The keel of T-86 was laid October 1942. She was designated for the Dept. of Justice, but was commissioned an Army Vessel for WWII. She went to the DOJ in 1958 after Korean War service. She briefly worked at Alcatraz before arriving US Penitentiary McNeil Island in 1960. She had her official renaming ceremony in 1961 with the Mayor of Steilacoom aboard. Steilacoom has numerous rescue citations and was the preferred storm boat of the McNeil Captains. I first rode her in 1965 through the late 1970s. She transferred to WA state service in 1981 and became their flagship after a remodel that rounded the face of her pilot house, leveled her tri-top roof, and added an overhanging roof as on most yachts. Her image is on many WA Dept. of Corrections publications, as well as on numerous commemorative items, including frames, mugs, belt buckles and two different era issues of challenge coins. She ended state service in 2005 and went to her first private owner. three owners later with Jefferson Giffords, Cap Ben Swanson of the Classic Yacht Discovery told our Historical Society about her, and we purchased her in Nov 2018 and have been doing ongoing restoration ever since. She is in Port Townsend yard now. Ultimately she will be a cruising history museum showing McNeil Island artifacts as a piece of living nautical history.