Gig Harbor resident helps pen new book

Colleen Slater

special to the Gateway

The “Mosquito Fleet” that swarmed over the waters of Puget Sound for more than 50 years included steam-powered stern-wheelers, side-wheelers and propeller boats, delivering whatever needed to be moved by water.

These boats, from about 40 feet up to nearly 300 feet, comprised the “lifeblood of the community and commerce that launched the Pacific Northwest.”

“Mosquito Fleet of South Puget Sound” chronicles those vessels that mainly sailed the southern reaches of Puget Sound, from Olympia to Seattle, Case and Carr inlets, and Vashon Island.

Co-authors Jon Robin Paterson, a collector of maritime history, and Jean Cammon Findlay, a journalist, met at a book signing for Elizabeth Gallentine’s “Anderson Island.”

Paterson, of Gig Harbor, a former Pierce County deputy, owns the tugboat “Joe,” — the former “Joe Foss” — and works with the Retired Tugboat Association, people who own tugboats who are retired from active duty.

Paterson calls himself a collector of old photos, ephemera and stories of the local marine area, tugboats and the Mosquito Fleet.

He’s been called a walking encyclopedia about local steam and tugboats, as well as other assorted watercraft.

Many of the photographs used in this pictorial history of the famous mosquito fleet come from his own collection.

He belongs to several historical societies and enjoys being a docent at the Museum of Puget Sound in Grapeview on Stretch Island, as well as the Working Waterfront Maritime Museum in Tacoma.

Findlay, a Vashon Island resident, retired school teacher and author of genealogical and birding articles, helped edit Gallentine’s book and was responsible for much of the text in the new book.

Findlay’s father, grandfather and an uncle were Puget Sound captains or engineers.

She is also a direct descendant of both “first families” of Anderson Island.

Her career has included being a reading and language arts specialist, a consultant for Colorado State University’s Write-to-Learn Project, a publicity assistant at Seattle Repertory Theatre and a reporter for The Lakewood Log.

Photos and stories include Gig Harbor’s Hunt family and many of their boats, the Skansie brothers, Capt. Biz Burnham, son of Alfred Burnham, who platted Gig Harbor in 1888, and Elsie Claussen, one of three female captains mentioned in the book.

Key Peninsula captains and boat builders mentioned are Bernston, Elder, Harriman, Lorenz and Sipple.

The Mosquito Fleet book, like “Anderson Island,” and the recently published “Fox Island,” “Foss Maritime Company” and “The Key Peninsula,” is published by Arcadia Publishing, the country’s foremost publisher of pictorial histories.

Findlay and Patterson have scheduled book sales and signings at King’s Books in Tacoma on May 8, the Key Peninsula Historical Society Museum on May 10 and the Vashon Bookshop on May 30.

The book will be available at some local bookstores on April 28.

Reach Colleen Slater at cas4936@centurytel.net.