidney route. Author’s collection, colorized.}

BUILT: 1906

PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: a. City of Long Beach, b. City of Angeles

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 203193

L/B/D: 125 x 35 x 10 GROSS/NET TONS: 442/347 PASSENGERS/AUTOS:  /26 cars

PROPULSION: steam, 450 HP

NAME TRANSLATION: For the city of Port Angeles.  The bay was named in 1791, by Juan Francisco de Eliza, who called it de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles. A year later, Capt. George Vancouver shortened the rather long Spanish name to the present form.

FINAL DISPOSITION: Scrapped, 1938.

Built in San Pedro, California as the City of Long Beach in 1906 by Charles Fulton, this twin-screw excursion boat was originally fitted with two gasoline engines of 200 hp.  Purchased in 1909 for use on Puget Sound, the vessel ended up not being used much and ended up in lay-up at Eagle Harbor a short time later.

In 1913 she was purchased from the Stetson estate by the newly formed Port Angeles Transportation Company headed by Peter Grubb of the Angeles Brewing Company.  She was renamed City of Angeles and put on the Port Angeles-Seattle run, but her gas engines proved to be unreliable and left her unable to maintain a steady schedule.  She was sent in for an overhaul which lasted five months at which time the gas engines were replace with two triple expansion steam engines. Not long after the conversion, the vessel was purchased by the Puget Sound Navigation Company (Black Ball Line) and used on various routes on Puget Sound.

In 1923 she was rebuilt at cost of $30,000.00 at the Johnson shipyard at Port Blakely, Washington, to carry autos. The City of Angeles’ first assignment in her new role as an auto ferry was on the Anacortes-Sidney run (including stops at Orcas Island and Roche Harbor) which had been started the previous year with the converted kelp harvester Harvester King.

When “retired” diesel-powered ferries from San Francisco started taking their place on Puget Sound in 1937, Black Ball’s converted steamers (City of Angeles among them) were mothballed. In late October of 1938, the City of Angeles was sold to the Seattle Iron and Metals Corp. for scrapping.