_{The Quinault filling in as the inter-island boat for the final time in the summer of 2006. Author’s photo.}

CLASS: Steel Electric

BUILT/REBUILT: 1927/58/85 Moore Drydock Co., Oakland, CA/Commercial Ship Repair, Winslow, WA/Seattle, WA 

PREVIOUS/LATER NAMES: a. Redwood Empire, b. Quinault

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 226738 CALL SIGN: WA9820

L/B/D: 256 x 74 x 13 GROSS/NET TONS: 1365/930 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 616/59 cars (2007)

PROPULSION: Diesel-Electric, two Wartsila 824 TS diesels, SPEED: 12 knots

NAME TRANSLATION: From the Quinault language: “river with a lake in the middle.” It refers to both the river and lake on the Olympic Peninsula.

FINAL DISPOSITION: Scrapped, Ensenada, MX, 2009.

HISTORY

The M/V Redwood Empire arrived in 1927 for Northwestern Pacific along with sisters Mendocino and Santa Rosa.  At the time the vessels 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.”  This 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 later become the Klahanie, Kehloken, Chetzemoka and the first Elwha on Puget Sound and end up working again with their steel-hulled counterparts.)

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

In 1940 Captain Alexander Peabody’s Puget Sound Navigation Company (Black Ball Line) bought all six Steel Electric ferries for $300,001.00–less than half the cost it had taken to build just one vessel 13 years earlier.  The vessels were all towed north to start their careers on Puget Sound.

Redwood Empire was renamed Quinault and went to work on the Bremerton-Seattle run while the Santa Rosa and Fresno went under an extensive conversion to single-ended vessels.

The Steel Electrics were considered too slow for the route, which is why Peabody had the other two converted to single-enders with bigger engines. (As the Willapa and Enetai they could sail about 15-16 knots, four or so knots over their diesel-electric sisters.) After being relieved on the Bremerton run, the Quinault went over to the Seattle-Manchester and Seattle-Bainbridge runs, then over to the Harper (later Southworth)-Vashon-Fauntleroy runs.

The State of Washington took over ferry operations in 1951, and but for a brief stint on the Seattle-Winslow run in 1951-53, kept the Quinault working at Vashon where she manly remained until she was scheduled to be refurbished in 1985. Vashon Island residents actually formed a committee to prevent the state from changing the wooden cabin of the Quinault, feeling it would ruin the vessel’s historic status.  In the end, the cabin was replaced—but kept to a much more original cabin footprint than the Klickitat had ended up with.  The forward observation rooms, while modified, were left intact and the crews’ quarters were placed aft of the wheelhouses as they had originally been.

After being refurbished, the Quinault went back to work at her old route, but as time wore on she became too small for the route and was placed in reserve status.  The late 1990’s and into the 21st century would find her filling in where needed for maintenance schedules at Vashon, Port Townsend, and the inter-island vessel in the San Juans.  Occasionally she would work in as a third boat if one of the larger vessels was not available at Edmonds-Kingston or even at Mukilteo.

When issues with the Klickitat‘s hull were revealed in the spring of 2007 and when it was discovered that the Illahee‘s stern tubes were in poor condition, the Quinault was pulled from service. Her last day of service was on 01 July 2007, having worked the inter-island route in the San Juans*. Her stern tubes were replaced, but a more thorough inspection of the hull revealed more corrosion than first expected.  With all the layers of paint inside and out removed, it was revealed that fully 60% of the hull would need to be replated—and that was still with 30% of the paint left to be removed.

WSF and the state were faced with a huge problem. Continue dumping money into the 80-year-old vessels, which had already reached $7 million per vessel, or stop the work and scrap the vessels. It was decided to retire the vessels.

Work on the Quinault was stopped. She was given a quick coat of bottom paint and sealed up to make her suitable for mothballing. She was towed to Eagle Harbor, while the state made attempts to sell all four vessels.

In September of 2008 all four Steel Electrics were to be sold to Environmental Recycling Systems. The boats were be towed to Mexico for scrapping, but the deal fell through.  A local buyer came forward and wanted to purchase the boats to reuse them in some capacity but was unable to find moorage.

On June 19th, 2009, the sale of the four ferries for $200,000.00 was completed to Eco Planet Recycling, Inc. of Chula Vista, California.  In August 2009 the ferry was towed out of Eagle Harbor for the last time. The Quinault made the trip to Mexico uneventfully and was scrapped as planned.

*Courtesy of Rex Carlaw.