Miscellaneous
ACORN
YEAR BUILT: 1924 by Ballard Marine Railway. Launched 9 September 1924.
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 224248 CALL SIGN: WJ6919
L/B/D: 61 x 25 x 5 GROSS/NET TONS 43/29
HISTORY: Designed by L.H. Coolidge, Seattle naval architect, and built by Ballard Marine Railway company for Berte Olson. Used on the Deception Pass route at first, then Port Gamble-Shine on Hood Canal. Later (1954-55) purchased by Whatcom County for Lummi Island.
NAME TRANSLATION: from the tree nut of the same name—probably due to the vessel’s size
FINAL DISPOSITION: Sold; moved to Alaska. Hull still on beach in Seward.
ANNABELLE S
BUILT: 1938, The Dalles, Oregon.
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 237180 CALL SIGN: WK3570
L/B/D: 65 x 30 x 4 GROSS/NET TONS: 62/59 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: /12
HISTORY: Built in 1938 in The Dalles, Ore., to carry cars and passengers across the Columbia River. Retired in 1953, sailed for Seattle and was heavily damaged. Rebuilt, moved to Heron Island in 1959. Retired in 1989. Sold to Dennis Redmond in 1994 and converted into a private residence.
NAME TRANSLATION: named for Captain C.T. Smith’s wife.
FINAL DISPOSITION: Usually moored in Tacoma, the vessel does travel around the Sound in the summer months.
BAILEY GATZERT
BUILT: 1890
OFFICIAL NUMBER:204289
L/B/D: 194 x 33 x 8 GROSS/NET TONS: 878/802 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: /25
HISTORY: Stern-wheeler built for use on the Columbia, later ran between Olympia and Seattle on Puget Sound. Sponsoned out to carry autos about 1918 and assigned to the “Navy Yard Route” from Seattle to Bremerton, she became the first car ferry on the route. Last operated in 1923.
NAME TRANSLATION: Named after the mayor of Seattle, Bailey Gatzert.
FINAL DISPOSITION: According to one source, the machinery in the Gatzert was stripped out in 1926. Another, contemporary, source reports that the boat was floating at its moorings in May 1929, stripped of machinery and out of use.
In 1930, the hulk of the steamer was sold to the Lake Union Drydock and Machine Works of Seattle, which built a four-story structure on the old hull, which was still sound, and used the vessel as a floating shipway and machine shop in Lake Union.
BUILT: 1919
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 218611
L/B/D: 60 x 19 x 5 GROSS/NET TONS: 36/24 PASSENGERS/AUTOS:
HISTORY: Built for service between Clinton and Everett. 1925: Whatcom County. Sold to Clarence Price, 1930, re-engined. Sold to James Masterson, 1932-33. Sold to Pioneer Seafoods, 1936. Sold to Cordova Packing Company, 1944. Sold to Gravina Point Co, 1946.
FINAL DISPOSITION: Abandoned/scrapped 1949.
CENTRAL II
BUILT: 1924
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 224095
L/B/D: 60 x 24 x 8 GROSS/NET TONS: 59/40 PASSENGERS/AUTOS:
HISTORY: Built for Willis Nearhoff’s Whidby Island Ferry Lines. Transferred to PSN in 1929. To Agaton Olson, 1931; burned at Lummi Island Indian Reservation August 10, 1931. Sold to MA Montgomery and rebuilt as a freighter by 1933; converted to motorship, 1939-40. Sold to U.S. Briscoe Jr, 1948.
FINAL DISPOSITION: Abandoned/scrapped 1962.
CITY OF CLINTON
BUILT: 1922, Clinton, Washington.
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 222110
L/B/D: 58 x 22 x 8 GROSS/NET TONS: 57/39 PASSENGERS/AUTOS:
HISTORY: Built at Clinton, Washington for service to Everett.
NAME TRANSLATION: For the city of Clinton, a town on Whidbey Island; It was named for Clinton County, Iowa, by Edward C. Hinman who came from Iowa in 1883 and filed a timber claim.
FINAL DISPOSITION: On March 23, 1929 while en route the ferry caught fire and sank off Mukilteo.
CITY of EDMONDS
BUILT: 1923
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 222875
L/B/D: 57 x 20 x 7 GROSS/NET TONS: 49/38 PASSENGER/AUTOS:
HISTORY: Built for Sound Ferry Lines. “On Sunday morning, May 20, 1923, the automobile ferry City of Edmonds makes its first run from Edmonds to Kingston, inaugurating a new route across Puget Sound. As regular service begins, the ferry is ‘exceptionally well patronized’ by both walk-on passengers and automobiles.” (Edmonds Tribune-Review, May 25, 1923)
NAME TRANSLATION: For the city of Edmonds. Brackett named the area Edmonds in 1884, and it was officially incorporated as a village in 1890. It was named after Vermont Senator George Franklin Edmunds.
FINAL DISPOSITION: Destroyed by fire September 1926.
CITY of KINGSTON
BUILT: 1923, Dockton, WA.
PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: a. Rubaiyat, b. City of Kingston, c. Lake Constance
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 222819
L/B/D: 60 x 22 x 9 GROSS/NET TONS: 66/45 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: /10 cars
HISTORY: Built at Dockton as the freighter Rubaiyat. After taking a load of gypsum for Seattle, the vessel began leaning to port. Captain G.F. Ryan turned the wheel to swing her half a
point to starboard. The vessel continued to list, finally rolling over and sinking in 220 feet of water, drowning four members of the crew. She was raised and rebuilt as the ferry City of Kingston in 1924 as a running mate for the City of Edmonds, taking over for the Clatawa which began service to from Port Gamble to Port Ludlow.
In 1934, the City of Kingston was sold by Black Ball to William P. Thornton for the crossing on Hood Canal from Brinnon to Seabeck. At this time, she was renamed Lake Constance. She
was taken over by Berte Olson in 1939 and continued on the same route under the same name.
The Lake Constance was put up for sale in 1950 when the Port Gamble-Shine run closed with opening of the new Southpoint-Lofall run.
NAME TRANSLATION: For the town of the same name. In 1869, W.S. Ladd and his wife, Caroline built a cabin on Appletree Cove. Michael King then bought the cabin 9 years later. He moved in along with 10 oxen and 10 men. They slowly logged the hills around Appletree Cove. King built many small buildings and shacks along the shore for his men and animals. In 1882, he was done and moved on. The shacks and bunkhouses were left behind and lived in by drifters, squatters and old loggers. People living in the area often referred to this as King’s Town, probably as a joke. The name slowly evolved into Kingston and stuck.
FINAL DISPOSITION: Moved to Alaska; abandoned on the beach in Juneau, 1972.
CITY of MUKILTEO
BUILT: 1927
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 226675
PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: May have been named Central IV before going into service. Official records show no name other than City of Mukilteo.
L/B/D: 104 x 35 x 9 GROSS/NET TONS: 150/102
HISTORY: Built for Whidbey Island Ferry Lines, for the Mukilteo-Columbia Beach route.
NAME TRANSLATION: For the city; the present name, suggested by J. D. Fowler, the first postmaster, is from the Indian name of the place which is thought to mean “good camping ground.” Muckl-te-oh was revised to suit the postal service. Spellings on older maps include Muckilteo, Muckleteo, and Muckiltoe. It was incorporated May 8, 1947.
FINAL DISPOSITION: Destroyed by fire at Columbia Beach, April 11, 1932.
DECEPTION PASS
BUILT: 1924, Ballard Marine Railway, Seattle
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 224527
L/B/D: 65 x 24 x 8 GROSS/NET TONS: 41/36 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 174/18 cars
HISTORY: Operated by Berte Olson on the Deception Pass ferry route, the vessel was later part of Olson’s fleet on Hood Canal. After being sold in 1936, the vessel was converted into a
fishing boat.
NAME TRANSLATION: In 1790, this geographic feature was named Boca de Flon by Manuel Quimper. The same name was charted by Juan Francisco de Eliza. Capt. George Vancouver named it Port Gardner in 1792 not knowing that the channel was open at the west end. When Joseph Whidbey of his command found the western outlet, Vancouver renamed it Deception Passage, because he had been deceived as to its nature. In 1841, Cmdr. Charles Wilkes used Vancouver’s name on his charts.
FINAL DISPOSITION: Turned into a commercial fishing vessel, still in service, 2019.
FLYER
YEAR BUILT: 1891/1918 Johnson Shipyard, Portland/Seattle
PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: a. Flyer b. Washington
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 120876 CALL SIGN:
L/B/D: 172 x 28 x 15 GROSS/NET TONS 435/256 PASSENGERS/AUTOS:
NAME TRANSLATION: For the speed of the vessel.
FINAL DISPOSITION: Burned for scrap metal, 1929.
HARVESTER KING
BUILT: 1918, Everett Marine Ways, Everett WA, for Puget Sound Potash & Kelp Fertilizer Co
PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: a. Harvester King, b. F.H. Marvin
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 216363
L/B/D: 99 x 21 x 5 GROSS/NET TONS: 274/195
HISTORY:1922, converted to car ferry for first Anacortes-Sidney run. Replaced in 1923 by the City of Angeles for Black Ball. Sold by 1924, renamed F.H. Marvin, Puget Sound Freight Lines.
NAME TRANSLATION: named for the vessel’s former use as a kelp harvester
FINAL DISPOSITION: Beached/abandoned Olympia, 1958.
WEST SEATTLE
BUILT: 1907
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 203906
L/B/D: 145 x 49 x 11 GROSS/NET TONS: 773/487 PASSENGERS: 1000
NAME TRANSLATION: For the western part of the city where the ferry used to sail
FINAL DISPOSITION: Abandoned/scrapped sometime after 1945.
HISTORY
Built in 1907 to replace the City of Seattle (which, rebuilt with two pilot houses, stayed on the route another six years) the West Seattle was billed as the largest and finest such vessel built on the Pacific Coast north of San Francisco.
She remained in service until 1920. It was then used as a relief vessel for the steam ferry Washington on the Vashon Heights run. Most of the time the ferry, which was now the property of King County, was laid up on Lake Washington.
She was leased to Pierce County from May to September 1921, before going back into layup on Lake Washington. The ferry sat idle between the years of 1940-45, finally purchased by Treutle Marine Ways and moved to West Seattle, not far from where the ferry used to sail from and used as a warehouse for storing finishing nets and fishing gear.
VASHON ISLAND
BUILT: 1916, Seattle, WA
PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: a. Vashon Island, b. Mercer c. Islander
OFFICIAL NUMBER: 214465 CALL SIGN:
L/B/D: 120 x 45 x 11 GROSS/NET TONS: 242/165 PASSENGERS/AUTOS:
PROPULSION:
NAME TRANSLATION: See Vashon; Mercer is for Mercer Island. Islander was the name chosen for a “name the ferry” contest in 1941 when the ferry moved to San Pedro. Two entrants split the $20.00 prize for the winning name.
HISTORY: Built in Georgetown, Seattle, for $35,000 for Des Moines-Portage, starting service in 1916. 1921: moved to Lake Washington and renamed Mercer. Sold in 1940 when the floating bridge opened. Started service at San Pedro (Los Angeles) in 1941. Retired in 1963. Turned into a fishing barge off Belmont Shore. On Christmas Day, 1974 a fire broke out in its engine room. It burned to the waterline and capsized.