ALMAR (Skagit County)

BUILT: 1947 

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 254209 CALL SIGN: WM3843

L/B/D: 62 x 32 x 7   GROSS/NET TONS: 94/77 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: /9

HISTORY: Built in 1947 for the Puget Island ferry run, (Wahkiakum County) the vessel was retired in 1960 and replaced with the Wahkiakum.  Moved to Anacortes the same year for the Guemes Island run, (Skagit County) replacing the Guemes (I).  The Almar stayed on the run until 1980 when the Guemes (II), a new 16-car vessel, replaced her.  The Guemes (II) continues on the run.

NAME TRANSLATION: “Famous for his noble character” (German)

FINAL DISPOSITION: Allegedly still afloat in Alaska; however, there is no current Coast Guard record of her.

CHRISTINE ANDERSON (Pierce County)

BUILT: 1994, Freeland, WA.

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 1023545 CALL SIGN: WCN2606

L/B/D: 209 x 66 x 17 GROSS/NET TONS: 96/65 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 219/54 cars

NAME TRANSLATION: According to the Steilacoom Historical Museum Quarterly Volume 36 Number 1 dated Spring 2007: “The island community chose the name to honor a woman who had been born and lived most of her life there. She lived to be 95 years of age and she was noted for her many contributions, including bringing electricity to the island in the 1930s.”

FINAL DISPOSITION: In service at Anderson Island, 2021.

GUEMES (I) (Skagit County)

BUILT: 1917, Anacortes, WA 

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 215666 CALL SIGN: WJ7067

L/B/D: 49x 23 x 7 GROSS/NET TONS: 82/73 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 110/6 cars

HISTORY: Built for use between Anacortes-Guemes Island.  Retired in 1959.

NAME TRANSLATION: Guemes Island is a triangular island of about eight square miles north of Anacortes across Guemes Channel in northwest Skagit County. The name was given in 1791 by Lieut. Juan Francisco de Eliza, for the Viceroy of Mexico, Don Juan Vincente de Guemes Pacheco y Padillo Orcasitas y Aguayo, Conde de Revilla Gigedo. Various portions of the Count’s name were given to other locations in the Pacific Northwest.

FINAL DISPOSITION: Wrecked on Lummi Island, 1971

GUEMES(II) (Skagit County)

BUILT: 1979, Gladding Hearn Shipyard, Somerset, Massachusetts.

OFFICIAL NUMBER:  601686 CALL SIGN: WYW9807

L/B/D: 124 x 34 x 7 GROSS/NET TONS: 91/91

NAME TRANSLATION: Honoring the first Guemes and for the Island. See above.

FINAL DISPOSITION: In service, 2021, scheduled to be replaced in the next two to three years.

OSCAR B (Wahkiakum County)

BUILT: 2014, Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, Freeland, WA.

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 1251592 CALL SIGN: WDH7993

L/B/D: 109 x 48 x 6 GROSS/NET TONS: 76/51

NAME TRANSLATION: Named for Oscar Bergseng, first captain of the county ferry operation

FINAL DISPOSITION: In service, 2021

STEILACOOM (I) (Pierce County)

BUILT: 1936 Bath Iron Works, Bath, ME

PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: a. Aquidneck, b. Steilacoom, c. Point Ruston

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 582707 CALL SIGN: WYL6353 (as Point Ruston)

L/B/D: 128 x 52 x 13 GROSS/NET TONNAGE: 420/285

HISTORY: Built by Bath Iron Works, Bath, ME (YN 167) as Aquidneck or YFB-14 for the U.S. Navy.  Laid down, 28 July 1936, and launched, 13 February 1937, the vessel went into service for the Navy on 28 May 1937 at Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, RI.   The Aquidneck was taken out of service and place in reserve in October 1971, being struck from the Naval Register in July of 1975 and transferred to the Department of the Interior on 1 November 1975.  The ferry was sold to Pierce County on 19 December 1975 for use on the Steilacoom-Ketron Island-Anderson Island run and renamed M/V Steilacoom. After reconditioning, the ferry finally went into service in August 1977, where it put the Islander into back-up status until the arrival of the Christine Anderson, which put the Steilacoom into back-up service.

NAME TRANSLATION: For the city of Steilacoom. One of the first towns founded in Washington, originally as Port Steilacoom by Lafayette Balch. There are several versions of the name origin, including that it originated from a Chief Tail-a-koom or that Lafayette Balch took the name from an existing creek that was spelled ‘Cheilcoom.’

FINAL DISPOSITION: The Steilacoom was sold for $49,500 to R.T. Wallace of Haldo Inc., Las Vegas, NV, February 2007, and sold again on eBay to real estate developer Mike Cohen, renamed M/V Point Ruston, 2008. As of 2019, in use as a floating showroom and conference center for the Point Ruston condo development, Point Ruston, WA.

STEILACOOM II (Pierce County)

BUILT: 2006, Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, Freeland, WA

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 1192706 CALL SIGN: WDD5115

L/B/D: 197 x 68 x 10 GROSS/NET TONS: 97/66 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 325/54

NAME TRANSLATION: For the city of Steilacoom. One of the first towns founded in Washington, originally as Port Steilacoom by Lafayette Balch. There are several versions of the name origin, including that it originated from a Chief Tail-a-koom or that Lafayette Balch took the name from an existing creek that was spelled ‘Cheilcoom.’

HISTORY: The ferry spent her early career being chartered by Washington State Ferries for use on the Port Townsend-Keystone run after the Steel Electrics were abruptly withdrawn from service in November 2007.

Nicknamed “Bob” due to her poor handling on the run, the ferry stayed in service until the Chetzemoka (II) was built and assigned to the route in 2010.

FINAL DISPOSITION: In service at Anderson Island, 2021.

TAHOMA (Pierce County)

BUILT: 1939 

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 238311 

L/B/D: 60 x 27 x 80 GROSS/NET TONNAGE: 71/58   PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 60/9

HISTORY: Built in 1939 for Olson Ferries, the 9-knot ferry was driven by an Atlas diesel and operated between Steilacoom and McNeil and Anderson Island.  The ferry stayed on the run its entire career, eventually becoming the backup ferry to the Islander, ex-Tourist No. 2.  The Tahoma was retired in 1977.

NAME TRANSLATION: See Tacoma.

FINAL DISPOSITION: Dismantled in 1978.  Pilothouse is on display at the Johnson Farm on Anderson Island.

WAHKIAKUM (Wahkiakum County)

BUILT: 1962

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 288364 CALL SIGN: WS9837 

L/B/D: 69 x 32 x 6 GROSS/NET TONS: 88/68 PASSENGERS/ AUTOS: 98?/12

NAME TRANSLATION:  Chinook for “tall timber”

FINAL DISPOSITION: Replaced by the Oscar B in 2015.

WHATCOM CHIEF (Whatcom County)

BUILT: 1962

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 288249 CALL SIGN: WT4561

L/B/D: 94 x 44 x 9 GROSS/NET TONS: 69/47

NAME TRANSLATION: for the Lake/Creek/former part of Bellingham. A Lummi word, it means “noisy water.”

FINAL DISPOSITION: In service, 2021.