Lake Washington steamboats and ferries sternwheeler "Lena C. Gray" was built in Seattle, and operated on Lake Washington most of the time, towing barges. In about 1886, Edward F. Lee established a shipyard on the west side Lake Washington. The Lee yard is believed to have built the following ships that worked Lake Washington and Puget Sound: the small steam scow "Squak", "Laura Maud", "Elfin", "Hattie Hansen" (also known as "Sechelt"), and "Mist". Other early steamboats on the lake were "Kirkland" and "Mary Kraft". G.V. Johnson also built a shipyard on the lake in 1888, and from it launched, among others, the steamers "L.T. Haas",
Puget Sound be a delicacy in Asian countries. George Vancouver explored Puget Sound in 1792. Vancouver claimed it for Great Britain on 4 June 1792, naming it for one of his officers, Lieutenant Peter Puget. After 1818 Britain and the United States, which both claimed the Oregon Country, agreed to "joint occupancy", deferring resolution of the Oregon boundary dispute until the 1846 Oregon Treaty. Puget Sound was part of the disputed region until 1846, after which it became US territory. American maritime fur traders visited Puget Sound in the early 19th century. The first European settlement in the Puget Sound area was