Snagboat W.T. Preston

We took a walk through the snagboat museum after we left the farmers market.  It was quite a sight to see this very large boat up close.  The snagboat was named for W. T. Preston, one of the Army Corps of Engineer's most outstanding civil engineers.

The W.T. Preston is a descendant of a long line of snagboats that worked the Puget Sound and its tributary rivers clearing the waterways of navigational hazards.  Until her retirement in 1981, the Preston was the only large, active sternwheeler remaining in the Sound.  The Preston operated as far north as Blaine and south to Olympia and Shelton.  Working all year round near large population centers distinguished the snagboat as one of the best-known vessels to navigate these waters.  The boat is 163' 6" long with a 34' 8 1/2" beam and a draft of 3' 8".  She displaced 494 tons.

For her snagging and dredging operations the Preston is outfitted with a 70 foot wooden boom on her bow that has a 30 ton snagging lift or a 15 ton bucket lift capability.  The boom has a 57 foot lift and was powered by a two-cycle steam engine.

The boat had 14 crewman on board.  Since the snagging operation often called the Preston far from home, the men ate and slept aboard the ship.

They made some of their own tools on board the ship.

Wooden bolt made from Douglas fir trees are what held the boat together.

We walked through the Heritage center that was located adjacent to the snagboat.  We read where the BMW Oracle racing boat was built in Anacortes.

This is a picture of the wind tunnel model used to test the boat.