_{The Illahee on her final assignment, as the inter-island ferry in the San Juan Islands. Author’s photo.}

CLASS: Steel Electric

BUILT/REBUILT: 1927/1958/1986, Moore Drydock Co., Oakland, CA/Commercial Ship Repair, Winslow, WA/Seattle, WA

PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: a. Lake Tahoe, b. Illahee

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 226588 CALL SIGN: WXT9366

L/B/D: 256 x 74 x 13 GROSS/NET TONS:1364/931 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 616/59 cars (2007 figures)

PROPULSION:  Diesel Electric HP: 2896   SPEED:  12 knots 

NAME TRANSLATION: Chinook for “land, place, location; ground, earth, dirt”

FINAL DISPOSITION: Scrapped in Ensenada, MX, 2011.

HISTORY

Southern Pacific Railroad built the M/V Lake Tahoe in 1927 as part of a trio   that included sisters Stockton and Fresno. Then some of the largest, most modern ferries, they would work just 13 years on San Francisco Bay before the new bridges became the primary mode of transport into the city.

1940 saw the Lake Tahoe making the last crossing on San Francisco Bay for the Southern Pacific Fleet.  Shortly afterward the vessels were all offered for sale.   Captain Alexander Peabody’s Puget Sound Navigation Company (Black Ball Line) bought all six Steel Electric vessels for use on Puget Sound.

After being readied for the trip north, the Lake Tahoe and Redwood Empire started north on August 9, 1940. The Lake Tahoe ended up in trouble off the coast north of Eureka, California. High winds and heavy seas battered the boat. Her crew was taken off and the Lake Tahoe, with pumps left running, was left on her own for the next 36 hours. She managed to stay afloat and was picked up by her tug and towed to Eureka for repairs.  She arrived off Cape Flattery on 20 August 1940, two days behind the Redwood Empire.

Renamed Illahee, she first went to work on the Seattle-Bremerton run. After the Willapa and Enetai were ready for service on that route, the Illahee was moved over to the Suquamish-Indianola-Seattle run in June of 1941. In addition to this run, overnight she would make a trip carrying trucks to and from Port Townsend six nights a week.

The astonishing 22-hour schedule was worked by the Illahee all through the war years!

After the State of Washington took over ferry operations in 1951, the Illahee was assigned to the Seattle-Winslow route.  She was joined by the Evergreen State on the route in 1954.

Like the others in the class the Illahee was rebuilt in 1958-59. In addition to having the car deck timbers replaced with steel plating, the boats were sponsoned out eight feet, and the deck level was raised two and a half feet.

Returning to service on the Winslow-Seattle run, the Illahee was joined by the Tillikum after the Evergreen State was shifted up to the San Juan Islands. The two ferries held onto their routes until the Super Class ferries arrived in 1967-68.  After then the Illahee moved around, working on the Edmonds-Kingston and Mukilteo-Columbia Beach (Clinton) routes.

In 1977 the ferry’s white band on her smokestack was painted gold in recognition of 50 years of service.  Not long after, another assessment on the class was done to determine if there could be some years squeezed out of the aging vessels.  It was decided that, as long as the ferries could keep their “Grandfathered” status with the Coast Guard, the vessels could be rebuilt for another 20 years of service.  The vessels hadn’t met safety standards in place since the 1950’s.

After the Klickitat was rebuilt in 1982 the plans for the others in the class being rebuilt were shelved due to financial woes at the ferry system. By this time, however, the vessels were becoming increasingly deteriorated.  The cabins were full of dry rot and the hulls were springing leaks.  The Coast Guard ordered the three remaining Steel Electrics off the water until hull repairs could be made. Throughout most of 1984 the Illahee, Quinault and Nisqually took their turn getting emergency repairs to the hull.

The Illahee was finally rebuilt in 1986 and returned to the same routes she had been working—Edmonds-Kingston, Mukilteo-Clinton, Port Townsend-Keystone.  She remained primarily as the second boat at Port Townsend-Keystone until the late 1990’s when the Coast Guard requested that she be moved off the route and assigned to calmer waters.  At that time, she displaced the Nisqually as the inter-island boat in the San Juans.

Cracks were discovered in the hull of the Klickitat in the spring of 2007, and even after repairs were made, concern about the corroded condition of the hulls of the Steel Electrics grew.

When it was discovered that a crack in a stern tube of the Illahee had allowed gallons of water to flow into the hull until it had been patched, the Coast Guard ordered and inspection of all the stern tubes of the class.  Original equipment, the cast iron stern tubes had completely deteriorated.  The Illahee had new stern tubes built and returned to service in the fall of 2007 while similar work was being done on the Quinault.

All four Steel Electrics were pulled from service by WSF on 20 November 2007 for additional repairs. On 13 December, it became official that the Illahee and the rest of the Steel Electrics were retired.  Work was stopped and the vessel was made ready for mothballing.

After nearly two years in limbo, the Illahee and the other Steel Electrics were sold on June 19, 2009 Eco Planet Recycling, Inc. of Chula Vista, California.  The Illahee‘s long career ended in August 2009 when she left Eagle Harbor for the last time and was towed to Mexico for scrapping.

Nearly two years later, and after a year of being half sunk, demolition FINALLY began on the half-sunk hulk in April of 2011.  The Klickitat was apparently cut up first, followed by the Quinault.  The Nisqually, which was afloat and intact as of February 2011, was cut up later that year. The most difficult job—scrapping the sunken Illahee—was left for last. By 2012 the ferry had been completely dismantled.

_{The sad remains of the Illahee, half-sunk and half-dismantled at the shipyard in Ensenada, Mexico. Photo courtesy of Shawn J. Dake.}