Virginia V

Preserving a Puget Sound Maritime Landmark

The Virginia V is the last operational wooden-hulled steamship of the Puget Sound's historic Mosquito Fleet and one of the Pacific Northwest's most important surviving historic vessels.

Built in 1922, Virginia V represents an era when small passenger steamships connected communities throughout Puget Sound, carrying passengers and freight between waterfront towns before roads and automobiles transformed regional transportation.

Today, the vessel survives as a working piece of maritime history and a National Historic Landmark. Preserving Virginia V means preserving both the vessel and the story of the maritime network she represents.

Digital Documentation

Creating a Record for the Future

HAES seeks to support the documentation of Virginia V using modern three-dimensional reality-capture technologies. Detailed 3D documentation can create a measurable digital record of the vessel as she exists today, capturing her structure, machinery spaces, passenger areas, and other surviving features. Such a record can support preservation and restoration planning while also providing a baseline that can be compared with future surveys to document changes in the vessel over time.

Digital documentation also creates opportunities for education and public outreach, allowing researchers, students, historians, and members of the public to explore aspects of the vessel that may be difficult to experience during a normal visit. Document today. Preserve information for tomorrow.

By scanning at the start and end of every dry dock period, the data provided can be studied by conservationists that can determine the best method for preserving historic wooden vessels. This is especially important for the Great Lakes region that has far more historic wooden ships than Washington state.

For more information about the Virginia V and its maintenance, please subscribe to their YouTube channel and also watch the following videos from YouTube.

Help Preserve Virginia V

Preserving historic vessels requires collaboration between vessel owners, maritime historians, museums, preservation organizations, technical specialists, volunteers, and donors. HAES welcomes organizations and individuals interested in contributing technology, expertise, resources, or financial support toward the digital documentation and preservation of Virginia V and other historic vessels.

Historic vessels cannot survive on documentation alone—but documentation can help ensure that the knowledge they contain survives with them.