SAN DIEGO

BUILT: 1931, Moore Drydock Company, Oakland, CA

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 231278 CALL SIGN: WK3851

L/B/D: 191 x 44 x 14 GROSS/NET TONS: 556/378 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 500/50 cars

PROPULSION: 3 engines, 350 HP each

NAME TRANSLATION: Named for the city; vessel was built for the San Diego-Coronado ferry run. It derives from a re-analysis of Sant Yago (Saint James the Greater) as San Diego.

FINAL DISPOSITION: Scrapped, 2011.

HISTORY

The namesake ferry for the city of San Diego had a long and interesting life.

Built for the San Diego-Coronado Ferry Company in 1931 by the Moore Drydock Company in Oakland, California, the ferry was essentially a larger version of her near sister Coronado.

For decades the San Diego performed her work, shuttling cars to and from the mainland to the island, becoming the subject of countless postcards and snapshots.

When the bridge put her out of work in 1969, the ferry was purchased by Olympic Ferries, Inc. of Port Townsend, Washington for service between Whidbey Island and Port Townsend.

From 1971 until 1973 the San Diego worked the run, but the last independent auto ferry company was losing money fast. By fall 1973, unable to keep operating, Olympic Ferries Inc. shut down after twenty-six years of service.

The Governor of Washington State ordered Washington State Ferries to take over the route. They acquired the docking facilities, but passed up the San Diego, placing the Olympic on the run starting in June 1974.

The San Diego ended up in Vancouver, British Columbia for many years, hanging around the waterfront, waiting to be rebuilt as a paddle wheel excursion boat named Klondike Queen.

In desperate need for ferries after the Hood Canal bridge sank in a storm in 1979, Washington State Ferries went up to Vancouver to inspect the old San Diego for possible use on the Canal.  By that time, though, having been neglected for years, the State determined it would have been too costly to refurbish the boat.

In 1987 the San Diego made her way back to California and was towed up the Sacramento River. She was to be converted into a restaurant at Antioch called “Huckleberries” but somewhere along the line in the she ended up catching on fire in the late 1990’s.

After hanging around Antioch for a number of years, the ferry was towed up river and moored just off of Decker Island. Abandoned, the ferry fell into decay and was gutted by fire.  By the end of 2011 the state stepped in. In a continuing effort to clean up the Delta, the San Diego was towed to Mare Island for asbestos removal. The ferry was scrapped after that.