A 600-horsepower Estep diesel engine allowed her to sail at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) when originally built.
[1][2] She was owned originally by the Kitsap County Transportation Company (KCTC), and was the first in a series of ferries (the others being the MV Bainbridge and MV Vashon) that provided some serious competition to the Puget Sound Navigation Company (PSN), which was the other dominant ferry operator on Puget Sound.
In 1940, she was on the Port Townsend-Keystone ferry route but returned to Mukilteo-Clinton a year later, where she remained until World War II ended.
She was assigned to the Lofall-South Point route across Hood Canal, where she supplemented the newer MV Rhododendron.
[1] The Hood Canal Bridge opened in 1961, and WSF no longer needed the Kitsap.