_{The Klickitat departing Keystone back in November of 1999. The ferry spent most of the latter part of her career on the run. Courtesy of Captain Brandon Moser.}

CLASS: Steel Electric

BUILT/REBUILT: 1927/1958/1981 Bethlehem Shipbuilding Union Yard, San Francisco, CA/ Commercial Ship Repair, Winslow, WA/Tacoma Boat Inc., Tacoma, WA.

PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: a. Stockton, b. Klickitat

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 226567 CALL SIGN: WA6855

L/B/D: 256 x 74 x 13 GROSS/NET TONS: 1408/957 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 616/64 (2007)

PROPULSION: Diesel-Electric SPEED: 12 knots

NAME TRANSLATION: “Beyond.” Also, one of the Native American names for Mount Adams.

FINAL DISPOSITION: Scrapped in Ensenada MX, 2009

HISTORY

Southern Pacific Railroad built the M/V Stockton in 1927, part of a trio that included sisters Lake Tahoe and Fresno. Though mechanically the most advanced type of ferry in the world, they were built using old fashioned methods, which included riveting the hull. While the hulls and superstructure were made of steel, the car deck was made of timber as was the passenger cabin, wheelhouses, and crew quarters.

By 1938 the majority of ferries on San Francisco Bay were idled.  Southern Pacific-Golden Gate attempted to hold on until 1940, but by then it was obvious that the era of the ferryboat was over.  The vessels were offered for sale and were sold to Captain Alexander Peabody’s Puget Sound Navigation Company (Black Ball Line) in 1940.  The vessels were all towed north to start their careers on Puget Sound.

Stockton became Klickitat and started work on the Edmonds-Port Ludlow/ Edmonds-Kingston route with the Nisqually. Both vessels stayed on this run from about 1941 until the Edmonds-Port Ludlow route was dropped in 1950 with the opening of the Lofall-South Point run.

The State of Washington took over ferry operations in 1951, sending the Klickitat up to the San Juan Islands where she would remain for the next 30 years. She was replaced as the Sidney ferry in 1965.

The Steel Electric ferries were modernized beginning in the late 1950’s. All the boats had their decks sponsoned out eight feet. The passenger cabins were modernized, though still made out of wood. The car deck was plated over with steel and the wooden railings on the promenade deck outside the passenger cabin were replaced with steel railings.

The ferry received a gold band on her smokestack in 1977 when the entire class turned 50 years old.   It was at this time WSF made the decision to refurbish the class once again.

The Klickitat was the first to be rebuilt, and although she benefited from some lovely oak paneling in the passenger cabin, the rebuild of the passenger cabin overall was poorly executed.  Perhaps the biggest mistake was replacing the observation rooms at either end of the passenger cabin with an outside shelter deck.  The area that had once been a gracefully curved room with windows facing Puget Sound was instead filled by the crew’s quarters. In addition, the ferry was not retrofitted with an elevator as the others in the class would be.

Amazingly, even though the ferry hadn’t met current safety standards since the 1950’s, when returned to service in 1982 the Klickitat went back to work on the Anacortes-Sidney run and was issued a SOLAS certificate. 

Not long after, the ferry was moved over to the Port Townsend-Keystone route, where she would finish out her career.

Cracks were discovered in her hull in the spring of 2007, and even after repairs were made, the head of the DOT had her removed from service along with the Illahee on 20 November, 2007.  (The Quinault and Nisqually were already out of daily service.)

For a time, it appeared that at least one ferry would make it back to service; however, the Klickitat was not scheduled for any yard time to have repairs made.  With the announcement that no more money would be put into the 80-year-old vessels, the Klickitat was retired along with the rest of the class on 13 December 2007.

The Klickitat spent months tied up at Kingston while waiting for space to open up at Eagle Harbor.  Finally, she was towed down to the harbor to keep company with the rest of her sisters.   In June of 2009 the Klickitat, along with the other Steel Electrics, were sold for scrap, leaving Puget Sound for the scrappers in Mexico on August 14th, 2009. They arrived in Mexico on 25 August 2009, and starting with the Klickitat were cut up one by one, ending their 80-year service life.