EVERGREEN STATE

CLASS: Evergreen State Class

BUILT/REBUILT: 1954/1988 Puget Sound Bridge & Drydock Co, Todd Shipyard, Seattle, WA

FORMER/LATER NAMES:  a. Evergreen State, b. The Dream

OFFICIAL NUMBER: D268732 CALL SIGN: WTQ6960

L/B/D: 310 x 73 x 16 GROSS/NET TONS: 2041/1388 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 875/87 cars

NAME TRANSLATION: state nickname

FINAL DISPOSITION:  Retired in 2014, the ferry was almost immediately put back into service.  After an additional year, she was officially retired in December 2015. Sold in March 2017, she was to be moved to the island of Grenada in the Caribbean.  This never happened.  She moved from Tacoma to the Port of Olympia and was renamed The Dream.  Plans were to move her to Florida as a floating entertainment venue.  She was to be towed to Florida in the summer of 2018.  This never happened and the ferry was sold again, eventually getting evicted from the Port of Olympia. She was moved to Freeland, Whidbey Island for a time before moving to Bellingham, Washington. After spending time at Fairhaven near the shipyard there, she was moved across the bay to the site of the former GP Paper mill. As of Spring 2024, she’s currently still moored there.

HISTORY

Designed by W.C. Nickum & Sons, the new state ferry system’s first vessel went from keel-laying to service in only 11 months.  At 310 feet in length and 73 feet in width, she was 34 feet longer than the Kalakala and 17 feet wider—not only usurping the old streamliner’s flag ship status but becoming one of the largest ferries on the Pacific Coast. (The Chinook, after all, was measured at 318 feet.)

While the ferry was new, her propulsion was not.  Her engines and drive motors had been pulled from the destroyer escort USS Mitchell (DE-43) but had a low number of operating hours on them and were considered “new” as the Mitchell had been out of service since December of 1945. Still, at the time of installation, the engines and drive motors were already a decade old.

The new ferry went into service on the Seattle-Winslow run, upsetting patrons on the Bremerton run, and setting off a decades-long dispute about “Bainbridge always getting the new/better ferry.” The truth of the situation, however, was that traffic had increased at such a rapid rate with the completion of the Agate Pass Bridge linking the island to the mainland (and thus a much quicker route to the Olympic Peninsula) assigning the newest, largest ferry to route just made sense.  Bremerton’s passenger numbers had been falling steadily since the end of WWII, and the Winslow route had been serviced by the two small wooden ferries Klahanie and Kehloken, supplemented by the Chippewa in the summer months.

Equity would be achieved with the addition of the Super Class in 1967/68, but Bremertonians were left smarting for over a decade while the new ferries went to Bainbridge or Vashon.

The Evergreen State’s stint at Bainbridge wasn’t to be long in any event.  By 1959, with near sister Tillikum joining the fleet, the Evergreen State was sent north to work in the San Juan Islands and on the Anacortes-Sidney, British Columbia run. She would spend almost all of her career in the islands from 1959 on.

By the 1980s, the 30 year-old vessel was starting to look a little tired.  It was decided to extensively rebuild the ferry, and in 1988 she went into the shipyard.  Plans were made to fix two problems that had vexed her since she was built—her low height, which had become a problem when the standard for tall trucks had been raised after she had been built, and plating over the texas deck that, rumor had it, had been incorrectly installed upside down, leaving a grid of girders that trapped rain and snow.

It is unclear why no one stopped to consider what raising the passenger cabin and plating over the top deck might do to her center of gravity, but it became apparent as soon as the ferry left the yard and on her first corner she heeled over alarmingly. The Evergreen State was now badly top-heavy, and corrective action had to be taken.  To help rectify the problem, WSF removed all “non-essential” weight—which included the false ceiling in the passenger cabin.  Spoiling an otherwise successful interior refurbishment, the Evergreen would spend the rest of her career with bare wires, cords and plumbing in her ceiling exposed.  In addition, in order to sail the international route, the ferry had to comply with SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) regulations.  Further cluttering her cabin she had storage lockers, life rafts and a very visible sprinkler system grafted in.

The Evergreen State served the Anacortes-Sidney run less and less in later years, relieving the Elwha.  Nearing retirement age, WSF looked in the fleet to SOLAS another boat. The Evergreen State made her last trip to Sidney, B.C. on 2 May 2003.  Her replacement on the route, the Chelan, went into service in the spring of 2006.

The ferry celebrated her 50th birthday in 2004 and was mothballed a short time later. She didn’t remain mothballed long, as problems with the Steel Electrics arose—the Evergreen State was pressed into service more and more often.

With the Steel Electric Class suddenly (and many would argue unnecessarily) withdrawn from service on 20 November 2007 (and permanently stricken on 13 December 2007), the Evergreen State‘s mothballed status came to an abrupt end.  With the Illahee yanked from service, the Evergreen took her place as the inter-island vessel in the San Juan Islands.

With retirement age now mandated at 60 years, the Evergreen State should have made her last trip on 29 June 2014, ending a long career.  In fact, she was given a proper send off when she left the San Juan Islands for the last time.

Fate intervened, however, when the Tacoma suffered a catastrophic electrical failure. WSF, running short of vessels and the two Olympic Class ferries not ready, “old reliable” Evergreen was put back in service and continued to be in service almost continually for over a year since her “retirement.”

With the Tokitae and Samish in service, the Tacoma repaired and repainted and back online, the Evergreen State was quietly made her actual last trip on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run as the #2 vessel, Thursday, 03 November 2015*.  WSF officially decommissioned her on 14 January 2016, hanging out the “For Sale” sign.  She was sold for $300,000 to Jones Broadcasting, LLC. The new owners plan to “use it for active ferry service in the protected waters of the southern Caribbean.”

That never happened.  She was then moved to Olympia in April of 2018, allegedly renamed The Dream and was to be towed to Florida for use as a floating entertainment venue in “two months” according to the Olympian. She ended up staying several years, was seized by the Port of Olympia when her owner failed to pay his moorage bill. The ferry was put up for sale at auction in November of 2020 and was purchased by  Bart Lematta. Mr. Lematta paid to keep the Evergreen State in Olympia until June 2021 while he made plans for the vessel.

On the 4th of October, 2021 the ferry was towed from the Port of Olympia to Langley on Whidbey Island. A month earlier, the port had terminated the agreement to moor the Evergreen State there when it said Lematta had failed to meet the terms of the agreement with the port.

Nichols Brothers shipyard said they were be doing some work on the ferry over the next couple of months and then the ferry will be towed to Everett for drydocking. It is unclear if this work ever actually took place.

After spending time at the shipyard in Everett, the Evergreen State was towed up to Bellingham, moored near the Fairhaven Boat Launch. She was later towed across the bay to the site of the former GP Mill. She remains there as of summer 2024.

*Courtesy of Rex Carlaw.