PORT TOWSEND — Chimacum and Port Townsend fourth-graders are competing with Coupeville and South Whidbey Island students to come up with a name for a new class of ferries that will one day sail the Admiralty Inlet waters between Port Townsend and the island’s Keystone landing.
The state Department of Transportation Ferries Division organized the contest to name the new vessel classification for three new 64-car ferries, two of which will serve the Port Townsend-Keystone ferry route, replacing the 1927-vintage Steel Electric class ferries that were decommissioned, sold as scrap and towed to Mexico.
Washington State Ferries is asking fourth-grader who are studying Washington state history to come up with names for the new vessel classification, said Marta Coursey, state ferries spokeswoman.
Coursey said the idea for the contest came from Gov. Chris Gregoire when she and the media recently toured the work site at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle, where the first of the 64-car ferries, recently named the Chetzemoka, is being constructed.
The ferry is named after a legendary 19th-century Klallam chief.
“While the [Washington State Transportation Commission] is naming the individual vessels, the vessel class name will be selected from submissions from five school districts from Port Townsend/Whidbey Island fourth-grade classes, who are studying Washington history,” Coursey said.
The students have until 4 p.m. Dec. 18 to come up with potential classification names.
A panel of five local and state officials will review submissions will review submissions and pick a winner on Jan. 15, then notify the winning school.
The winning submission will be recognized by Gregoire, who will visit the school to present a plaque commemorating the selection, according to Shawn Devine, who is coordinating the contest for the state ferries system.
“All of our ferries are categorized into different vessel classifications, or vessel classes,” Devine said.
“For example, the three largest ferries in our fleet compose the Jumbo Mark II Vessel Class. These three ferries are named Puyallup, Tacoma and Wenatchee.”
Students from the winning school will be awarded prizes and the teacher from the winning classroom will be invited on the inaugural sailing of the Chetzemoka.
Ferries officials said students would not be invited on the inaugural sailing because the boat is scheduled to go into service in late-summer 2010 during summer break.
Fourth-grade teachers are already working with their students at Grant Street Elementary School in Port Townsend and Chimacum Elementary School, said Port Townsend School District
Superintendent Tom Opstad and Chimacum Principal Mark Barga.
“It’s a pretty good learning opportunity to see how they classify them,” said Opstad, adding that his district has six teachers working with students in an attempt to win the contest.
Barga said he viewed the contest as a good way to get students interested in where they live.
“It makes you look at your community, geography and culture,” Barga said. “I think it heightens their awareness of the region.”
The guidelines for submission state the name must be unique to Washington state, representative of the community, have symbolic meaning to the maritime industry or native belief system, be reflective of nature, and easy to spell and pronounce.
The guidelines said the name cannot be a location or a term used in maritime communications, such as the name of a town, shoreline, beach, or the word “mayday.”
It cannot include a corporate name, business or trademark.
Earlier this week, after seeing the first ferry now under construction for the Port Townsend-Keystone route named for Chetzemoka, some Whidbey Islanders hope to see the second ferry named after a figure important to Swinomish tribal history: Squi qui.
Doing so would be a true honor to the La Conner-based tribe, its culture and history, said Theresa Trebon, records manager and tribal archivist for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.
“As they pass each other, it will be like to old friends passing on the water,” Trebon said of the two ferries, if they are named for Chetzemoka and Squi qui — pronounced Sk-why k-why.
Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s Tribal Senate passed a resolution on Nov. 10 officially submitting Squi qui’s name to the state Transportation Commission, after the Island County Historical Society suggested it.
The commission will consider a name in the coming year for the second new 64-car ferry expected to be launched on the Port Townsend-Keystone route in late 2011.
The first 64-car ferry was named for Chetzemoka with the transportation commission’s approval in October in Olympia after a drive pushing for the name by the Jefferson County Historical Society and others in the county.
Squi qui was a key figure in the Lower Skagit Indian tribe that occupied central Whidbey Island in the mid-1800s, a tribe for which the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community is the successor in interest.
Considered one of the most influential leaders of his people, Squi qui joined others in signing the Point Elliott Treaty on Jan. 22, 1855, where his name was recorded as S’kwai-kwi.
The treaty took vast amounts of the Lower Skagit tribe’s territory.
Squi qui lived from about 1816 to 1874, a time of tremendous upheaval in the Indian world. His village, a frequent site for Indian gatherings in the Salish Sea region, was situated on the north shore of Penn Cove, just across from present-day Coupeville and not far from Keystone Landing.
Squi qui frequently crossed Admiralty Inlet by canoe, the same route the new ferries will travel.
Squi qui still rests where he was buried on Whidbey Island, outside of Coupeville.
His descendents still live on the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Reservation, where they continue to represent their people in the enforcement of treaty rights and the protection of habitat and fisheries.
“We value Washington state in its commitment to honor Indian tribes in this manner, and we look forward to celebrating the launching of this new vessel with fellow Washingtonians,” Brian Cladoosby, Swinomish tribal chairman, said in a prepared statement.
Rick Castellano, Island County Historical Society director, said the naming of the first ferry for Chetzemoka inspired the historical society based in Coupeville to suggest to the Swinomish tribe that they name the second ferry for Squi qui.
“The Swinomish reservation four tribes, including the Lower Skagit, which are indigenous to Coupeville,” Castellano said. “So they decided that it would most appropriate.
“Squi qui’s family is very active still to the Swinomish tribe.”
Like Chetzemoka, Squi qui was a peaceful man, who befriended white settlers in the mid to late 1800s.
Castellano said the Coupeville Town Council, the Coupeville Chamber of Commerce and the historical society all support naming the second ferry for Squi qui.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
