Ferries of Puget Sound

It’s hard to believe, but Ferries of Puget Sound is celebrating its 15th birthday this year. Unbeknownst to me, I was catching the fleet much as beloved ferry author Harre Demoro had done back in 1971–at the cusp of major changes and just before a major slew of vessel retirements took place.

When the book came out, the Steel Electric’s retirement was still being discussed as a possibility. I had no idea a year later the opening statement of the book would be voided and that the beloved Steel Electrics would be gone.

Since Ferries came out, WSF has retired fifteen vessels. I’m happy I was able to capture the fleet a critical time in history, just before major changes were to happen to the fleet of Washington State Ferries.

Crossing Puget Sound

The follow-up book, which is really a companion book to the first, reflects the retirements (save for the Elwha, which I just missed) which took place, but more importantly gives me a chance to share the rare and unseen images from my personal collection, including never-before-seen and very rare color images of the vessels, some in the Black Ball years.

Crossing Puget Sound also let me expand the scope of the book to vessels I wanted to cover back in Ferries, but couldn’t because I didn’t have access to the images (nor the cash to pay for reproduction rights, which can be brutal.)

Not one image has been repeated from Ferries to Crossing. That took some doing, trust me!

Both are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powells, and book sellers everywhere. I hope you enjoy both books!

Happy Sailing!

~SJP