Peninsula Daily News news sources
SEATTLE — After months of trying, Washington State Ferries appears to have sold four octogenarian ferries to a recycler, which will dismantle them in northern Mexico.
The four Steel Electric-class vessels — Klickitat, Quinault, Illahee and Nisqually — have been sold to Eco Planet Recycling Inc. of Chula Vista, Calif. The combined price is $200,000, Washington State Ferries confirmed Monday.
The sale was approved June 17 and confirmed Friday.
“The Steel Electric class vessels served as unforgettable icons of life in the Pacific Northwest,” said David Moseley, assistant state transportation secretary in charge of the ferry system.
“We now must continue to focus our attention on getting new vessels built and into service, starting with the 64-auto ferry under construction.”
That ferry, loosely designed after the ferry Island Home, which runs in Massachusetts, is scheduled to begin on the Port Townsend-Keyport route next year.
The Klickitat and Quinault, each holding up to about 100 cars, made the car-passenger run between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island until November 2007, when they and the other two were pulled from service and retired because of concerns about the integrity of their aging hulls.
Both had been built in San Francisco in 1927 and were rendered unnecessary by the opening of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge. They were sold in the 1940s to the private Puget Sound ferry business the state took over in the 1950s.
One ferry on run
One smaller ferry, Steilacoom II, has been working the car-passenger run solo out of Port Townsend since January 2008.
The four rusty Steel Electrics are expected to be towed from Bainbridge Island, where they are now moored, to Ensenada, Mexico, in July, officials said.
Ensenada is a seaport town about 50 miles south of Tijuana, Mexico.
Chula Vista, Calif., where the recycling company is based, is about 5 miles north of the border along Interstate 5.
The ferry system has spent the past several months stripping the four vessels of items that could be used elsewhere in the fleet.
State officials earlier announced other deals to sell the Steel Electric boats — including one deal with a recycler near Colima, Mexico, south of Puerto Vallarta, but all of those plans fell through.
