Buʔqʷ, pronounced approximately like ‘poke’ but with a ‘b,’ which is Lushootseed for duck (as in the bird), is a 16 foot replica ship’s boat that could have been carried on ships from the late 1700s to the present. She is a replica of what I believe was the smallest ship’s boat carried by the American fur trading ship Guatamozin when the Guatamozin became the first American ship on the Salish Sea (Puget Sound) in 1803. Buʔqʷ is not limited to 1803, however; she can play many roles and is not merely a boat…she is a time machine. She can slip back to the 1790s and accompany Vancouver, she could have been carried in 1841 by the US Exploring Expedition under Charles Wilkes, she could have been a ship’s boat on the USS Massachusetts in April of 1850 when the Massachusetts became the first American steamship on the Salish Sea, she could have been used by the Hudson’s Bay Company, she could have been tied up in a creek to help people get around the Sound, and she is also a great boat in the present. Through Buʔqʷ I will tell the story of the Guatamozin and her crew. Why should people today care? The Guatamozin and her crew played a part in the United States claiming what is now Western Washington State, they sailed around much of Vancouver Island, and established the longest running non-Indigenous settlement on the Salish Sea until the establishment of Fort Nisqually in 1832, but I believe they also bombarded a Native American village in what is now Warm Beach, Washington on Halloween. All of this took place only 11 years after Vancouver and his crew visited this area. I would like to make folks who attend the Boat Festival aware of this incredible and influential history that few people know about today. Thank you.