Photo by Cliff West
The Spirit of ’98 was operated by Cruise West on cruises from Seattle to Juneau and Skagway and on the Columbia and Snake rivers. It was designed by marine architect John W. Gilbert and was originally built in 1985 by Bender Shipbuilding & Repair in Mobile, Alabama. It is 192 feet long and with 49 cabins can carry 96 passengers. With twin Caterpillar diesel engines it has a top speed of 15 knots, and its Victorian interiors came from Interior Design International of Seattle, Washington. It was launched in May 1985 as the Pilgrim Belle and was operated by Coastwise Cruise Lines based out of Hyannis on Cape Cod. After running aground a few months later, it was sold to Exploration Cruise Lines of Seattle to allow the company to expand to the East Coast, and was renamed Colonial Explorer. After Exploration Cruise Lines went bankrupt in November 1988, it was sold to St. Lawrence Cruise Lines and moved to Ontario, Canada to operate as the Victorian Empress. In 1993, it was purchased by Cruise West and became the Spirit of ’98, named in honor of the Klondike gold rush in the Yukon Territory. It is shown here on the Columbia River at Rainier, Oregon in the summer of 2002.
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