SAN MATEO

BUILT: 1922, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Union Yard, San Francisco, CA

OFFICIAL NUMBER: 222386 CALL SIGN: WG5465 

L/B/D: 230 x 64 x 12   GROSS/NET TONS: 919/625 PASSENGERS/AUTOS: 659/50  

PROPULSION: triple expansion steam engine, 1400 HP SPEED: 13 knots

NAME TRANSLATION: For the California city, Spanish for “Saint Matthew.”

FINAL DISPOSITION: Scrapping/abandoned on the Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada.

HISTORY

Built in 1922 for the Six Minute Ferry Company (the length of time it took to make the crossing across the Carquinez Strait.) While the ferries were being finished, the company went out of business after a March 1922 landslide destroyed the Six Minute Ferry north shore terminal on Morrow Cove.

Picked up by Southern Pacific, the ferry and her sisters Shasta and Yosemite worked until the Bay bridges put them out of work.  Put up for sale, Captain Peabody picked up the Shasta and San Mateo. (Along with the Napa Valley and City of Sacramento. Shasta and San Mateo’s identical sister went to company in South America; it is unclear why Captain Peabody passed on the similar sized Calistoga which was also for sale at the same time, though her deck clearance being two feet shorter at 9’ 6” might have had something to do with it.)

The San Mateo and Shasta spent most of the years with Black Ball in layup, only being used as fill-in vessels when traffic was at its peak on the Sound and extra space was needed. The most use the San Mato saw was in 1947 when she was used on the Seattle-Suquamish route as a running mate to the Illahee. In 1948 she moved to the Kingston-Edmonds route for three months, then was put back on the reserve list.  From the photos of her hull taken after the state took over in 1951 which can be found in the University of Washington’s Special Collection’s archive, it’s clear by the astounding amount of marine growth, the San Mateo hadn’t been used since 1948.

It was under state ownership that the ferry became a beloved icon on Puget Sound. People responded to the sound of her steam engines and whistle, the stained-glass windows of her interior, the mahogany pew-like benches in her passenger cabin.

Reconditioned along with her sister, the two ferries saw regular service for the first time since coming up from San Francisco.   The San Mateo was assigned to regular service from late spring to early fall between 1952 and 1954 on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Harper route. In 1955 she worked the Bremerton route from June until September while the Kalakala was assigned to the Port Angeles-Victoria run. In 1956 she worked as the “extra” boat on the Kingston-Edmonds route, and then moved back to Fauntleroy-Vashon-Harper in 1957-58. In 1959 she moved back up to Edmonds as the “extra ferry,” where she remained until her retirement in 1969, alternating between Edmonds and the Seattle-Winslow routes.

It was during the 1950’s that the ferry was seriously considered being rebuilt as a diesel ferry.  She would have been lengthened, and her passenger cabin entirely rebuilt. Had the state gone through with the work, the ferry would have looked like a larger Steel Electric; ultimately the plan was abandoned, though the blueprints of the conversion still exist.

When the all steel Kulshan arrived from San Diego the San Mateo was to be taken out of service as soon as the new ferry was ready. Packed to her limit, the San Mateo made her final run from Edmonds to Kingston on Labor Day of 1969.

She remained at Eagle Harbor until 1971, when the Washington Parks Department bought her to turn her into a museum. She was towed to Lake Union, and for the next thirty years restoration work was started on and off.

Briefly in 1977-79 there was talk of reactivating the ferry, as the loss of the old standby wood-diesels and the delays in getting the Issaquah Class ferries on the water had WSF completely lacking an   “extra” ferry (a situation that continues to the present day).  Eventually the Issaquah came on line, and there was no need for the San Mateo. Talks of turning her into a McDonald’s fell through, and it looked as if the San Mateo was destined to be scrapped.

In 1992 she was purchased by a Canadian man and towed up to the Fraser River. Gary Bereska’s plans included a dance studio, museum and other uses, but sadly he did nothing to the vessel.  The San Mateo pilfered of many of her fittings sat and slipped further and further into decay. Eventually abandoned, she was left on the Fraser to rot.

Half sunk and decaying rapidly, scrapping on the San Mateo started in 2012. A large hole was cut into her side to allow for hoses to be brought in to pump her out and right her, but the ferry is now too silted in. Demolition of her superstructure started when the Fraser flooded; most of her upperworks are now gone. The half-destroyed hulk is still in the same spot, waiting for the job of scrapping her to be finished, occasionally being used as a movie prop.  In 2018, she provided the backdrop for an episode of The X Files. (Episode 5, Season 11, titled “Ghouli.”)