_{The Nisqually at Keystone in the last year of service for all the Steel Electrics. Photo courtesy of Matt Masuoka.}

CLASS: Steel Electric

BUILT/REBUILT:1927/1958/1987 Bethlehem Shipbuilding Union Yard, San Francisco, CA/ Commercial Ship Repair, Winslow, WA/Seattle, WA

PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: a. Mendocino, b. Nisqually

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 226712 CALL SIGN: WA8696

L/B/D: 256 x 74 x 13 GROSS/NET TONS: 1490/1013 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 616/59 cars (2007)

PROPULSION: Diesel electric, 2896 HP. SPEED: 12 knots  

NAME TRANSLATION: From the tribe, the name of which appears to have been an adaptation of the French-Canadian workers from the Hudson’s Bay Company who called the Indians Nez quarre which translates to “Square nose.” A river, a lake and glacier on Mount Rainier are all named Nisqually. 

FINAL DISPOSITION: Scrapped in Ensenada, MX, 2011.

HISTORY

Northwestern Pacific Railroad built the M/V Mendocino in 1927. At the time, she and her sisters Redwood Empire and Santa Rosa were the most advanced type of ferry in the world. With their steel hulls and diesel-electric power plants, they were known as “Steel Electrics” to set them apart from a fleet of slightly smaller vessels with the same type of power plant setup but with wooden hulls. (The Wood Electrics would become the Klahanie, Kehloken, Chetzemoka and the first Elwha on Puget Sound.)

Later absorbed by Southern Pacific, the ferries joined the Southern Pacific-Golden Gate ferry fleet until 1938 when the bridges shut down nearly all auto ferry operation on San Francisco Bay.

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. Mendocino was renamed Nisqually, and started work on the Edmonds-Kingston/ Edmonds-Port Ludlow route. She 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 Nisqually up to the San Juan Islands and to the Vashon Island routes until 1957 when she went back to the Edmonds-Kingston run.

Considered to be the “backbone of the fleet,” the 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.

In 1977 the ferry system painted a gold band on the smokestack of each Steel Electric, symbolizing 50 years of service. It was at this time that the system was modernizing the fleet as well.  Looking at the Steel Electrics, an assessment was done and found that the boats could be modernized again, adding another 20 years to their service life. 

After many delays, the Nisqually was rebuilt in 1987.  Over the next decade she would work the Port Townsend-Keystone run and up in the San Juan Islands.  By the end of the 1990’s, though, it was becoming clear that the entire class as a whole were winding down their careers.  The Nisqually left the San Juans in 1999 and was reduced to stand-by service, making her last run in 2003 and then being put officially on the retired list.

In 2007 she was reactivated, but cracks found in her sister ferry’s hull caused the Coast Guard and WSF to take a closer look at all the Steel Electric class vessels.  When it was determined that all the concrete ballast poured into the hull would have to be chiseled out and the stern tubes replaced, the Nisqually was quietly withdrawn. Her last day of service was on Sunday, 09 September 2007, on the Port Townsend-Keystone run.*  While WSF never officially said the ferry was not going to return to service, no yard time for the hull inspections was ever booked.  After the entire class was deemed too expensive to repair on 13 December 2007, the status of the Nisqually as “retired” was officially assured.

After several proposals, a deal was finally reached in June 2009 with Eco Planet Recycling, Inc. of Chula Vista, California.  All four ferries were sold for $200,000.00.

*Courtesy of Rex Carlaw.