The three-masted schooner Wawona sailed from 1897 to 1947 as a lumber carrier and fishing vessel based in Puget Sound. In 1964, sixteen years after the vessel's retirement, a group of Seattle citizens formed the nonprofit organization Northwest Seaport and purchased the Wawona as a museum ship. The schooner was made available for public visits during its ongoing restoration. However, efforts to restore the decaying ship eventually failed, and the Wawona was dismantled in March 2009. In 2012, sculptor John Grade used parts from the ship to create a massive 65-foot sculpture, called “Wawona,” in the Grand Atrium of Seattle's Museum of History & Industry. Wood from the ship was also used to create the museum's front desk and the bar at the museum's cafe.

In June 1993, the Wawona was towed from its permanent berth at Northwest Seaport on south Lake Union toward the Ballard Locks on its way to Duwamish Shipyard for major restoration work. The Wawona would be drydocked for several days while the first of five restoration phases began.

Here, a crew member on the tugboat Gail S. tosses a rope to the crew of the Wawona in preparation for the schooner's trip to Duwamish Shipyard. Behind them is the Naval Reserve Armory building, disestablished in 1998 and now the home of the Museum of History & Industry.

Caption information source: Photo caption, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 24, p. B2.