Qualla: USNS Sgt. George Peterson

USNS Sgt. George Peterson: Introduction

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

She was built for a war that ended before she could fight in it. Laid down in March 1945 at the Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Company in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, the ship that would eventually become USNS Sgt. George Peterson was originally planned as USS Washtenaw, a Navy cargo vessel. By the time she launched in May, victory in Europe was already secured, and by the time she was delivered to the War Shipping Administration in July, Japan's surrender was weeks away. The Navy canceled her military contract. She was completed instead as the merchant vessel SS Coastal Guide, and so began a 37-year odyssey through four names, three owners, two oceans, and one final, spectacular fire.

USNS Sgt. George Peterson: A Ship in Search of a Mission

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

As SS Coastal Guide, the ship entered civilian service under the United Fruit Company and later the Polaris Steamship Company. In June 1948, the Army acquired her and rechristened her USAT Sgt. George Peterson, putting her to work with the Army Transportation Service. Two years l...

USNS Sgt. George Peterson: From Warship to Yacht to Fish Factory

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In December 1971, a man named John E. Marsh bought the retired cargo ship for $41,000, with one condition: she could not be used for transportation. Marsh converted her into a private yacht and renamed her Marsha Lynn, a transformation that must have been something to see, a mili...

USNS Sgt. George Peterson: Two Days of Fire

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On October 20, 1982, while undergoing repairs in Port Gardner at Everett, Washington, the Al-Ind-Esk-A Sea caught fire. What happened next unfolded slowly and inevitably. The fire burned through that day and into the next, the kind of stubborn shipboard blaze that firefighters st...

USNS Sgt. George Peterson: A Wreck in Plain Sight

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The site of the sinking, at approximately 47.98 degrees north and 122.25 degrees west, lies in Port Gardner Bay, the sheltered inlet where the Snohomish River meets Puget Sound. From the air, Everett's waterfront is dominated by the Naval Station on its western edge, but the east...