PORT ANGELES — It’s useful, and it’s still art.
A new clock standing in the MV Coho’s passenger terminal is the latest concoction produced by three students in Port Angeles High School’s machine tool technology class.
But unlike a lot of clocks, this one has seen more than its share of ups and downs.
Literally.
Last year, the machine tool technology class was given four of the MV Coho’s original engine pistons — one-quarter of the 16 pistons that were removed in 2004 when two 12-cylinder, Electro-Motive diesel engines were installed in the 45-year-old ferry that travels back and forth between Port Angeles and Victoria daily.
Each of the old pistons spent approximately 139,000 hours — the equivalent of 16 years — pumping away inside the bowels of the Coho before the Cooper-Bessemer engines were removed and replaced last year, according to a plaque on the unique sculpture.
Now this piston has nothing to do but pass the time.
Three students — Jon Hutto, Michael Hansen and Jeremy Slack — designed and built the 8-foot-tall clock sculpture from among the engine parts donated to the high school by Wayne Barrett, general manager of Black Ball Transport Inc.
