This Jacobsen portrait shows TACOMA on the open ocean under full sail on starboard tack. Built in Bath, Maine in 1881 by Gross & Sawyer for Charles Davenport, TACOMA was a ‘three-skysailyard’ ship and considered one of the handsomest and finest ships ever built in Maine. Although lavishly appointed; Tacoma made 12 Westward passages to California with an average transit time of 147 days which was considered slow.

Tacoma was bought by the Alaska Packers in 1898 for $40,000. The ship was later chartered to the United States government for service in the Spanish American War making three voyages transporting horses and supplies to Manila with an excellent record.

In 1900 Tacoma made its first fisheries voyage and made regular trips to Alaska through 1918 when the ship was crushed in the ice at Cape Craig.