QUILCENE

BUILT/REBUILT:  1916/26/30 Joseph Supple, Portland, OR/Lake Washington Shipyard, Houghton, WA

PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: a.Kitsap II, b. City of Bellingham, c. Quilcene, d. YHB-5

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 214056 

L/B/D: 146 x 43 x 13 GROSS/NET TONS: 401/272 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 517/36

PROPULSION:  1 four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine, 1200 HP SPEED: 14 knots

NAME TRANSLATION: After the tribe of the same name, which translates to “salt water people.”

FINAL DISPOSITION: Sold to US Government, YHB-5.  Sold to Freeman & Gibson, Seattle, WA, and converted to floating machine shop, 1947. No record of her exists after the report of sale; likely scrapped.

HISTORY

The history of hull # 214056 is these days all but forgotten, save by Mosquito Fleet enthusiasts.  The truth is, hull 214056 is far more remembered today as the Mosquito Fleet steamer Kitsap II than as the ferry Quilcene, a name all but forgotten save for die-hard ferryboat historians.

Starting life in 1916 as the passenger steamer Kitsap II for the Kitsap County Transportation Company, or “White Collar Line” as it was known, the steamer sailed successfully for a number of years shuttling passengers across Puget Sound from ports on the Kitsap Peninsula.  KCTC was very proud of their boat, a fast, comfortable vessel that was appreciated by all her patrons.

By the 20’s though, the automobile was starting to take its place in the transportation landscape of Puget Sound. Passenger steamers were becoming obsolete. In order to survive, companies were building ferries or converting steamers. KCTC turned their efforts to building ferries and sold several of their steamers off.

Purchased by the Puget Sound Navigation Company, the Kitsap II operated as a steamer for time before being rebuilt in 1926. The vessel emerged as the car ferry City of Bellingham. She still retained her narrow beam but could haul a decent number of cars and was placed on the Bellingham-Sidney run, which included a stop at Orcas Island.

In winter of 1929/30 she was rebuilt again, this time sponsoned from 28 to 43 feet. The passenger cabin was completely rebuilt, lined with mahogany and fitted out with plush, comfortable seats.  A full-service dining room was placed in the forward observation room at the front of the ferry.  Essentially a new vessel, Black Ball renamed the ferry again, this time christening her Quilcene after the river and tribe on the Olympic Peninsula.

Her new, elegant appointments and formal dining room made the ferry ideal for the longer routes between Bellingham and Victoria and Edmonds and Port Townsend.  Later, she was assigned to the longer trips out to the San Juan Islands, becoming a frequent sight in Friday Harbor and Roche Harbor, continuing on up to Sidney, B.C.

With the addition of the larger, more economical ferries arriving from San Francisco, the Quilcene’s small size (36 cars) and uneconomical steam plant made her a liability.  She simply couldn’t carry enough cars for the cost of operating her.   Eventually she was assigned to the Bremerton-Point White route, hauling workers across Port Orchard Bay to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

The Quilcene last saw service on Puget Sound as a ferry around 1939.  The vessel was sold to the Navy in 1942 who used her as barracks vessel (YHB-5) until 1946. After the war, the ferry was sold to a scrapping firm on Lake Union. The little Quilcene was finally broken up, slipping into the history books as a footnote to the life of the express steamer Kitsap II.