In the early days of the twentieth century, the Mosquito Fleet played a colorful and important part in the life and economic development of the Puget Sound country. The fleet was composed of a myriad of steamboats of all sizes—each with a personality of its own. Many of these vessels have become legendary. Scurrying around the Sound in every sort of weather, the only links between many towns and settlements, these craft formed the largest and most picturesque fleet of its kind the world has known. They wrote an important chapter in Pacific Northwest history. This is their story, told by one who helped to bring the Mosquito Fleet to its golden age and then watched it wane. ECHOES OF PUGET SOUND is also the story of Torger Birkeland, who came to America as a young lad with his family and started working as a whistle punk in loggings at the age of eleven. At twenty he finally turned to sea, and in this book, he gives a vivid account of his experiences of life on Puget Sound in those early 1900s. Richly illustrated throughout with black & white photographs.