Alice Gertrude

Alice Gertrude was a wooden steamship which operated on the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound from 1898 to January 1907, when the vessel was wrecked at Clallam Bay.

Career

Alice Gertrude was a freight and passenger steamship built in 1898, either at Seattle, Washington according to one source, or at Port Angeles, Washington according to another source. The ship was built either by or for the brothers John Rex Thompson (1855-1926) and Fred Thompson, who were prominent citizens of early Port Angeles doing business as the Thompson Steamboat Company. The Thompsons ran steamboats to Neah Bay from Port Angeles, and Alice Gertrude was built for this route. The vessel was named for two cousins, Alice Thompson, the daughter of Fred Thompson, and Gertrude Thompson, the daughter of John Rex Thompson.

On January 8, 1902, Captain J. Rex Thompson sold his interest in the Thompson Steamboat Company, which included the Alice Gertrude and five other steam vessels, to the La Conner Trading and Transportation Company. In 1903 La Conner Trading and Transportation Co. effectively merged with the Puget Sound Navigation Company, and Alice Gertrude became part of the Puget Sound Navigation (PSN) fleet.