BAINBRIDGE 

BUILT: 1928, Lake Washington Shipyard, Houghton, WA. 

PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES:  a. Bainbridge, b. Jervis Queen, c. BCP #30

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 194368 

L/B/D: 195 x 55 x 15 GROSS/NET TONS: 572/389 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 600 passengers/ 90 cars (1928) 45 cars (1950’s)

PROPULSION:  850 horsepower Washington Estep Diesel.  SPEED: 10 knots

NAME TRANSLATION: from the Island of the same name.  Bainbridge Island was “discovered” by Commander Charles Wilkes when he traversed Agate Pass, and named it for Capt. William Bainbridge, a naval officer who had been hero of the War of 1812.

FINAL DISPOSITION: Rolled over and sank on Fraser River in 1986; scrapped on site.

HISTORY

The Bainbridge was part of a trio of modern, all-wood ferries built for Captain Anderson’s Kitsap County Transportation Company. Bainbridge was the middle sister of the three, built in 1928. The slightly smaller sister Kitsap had been constructed in 1925 and younger, larger sibling Vashon in 1930.

Originally the ferry served her namesake island, sailing between Port Blakely and Seattle, but after KCTC folded and PSN took over operations, the vessel shifted her route, often working alongside the Kitsap at Columbia Beach or with the Vashon at Vashon Island.

Captain Peabody retained the Bainbridge and a few other vessels after the sale of the rest of the fleet to the State of Washington for service in his new operations in British Columbia, at which time the Bainbridge was sent to the Yarrows Shipyard to be rebuilt and modernized for Canadian regulations. She emerged looking pretty much the same, but her square windows on the car deck had been replaced with a neat row of portholes, improving her looks somewhat. Once out of the yard, she was placed in service at Horseshoe Bay, sailing to Gibson’s and Earl’s Cove.

The Bainbridge was included with the sale of the terminals and all other assets of Black Ball to B.C. Ferries in 1961. She kept her same route but was repainted in the pastel blue and white of B.C. Ferries. In 1963 she was renamed the Jervis Queen and was placed on the Earl Cove-Saltery Bay run. In 1964 she briefly went back to the United States for routine maintenance at Lake Union Drydock. She returned to service, and toward the end of her career was working the Horseshoe Bay-Bowen Island run. By this time, the small all-wood vessel was becoming a liability. B.C. Ferries soon found out what a headache wooden construction could be:  her hull required expensive caulking, and her timbers were subject to dry rot and needed frequent replacing.

At the time, with the lack of vessels the old Puget Sounder was still needed. She was patched up as best as possible. Mechanically, her Washington Estep Diesels were very sound, something that could not be said about the much younger but steam-powered Smokwa. Still, by 1966 B.C. Ferries had enough new ferries on the water that the Jervis Queen could be surplused. She was sold that same year to B.C. Packers, Ltd. and renamed BCP #30.

B.C. Packers used her as a floating bunkhouse for the company’s oyster seed operation. She was towed up to Pendrell Sound in the spring and south the Fraser River each autumn for a number of years.  At some point she became abandoned, and for years she was moored on the river, rotting away.     

In 1986 her sodden hull could no longer keep water out. She sank on the spot. After efforts were made to pump her out failed, a floating barge was brought in to remove the hulk, sawing it up and loading the half-rotten timbers onto a barge. The remains of the once-faithful little Bainbridge were towed away and burned, ending a long and interesting career.