_{The Skagit arrives in Seattle from Vashon Island. Courtesy of Zack Heistand.}

CLASS: Monohull passenger only

BUILT: 1989, Halter Marine Shipyard, New Orleans, LA

OFFICIAL NUMBER: D949140 CALL SIGN: WAA6309

L/B/D: 112 x 25 x 8 GROSS/NET TONS: 96/65 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 230/0

PROPULSION: Diesel, 3840 HP   SPEED: 25 knots 

NAME TRANSLATION: From the tribe/river/county—name meaning lost

FINAL DISPOSITION: Sold to a Canadian boat broker, who then resold the Skagit and sister Kalama to a ferry company in Tanzania for use between the mainland and Zanzibar.  Sank while dangerously overloaded on 18 July 2012 with an official death toll of 144, but an estimated death toll of 293.

HISTORY

With the promise of passenger only service realized with the Express (later Tyee) WSF ordered a pair of new boats to expand the service. The two, named Skagit and Kalama, were built for five million dollars in 1989 by Halter Marine of New Orleans. The original design of these boats was based on one used to ferry offshore crew to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. WSF altered the superstructure by adding another deck to accommodate more passengers. 

Arriving in the fall of 1989, the boats (along with the Tyee)were immediately tied up. There were no funds to run them.  The state’s newest members of the fleet sat unused and in limbo.

The Loma Prieta Earthquake in San Francisco put the boats to work. Loaned to the city while the bridges were down, the ferries proved their worth—and it would turn out to be their finest moment.

Returning to Puget Sound, the ferries went into service…and soon after, the complaints began.

Designed for the Gulf of Mexico, the boats rolled with the waves. The cabins proved to be uncomfortable, freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer.  The residents along Rich Passage began complaining about erosion on their beaches due to the large wake the ferries produced. To appease property owners, WSF slowed the boats.

They were successful on the direct route from Vashon to downtown Seattle, where the open water presented no issues with the wake.  The pair proved to be unreliable and subject to frequent breakdowns.  When Washington State Ferries started a new passenger only program with the Chinook and Snohomish, plans called for the Skagit and Kalama to be retired.  Instead, the ax fell on the passenger only program in 2005.  The Chinook and Snohomish were pulled off the Bremerton run and the full-scale dismantling of the passenger only fleet started, beginning with the auction of the Tyee on eBay.

The Skagit and Kalama were assigned to carry on at Vashon.   The commuters on Vashon Island remained grateful for their ungainly boats. The two provided the link from the Island directly to downtown Seattle, instead of going to the dock at Fauntleroy in West Seattle as the auto boats do.

In the winter of 2006, the legislature directed the sale of the Chinook and Snohomish. The remaining passenger only run between Vashon Island and down town Seattle was to be discontinued by Washington State Ferries by 2009.

After the summer schedule of 2009 King County took over the Vashon-Seattle run, using the 149-passenger catamaran Melissa Ann. King County leased boats until they built their own fleet, the Sally Fox going into service on the Vashon-Downtown Seattle run in 2014.

The Skagit and Kalama were declared surplus in the fall of 2009. The state tried to sell them on eBay but were unsuccessful. The pair were finally sold in 2011 and transported to Tanzania where they would provide service between the mainland and Zanzibar.

At left is are two photos of the empty passenger cabin of the Skagit. At right in a photo found online is the same cabin overloaded with passengers and luggage while the ferry was in service running to Zanzibar. It is impossible to see the seating, but the columns are very recognizable as being from the Skagit. Given these conditions, which the caption on the photo identified as “typical” it isn’t surprising as to what happened next.

On 18 July 2012, after encountering heavy winds, the Skagit capsized and sank off the coast of Zanzibar.  A resulting inquest by Tanzanian authorities found the ferry had been dangerously overloaded, carrying an estimated 447 people—well over its capacity.  The final death toll from the disaster is a staggering 293 dead—although officially 144 are listed as dead and 149 as “missing.”