Sale to Puget Sound excursion lines
In 1906, the Canadian Pacific Railway sold Yosemite to the Puget Sound Excursion Company.[2] This company had been organized by Capt. Thomas Grant to run cruises and excursions out of Seattle in connection with the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition. Once in Seattle, Yosemite was rebuilt somewhat by John B. Mitchell. The main deck and social hall were extended all the way forward to be flush with the bow, and a large dancing pavilion was installed.[3]
By the spring of 1907, Yosemite was in operation under command of Captain Grant, carrying up to 1,000 passengers at a time from Seattle to Bremerton and around Bainbridge Island. Music was provided by Wagner's Band and food service by Lord and Meeks, a well-known Seattle catering firm.[3]
The surviving photographs of Yosemite seem to always show an astounding number of people on her decks. This was in spite of the then recent loss of the PS General Slocum in New York, also a wooden sidewheeler, in which over 1,000 people had been killed in a fire, and the resulting threat by the Puget Sound steamboat inspectors to strictly enforce the limits on passengers that could be embarked on excursions and cruises.[10]
Among other trips, in 1908, Yosemite carried almost the entire student body of the University of Washington out into Puget Sound to greet the Great White Fleet. In this particular trip, the vessel was obviously grossly overloaded, as the weight of the passengers caused her to heel so sharply over to port that the water came up to the bottom of the port side paddle wheel guard.[11]
Boxing matches were held on her lower deck.[4] Perhaps somewhat incongruously with hosting boxing matches, Yosemite on July 20, 1907, or 1908, advertised a "Grand Temperance Excursion" tickets $1.00 each "under the auspices of the International Order of Good Templars": The route will cover a trip to the beauty spots of Puget Sound, Port Madison, Agate Passage, etc., the U.S. Navy Yard at Bremerton and the Big Warships, the new "Nebraska," the old "Oregon," and half dozen others; the West Passage of Vashon Island, the Narrows of Puget Sound and the beautiful island vicinity above.[11]
Another typical charter excursion was carrying the Georgetown Volunteer Fire Department, who were all employees of the Rainier Brewery.[12] In one atypical incident, in August, 1907, Yosemite rammed 30 ft into a dock in Seattle, knocking over a horse and wagon, apparently becoming the only paddlewheeler to collide with a harnessed horse.[13]
