1/3 of a Fleet–Updates
Wenatchee, Sealth, Issaquah, Puyallup, Chimacum, Walla Walla, Kennewick. These are the ferries out of service for routine or unplanned maintenance at the end of November. Were it not for some quick work, the Tillikum wouldn’t have made back in time to take over duty on the inter-island run. As it stands, the 64-year-old ferry was delayed getting back due to additional work needed to keep the vessel built in the Eisenhour administration running. The Yakima, built when LBJ was still in the White House, was also delayed over a month, after additional steel work was found to be needed.
The Seattle Times rightly called out the governor and legislature for their failures to the system. And while they certainly deserve much the blame, this isn’t a problem that happened overnight–this was a twenty- plus year issue in the making when funds for the ferry system were gutted and never replaced. They were warned, they just kept kicking the can down the road.
There’s no easy solution, and the petitions circulating to “fix the ferry system” are going to be about as effective as trying to put out a wildfire with a single bucket of sand. It’s too bloody late. Our fleet is old, getting older by the day, and the bid to get new ferries built isn’t even going to close until the summer of 2024.
WSF wants the new hybrid electric fleet to hit the water in 2027. That means construction has to pretty much start twenty minutes after the contract is awarded. Right now, only one hybrid electric ferry is being built in the U.S., and that’s for NYC and Governor’s Island. The vessel is only 190 feet in length and 60 feet wide and is only expected to make ten knots. It was already under construction in March of 2023 when its delivery date of “summer 2024” was announced.
What should have been done is already too late to discuss. What we have to deal with now is the ferry system is stretched so thin that any failure of a vessel–and that is going to happen with a fleet as old as WSF–is going to result in serious delays all up and down Puget Sound. Three vessels are already on borrowed time and despite the excellent care they receive, there is very like a time that is going to come with one of them is going to be pulled from service permanently.
WSF should be looking into possibly getting a temporary exemption from the Jones Act to purchase some vessels from overseas–let’s face it, used ferries in the US don’t grow on trees, and the likelihood of them picking up anything within the United States that isn’t as old or older than what we’re currently dealing with is pretty far-fetched.
Hold on to your seats. It’s going to get bad before it gets any better.
And please remember–don’t take it out on the crews and dock workers. Broken boats and the legislature’s decision to man at certificate of inspection level is not their fault.
The Four Winds!
A neato bit (does anyone say neato anymore?) of Seattle and Puget Sound History!
Way back in 1903, the City of Everett took to the water, a trim little passenger steamer that sailed until the era of the car ferry dawned when she was transformed into the Liberty. A few years after that, and on a new route from Port Ludlow to Ballard, she became the Ballard.
With the fancy (and purpose built) San Francisco ferries take their place on Puget Sound, Black Ball’s converted steamers were sent to the breakers for the most part, but the Ballard was converted into a fancy dining establishment, first as the Golden Anchors on Lake Washington, and then after a stint as a club house, refurbished as the Four Winds (complete with fiberglass pirate attached to the smokestack) on the shores of Lake Union, right across from the current location of the Museum of History and Industry.
In the early 60’s she became the “Surfside 9” and when that shut down mid-decade, she sank and became an eyesore. Raised, about the be refurbished again for the Boys and Girls club of Seattle, she sank again, but this time remained on the bottom long enough that her superstructure came apart. She lingered until the early 70’s and was finally broken up.
Believe it or not, that’s the Queen of New Westminster, way back in 1964, when it appears she’s still being fitted out. I think she’s currently the oldest vessel in the fleet, but I could be wrong on that.
B.C. Ferries just announced a new building program for seven new ferries, all hybrids, to replace the last of the aging “Queen” ferries.
Keep in Mind, WSF folks, some of these vessels that will be retired were built in the mid-to-late 70’s and early 80’s.
The first new boat should arrive in 2029.
The Golden boat that never made it.
Here’s the Golden Bear (not to be confused with any of the California Maritime Academy’s “Golden Bears”) sister to the Golden Poppy, which, off Coos Bay Oregon on the way to Puget Sound, was demolished by a storm.
Black Ball had planned to rebuild it and name it Chetzemoka, but ultimately decided against it. She was stripped down to the hull, her engines removed and placed in the Golden State, which became the Kehloken, and turned into a barge, where the bad luck continued–it sank. With the hull now twisted, the wreck was towed to Canada and turned into a breakwater somewhere near Vancouver.
Golden Poppy, meanwhile, ended up with the name Chetzemoka.
Speaking of the Chetzemoka, here she is at the right with the Leschi and first Kitsap at the left in an Ellis postcard I colorized. Er, I should say “the first Chetzemoka” too, since we do have another vessel with that name currently serving the Point Defiance run.
The sad remains of the Leschi can still be seen on the beach near Whittier, Alaska. Check it out on Google Earth: 60° 47′ 43.28″ N 148° 31′ 58.21″ W should get you there.
Speaking of Seattle history and shipwrecks, here’s the Skagit Belle, former snag boat, taken before she sank.
Much like the poor old Ballard, it was an unpaid bill that made City Light shut off the power, and without the pumps keeping them afloat…glug, glug, glug. Rumor has it, as a result of these two sinking, when it comes to unpaid bills of floating venues and delinquent power bills, due to the tremendous expense it took to clean up both the Belle and the Ballard, City Light will just keep the power on and tallying up the debt to collect at a later time rather than risk the boat sinking.
The hulk of the Skagit Belle, only her masts visible at high tide and an unsightly mess at low tide, sat on the bottom next to Colman Dock for nearly a decade before it was declared a hazard to navigation and broken up and hauled away.
The Kalakala, which by the time this photo was taken in 1964, had largely been reduced to extra service only, is getting up steam for a run to Bremerton, probably to help with weekend traffic.
A ship a really wish was still in Vancouver–the all Vancouver built Princess Louise ended her days as a restaurant in Los Angeles. She was frequently used in television shows in the 1970’s–I’ve seen her in episodes of Columbo and The Bionic Woman, and if you catch The Love Boat on MeTV you can frequently spot her in the background when the Pacific Princess (or sometimes near sister Island Princess) sets sail.
Alas, the pretty little “pocket liner” ended up sinking while being refurbished and was towed out to sea and sunk sometime later. This photo was taken in 1967.
Few people probably realize it was younger cousin Princess Patricia (1947 version) that founded the cruise line and gave Princess Cruises its name…
….like for this ship here, the Fair Princess. Which was actually the Cunard liner Carinthia of 1955, which was launched by this lady, HRH Princess Margaret, sister to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Fans of The Crown will be interested in the caption on the back of this press photo.
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3 Comments
Mark Stearns · November 28, 2023 at 2:40 am
I look for the latest update daily, and it makes my day when I get to read some new news. This entry could easily be titled “The Truth Hurts”. But, no one can argue with anything you said. The only addition I would add, is that blame is at the feet of the Governor, the Legislature AND THE FERRIES ADMINISTRATION. Planning for the future has never been a high priority for any of the three entities, and seeds of poor planning have now come into bloom. WSF can learn volumes from our neighbors to the north. BRAVO for reminding people that the long delays are not the fault of the line level worker. These are people just trying their best to do an often thankless job.
Great picture of the old Columbia Beach dock. The Leschi, Chetzemoka and the old Kitsap are great sights from yesteryear. Do you know about what year that photo was taken? Is it possible the Olympia is over in Mukilteo? If so, that is another picture of four ferries on that run.
Keep up the fine work passing on truth and great information. Your efforts are appreciated.
Chinooksteve · November 28, 2023 at 6:42 pm
Take a look at news articles on how B.C. Ferries is being run before you give them any accolades. Things aren’t so rosy up there. Where they have it over WSF is their far more realistic expectation that vessels need to be replaced after 35-40 years. As I’ve said before, 60 years is a ridiculous standard for vessels that work as hard as ferries do. In addition, there’s no Jones Act to consider, which means the pseudo-private corporation can (and has with all the new boats) build new ferries significantly cheaper and more quickly (and simultaneously) by having them built in Europe. That isn’t an option for WSF. Until recently, it wasn’t even an option for WSF to have the ferries built out of state.
I disagree that the ferries administration is to blame for the current mess we’re in–at least not the administration in the last decade. (I have very little positive to say about the management of the system prior to 2014.) The last several heads of WSF had been sounding the alarm about staffing issues and that the boats were old and not getting the maintenance they needed every legislative session. I’ve watched their testimony year after year, and the testimony of the head of the DOT who all have been pushing for more funding for the ferries and concentrate more on preservation and maintenance and the need for new boats. It fell on deaf ears until a financing plan was finally pushed through last year, but by then it was too late–we ended up in crisis mode. That’s pretty typical of government, which is almost always reactive instead of proactive.
It has been in this time frame as well that the first practical plan was drawn up to take the system to 2040. This is the first plan I’d ever seen come out of WSF that gave an absolutely unvarnished assessment of the state of the fleet, how many boats would need to be replaced, that the number of the vessels needed to be 25 instead of 21 to make sure every vessel was getting the required maintenance so we don’t end up with 22 million dollars in repairs needed per vessel, as is the case with the remaining Super Class ferries right now. (And which is not going to happen, as they boats are going to be retired in the next few years, one way or the other.) It also stressed the fact that we needed to start building now. Keep in mind that that were it not for the insistence on hybrid boats, we’d have 3-4 new boats right now. The build program had been extended to start more ferries, but the switch to hybrid electric set the program back several years as the plans for the boats had to be completely overhauled. Covid set that back even further, and the demise of several shipyards in the area made it so that Vigor, which had bought up many of the other yards (Everett, for example, is no owned by Vigor), was the only yard that could build the boats of the size WSF needs. Given their lucrative contracts with the government, their interest in building ferries was tepid at best, and from what I’ve read, remains so.
The Columbia Beach shot was taken just after WSF took over. It’s possible the Olympic is on the Mukilteo side, but it might not be. Could be this was before she was brought over from Baltimore and the Chetzemoka was the “big boat” on the run at the time. Mukilteo had an eclectic mix of boats until the Kittitas and Cathlamet settled in during the 80’s.
Mark Stearns · November 30, 2023 at 2:39 am
Thank you for all the great information. More new stuff as I was unaware of Vigor owning the Everett Yard.
I agree with your assessment. If appropriate plans had been made 10 years ago, we would not be in the the mess we are in today. New vessels would be on the water. COVID truly did a number to all businesses, including WSF. With the extreme shortage of crew, wouldn’t it be wise to bring back the crew that were layed off because they didn’t get the COVID shot? No back pay, just an open door to return.
As far as how BC ferries are run, I am completely out of the loop. All I know is new vessels are sailing, old ones are retired before they become an expensive burden and, while short on crew, the sailings are still comfortable for the passengers. Yes, they are struggling with cancelled sailings, but overall they did a better job with the schedule last summer than WSF.
Speaking of schedules, do you have any of the old schedules from the 1960’s or 1970’s in your collection? It would be interesting to see how the timetables have changed over the years.
Having grandparents on Whidbey Island, I did see an eclectic mix of vessels on the run in the 60’s and 70’s. It was fun to see the Leschi, Vashon, Chetzemoka, Klahanie and even once, the Illahee sail along side the regulars, Rhododendron, Olympic and Kulshan.
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