Two of the four Steel Electric ferries that served the Port Townsend-Keystone route for much of 80 years could be towed through Admiralty Inlet and the Strait of Juan de Fuca on their final voyage to a Mexican scrap yard.
Marta Coursey, Washington State Ferries spokeswoman, said details of the ferry tow had not been finalized Wednesday.
The Nisqually and Quinault — now 82 years old — are being readied to go to Ensenada, Baja California, where they will be recycled.
Their last journey could happen late this week.
The Klickitat and Illahee, also at the Bainbridge Island Eagle Harbor, will follow a week or two later.
The ferries started serving the region in the mid-1970s.
They were pulled from service in 2007.
“We have ownership, because they were the only boats in the fleet that fit in on our route,” said Tim Caldwell, Jefferson County ferry advisory committee chairman, Port Townsend native and longtime advocate of car and passenger ferry service.
Bob Higdon, Steel Electric chief mate for 13 years before he retired in Port Townsend, called the ferries “very reliable.”
Higdon worked aboard the Klickitat for about seven years crossing Admiralty Inlet and 19 years for Olympic Ferry before the state took over the Port Townsend-Keystone run.
“She’d take a beating out there,” Higdon said, recalling the Klickitat, his favorite of the four, which also included the Illahee.
‘Handle just about anything’
“We could handle just about anything out there. They had just the right speeds for the swells out there.
“They still had a lot of life, as far as I was concerned. They should have put a new bottom on all of them.”
In November 2007, Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond ordered the four Steel Electrics removed from service, citing safety concerns because of pitted and corroded hulls. It was decided repair would be too costly.
A new 64-car ferry is expected to employ about 200 union laborers and be completed in June 2010 for sea trials, possibly into August.
The state has awarded a 540-day, $65.5 million contract to Todd Shipyards, based on Seattle’s Harbor Island. Todd, which submitted the lone bid, last built three 218-car, 2,000 passenger Jumbo ferries for Washington State Ferries in the late 1990s.
In 2008, the state Legislature directed the Department of Transportation to sell the aged Steel Electrics. The agency’s ferry division sold the 1927-built Steel Electric class vessels to Eco Planet Recycling Inc. of Chula Vista, Calif., for $200,000.
Icons
“The Steel Electric class vessels served as unforgettable icons of life in the Pacific Northwest,” said David Moseley, assistant secretary for Washington State Ferries.
“We now must continue to focus our attention on getting new vessels built and into service, starting with the 64-auto ferry under construction.”
The Steel Electrics were built in 1927 for use on San Francisco Bay. After the Golden Gate and Bay bridges opened, they were sold to Puget Sound Navigation. The state took over the private ferry system in 1951.
The boats, known for their brass and woodwork, could each carry 616 passengers and 59 vehicles, depending on their size. The vessels were used on low-traffic runs during their final years, including Port Townsend-Keystone and San Juan inter-island service.
Coursey said historical items and memorabilia have been removed from the boats, archived and stored. The items include artwork and historical photos that will be displayed on other ferries, at terminals and in the headquarters when money becomes available.
City officials in Port Townsend had hoped to keep one of the retired boats, possibly moored at a renovated Quincy Dock, the original ferry landing in Port Townsend, for commercial retail, conference and other uses.
But Caldwell said the boat would have needed shoreline permits if kept on land, or annual inspections and dry-docking if moored on the city’s waterfront.
Caldwell said he saw each of the Steel Electric ferries as “a floating community center.”
“You always ran into somebody you knew on the way across,” said Caldwell, who as a teenager helped the former Olympic Ferries operation direct traffic on Water Street leading to the original Quincy Dock before the state took over the route and built a new landing dock.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
