To diesel or not to diesel… That is the question. While the Seattle Times editorial board and even several of the candidates for governor are calling for at least two diesel Olympic Class ferries to be built while we wait for the first hybrid electric ferries to appear, there’s a Read more…
Indianapolis, the smallest of the three Great Lakes steamers was the first to arrive on Puget Sound, arriving at Port Townsend 10 February 1906. She has been fitted with temporary sails to assist her trip via the Strait of Magellan, as there was no Panama Canal to utilize. The Puget Read more…
No vessel went through such transformation as the Iroquois. With a career that lasted 83 years, that’s probably not a surprise, but the various guises the vessel took on over the years ranged from one boxy, somewhat inelegant rebuild to a transfiguration into one of the weirdest looking vessels on Read more…
…or de-evolution depending on how you view the metamorphosis from the Napa Valley to the ferry Malahat. Built as the flagship vessel for the Monticello Steamship company, the Napa Valley went into service in 1910 on the thirty-mile trip between San Francisco and Vallejo. She was to be a modern Read more…
I’ve always been fond of this little ferry.She started life in 1923 as the steam powered ferry Whidby for the Whidby Island Transit company, then a subsidiary of PSN, and soon to be totally absorbed by the company, for routes on and around Whidbey Island. She worked in this capacity Read more…
So, this made the news all over the world. These are stills from the video WSF tweeted out of the Issaquah on its way up to Anacortes during a boat move. Not exactly sure why WSF decided to go ahead with the move (it had been on the news for Read more…
WSF’s bulletin this week included drawing of the new hybrid Olympic Class ferries. At the same time, the RIF was released, which included some very interesting information. All Olympic Class ferries are not going to be alike: WSF contracted with a naval architecture firm, Elliott Bay Design Group, to refine Read more…
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 Read more…
OUCH! So, that’s what it looks like when a propeller blade snaps off. WSF posted this photo back on 28 September when the Walla Walla was moved into drydock. “Throwing a blade” was not all that uncommon back in the day, but that was with propellers where the blades were Read more…