Digital Bob Archive

The steamer Islander went to the bottom in Stephens Passage on August 15, 1901, and less than a month later the little steamer Flosie, which had picked up the surviving passengers from the Islander, was herself on the bottom of Gastineau Channel. It happened on the night of September 12; she was tied to a Juneau dock after completing a run from Skagway, and two crew members were asleep on board. They awoke to find her sinking and had to scramble to reach the dock. When she was raised it was found that the sea cock was open, and a member of the crew of the Tonquin, moored close by, remembered that he had heard someone running from the Flosie on the night of the sinking. No reason for the sabotage was discovered.

The Flosie continued on the run up Lynn Canal to Skagway with calls at Amalga Harbor, Jualin, Seward City which was being renamed Comet, and Haines, with less frequent trips to Sitka via Funter Bay, Tenakee, Killisnoo and Rodman Bay, until June, 1903. These runs were made under contract to the Post Office Department and the Flosie was the first of a good many small mail boats that would operate out of Juneau during the next several decades.

Early in 1903 the Army completed the building of a new post near Haines, named Fort William H. Seward, and was seeking a barracks tender. The Juneau Ferry & Navigation Company offered the Flosie and the offer was accepted at $17,400. In August she was renamed the Peterson for Major Matt R. Peterson who had died in Havana, Cuba, on October 7, 1900, while on duty connected with the Spanish American War.

The Peterson was a frequent visitor to Juneau during the 19 years she served the Army post. During World War I she carried many Alaska volunteers and draftees to Fort Seward for their basic training, and more than a few of them spent their entire service there, \"winning the war with snow shovels,\" as the saying was. A regular assignment of the Peterson each fall was taking hunting parties from the fort to Chichagof, Baranof and Admiralty Islands for deer and birds.

The Peterson was far from worn out in 1922; it may be that the Army just wanted a larger vessel for the post. At any rate, the Capt. Jas. Fornance replaced the Peterson which was sold to the Willson & Sylvester Mill Company at Wrangell and again became the Flosie. Much of her deckhouse was removed to give her a longer open deck. Log towing and towing barges loaded with wooden box shooks to the salmon canneries were her main duties. She stayed there until March, 1929, when she was sold to Carl Isakson of Seattle for general towing on Puget Sound. In April 1933 she was sent to California for the same purpose. The next owner was Delta V. Smith of Olympia, who owned a fleet of tugs and who renamed her Olympian, a name she carried until April 1941 when she became the Adeline Foss of the Foss tugboat fleet. Her last service was in 1949 and in 1961 she was burned at Tacoma during the Fourth of July celebration.