They have run the gamut, from elegant dining rooms that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a trans-Atlantic ocean liner (the pocket liners operated by Canadian Pacific) to the galleys fitted out with surplus plastic fast food restaurant fittings (the original Issaquah Class galleys.)

Black Ball ran all over the place, from the elegant fittings in the Rosario and Quilcene to the large, but utilitarian lunch counter on the Enetai and Willapa.

Washington State Ferries inherited and an eclectic mix of vessels from Black Ball, and when they started adding vessels to the fleet the galleys ranged from the chrome-laden mid-century modern diner look on the Evergreen State Class to the bare bones, 1960’s austere (and highly uncomfortable) dining area on the Super Class to the gloriously overwrought orange and gold galleys on the Walla Walla and Spokane.

Here’s a look at changing look of the dining areas on vessels that have sailed Puget Sound over the last century.

Alaska Marine Highway

Dining on the Malaspina in the 1970’s, a bygone era for AMH.

Black Ball (Puget Sound Navigation Company)

The Ballard started out with KCTC but ended up working for Black Ball. After the vessel was retired, it served as a floating restaurant. First called the Golden Anchors, she was moored on Lake Washington. She was later moved to Lake Union near the armory (now MOHAI) and was a successful venue well into the 1960’s first as the Four Winds and lastly the Surfside 9.

The Chinook, while easily identifiable as “post-war modern” these days was at the height of fashion in 1947. The dining room onboard was probably one of the most lovely Black Ball ever had built.

Because she accommodated day passengers as well as overnight guests, the Chinook also had a less-formal coffee shop which also served snacks.

The Quilcene, ex-City of Bellingham, had a nicely appointing dining room for the long trip to Sidney, B.C.

Canadian Pacific

The Princess Elaine was a “day boat” traveling between the mainland an Nanaimo only. As such, she didn’t have a formal dining room, only quite nicely outfitted lunch counter.

The Princess Elaine‘s replacement, the Princess of Nanaimo was designed for multi-use, and as such had both a coffee shop and dining room. She sailed on the Nanaimo run from 1950 until 1963 when she was moved to the east coast to replace the Princess Helene.

The Vancouver Island Princess, formerly Princess of Vancouver when she sailed between Seattle and Victoria. Photo courtesy of Shawn J. Dake.

Washington State Ferries

The Chelan‘s galley as it looked originally, virtually identical to the others in the class save for the color of the half wall surrounding it. The Chelan‘s was orange.

The Cathlamet got an especially nice rebuilt galley, with a pleasing use of blues, greens and red.

The first Chetzemoka. The Wood Electric galleys were all basically the same. (Courtesy UW Archives)

Inherited from Black Ball, the Chippewa had a lovely lunch counter along with mahogany paneling. (Courtesy MOHAI)

The galley of the Elwha was only lightly upgraded when she was rebuilt. New upholstery, new tile on the floor, and that was basically it. (Courtesy Captain Brandon Moser)

If it looks like a 50’s diner, it’s because it was the 1950’s. The Evergreen State‘s original galley. (Courtesy MOHAI)

Remodeled in 1988, the Evergreen State came out of the yard dangerously top-heavy. As a result, the false ceiling was removed to reduce weight, giving the entire vessel an industrial feel. The rebuilt galley wasn’t exactly and improvement. (Courtesy Captain Brandon Moser)

The Hyak looked pretty much the same her entire career. The tile was replaced at some point, but that was pretty much it.

The rebuilt galley on the Illahee. The puzzles indicate the photo was taken when she was used as the inter-island ferry in the San Juan Islands. (Courtesy Captain Brandon Moser.)

The rebuilt galley on the Issaquah was a definite step up from the original that was built into the vessel in 1978. (Courtesy Zack Heistand.)

The Supers were all identical when built, so much so that people couldn’t tell them apart and WSF had to equip them with name boards. The Kaleetan‘s rebuilt galley got a lot more comfortable with addition of backed chairs at the tables.

The Klahanie with a wonderful advertisement of Cola Cola on the wall in the early 1950s. (Courtesy MOHAI)

Klahowya’s rebuilt galley was more open than that of the Evergreen State, which made it a problem for not taking alcohol out of the dining area. (Courtesy Captain Brandon Moser.)

The Klickitat‘s rebuilt galley was a lot more cramped than the other three Steel Electrics, due to the different layout of the passenger cabin.

The Kitsap’s (II) rebuilt galley got a lot more colorful than the original. With dark blues and a bit of color in the tile, it made for a much more welcoming area for dining.

The Kittitas shown here sporting her original galley with, rumor had it, surplus fitting from either a Burger King or Wendy’s.

The biggest difference in the rebuilt Kittitas was the half-wall sectioning it off from the rest of the vessel. (Courtesy of Matt Masuoka.)

Nisqually in the early 1950’s, looking very much as it had when it arrived from San Francisco. (Courtesy of MOHAI.)

The rebuilt galley of the Nisqually, which like the Illahee and Quinault was far more open and welcoming than the one on the Klickitat.

Puyallup. Not exciting, but not awful either.

20 cents would get you a cup of coffee on the Quinault in 1969

The Steel Electrics might have gotten the best rebuilt galleys in the fleet–save for the Klickitat, of course. Photo of the Quinault galley by Zack Heistand.

The Skansonia had a pleasing little lunch counter, well designed for the small vessel.

Ah, the 70’s! And it didn’t get more 1970’s than the Spokane.

While the galley has been completely redesigned, there are still some elements of the original design present.

Before and after on the Sealth. The rest of the galley looked like all the others in the class, save for the glass panel with the ferry’s name.

Newest galley in the fleet, so far–the M/V Suquamish.

Looking into the galley of the Tacoma about a decade ago. She’s had some upgrades since this photo was taken.

“Welcome to the Tillikum galley!” proclaims the sign. The Evergreens as a whole, with their acres of green, were very dark boats before they were refurbished, even in the best of circumstances. Photo courtesy of Captain Brandon Moser.

The much brighter galley on refurbished Tillikum. Courtesy of Captain Brandon Moser.

Functional, but not terribly colorful. The galley on the Tokitae. Acres and acres of beige.

Just visible to the left is the lunch counter on the M/V Vashon. The Vashon and her sisters were very utilitarian vessels, with little in the way of frills or comforts. While designed for the shorter routes of the Kitsap County Transportation Company, the Vashon, under Black Ball ownership, ended up on the long run to Sidney in the 1940’s. One wonders how comfortable those benches would have been on the 48 mile trip to Sidney at 10 knots.

Walla Walla as built. Note the proliferation of ashtrays, which was one of the biggest complaints about the vessels–there was no where to eat that wasn’t a smoking section.

Refurbished lite–the Walla Walla in the late 1990’s. The orange is gone, but little else has changed.

Like the rest of the passenger cabin, the Walla Walla was refurbished in a much more restrained color palette, mostly in beige and several shades of green. The galley looks much less dated now. Courtesy of Matt Masuoka.

Food service on the Wenatchee. It will be interesting to see what sort of upgrades the vessel gets after her conversion to a hybrid. Courtesy of Matt Masuoka.

The galley of the Willapa, which was identical to the one on the Enetai. The passenger cabin on the two Steel Electrics was greatly expanded to accommodate shipyard workers, which was greatly needed in the years before and during WWII. The lunch counter, accordingly, was expanded to be much larger than the ones on others in the class. A large copy of this photo was on display in the Hyak‘s passenger cabin for years.

The compass rose set into the tile on the Yakima‘s galley was a nice touch and set her apart from the others in the fleet. Courtesy of Captain Brandon Moser.

And in San Francisco

Scanned from a brochure from the Monticello Steamship Company, this photo shows the lunch counter in the long-lived S.S. City of Sacramento. Later totally rebuilt as Black Ball’s Kahloke on the Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo run, there appear to be no existing photos of the new lunch counter on the ferry, which, from the plans, looked large and quite comfortable, and something on theme of what had been put on the Kalakala

The lunch counter of the San Leandro. No sitting around the counter for coffee and a chat–much like the redesigned galley on the Klickitat, it was pick up your food and go!

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