MV Princeton Hall is a rare and storied wooden mission yacht built in Sitka, Alaska in 1941–42 by students of Sheldon Jackson College under the direction of renowned Tlingit master boatbuilder Andrew Hope. Constructed from old-growth Northwest timber and shaped with elegant canoe-stern lines distinctive to Pacific Coast workboats, Princeton Hall embodies both Alaska Native craftsmanship and classic Northwest maritime design traditions.

Commissioned by the Presbyterian Church, Princeton Hall became part of Southeast Alaska’s legendary “Presbyterian Navy,” traveling thousands of miles through the Inside Passage to isolated villages, canneries, and fishing communities. She carried ministers, teachers, medical aid, mail, and supplies to places accessible only by water, becoming a familiar and welcome sight throughout Southeast Alaska. During World War II, she was temporarily conscripted for coastal submarine patrol duty before returning to civilian service among Alaska’s coastal communities.

Beyond her remarkable history, Princeton Hall is cherished for the warmth and character that only a well-traveled wooden vessel can hold: finely crafted joinery, rich varnished woodwork, and the enduring presence of a boat built to serve both people and place. Lovingly restored and stewarded for decades by the Ruddy family, Princeton Hall remains a living ambassador of Alaska maritime heritage — a vessel whose story is inseparable from the coastal communities and waters she continues to navigate more than eighty years after her launch.