OLYMPIA — The state Transportation Commission has chosen Suquamish as the name of the state’s fourth Olympic-class ferry.
The selection Wednesday followed a public process in which the commission considered three eligible names — Cowlitz, Sammamish and Suquamish — and sought input from Washington State Ferries, the Ferry Advisory Committee Executive Council, ferry riders and the general public.
“The Suquamish have a rich cultural and maritime history,” said Commission Chair Anne Haley.
Their ancestral land encompasses the north end of Hood Canal and the Olympic Peninsula to Indian Island, the Kitsap Peninsula and both sides of Admiralty Inlet to the Tacoma Narrows in the south, she said.
“It is fitting to name this vessel Suquamish since nearly all the contemporary Washington State Ferry System routes traverse historically documented Suquamish canoe travel corridors.”
The $122 million Olympic-class ferry is under construction at Vigor Industrial in Seattle. It is expected to be completed by mid-2018.
The Suquamish has not been assigned a route yet.
It and the Tokitae, Samish and Chimacum replace four of the state’s oldest ferries, which were built during the 1950s and ’60s.
The new ferries can carry 144 vehicles.
The first vessel in the class, Tokitae, joined the Mukilteo/Clinton route in June 2014.
The second, Samish, was put into service on the Anacortes/San Juans Island route last June.
Chimacum, the third ferry, will replace one of the older vessels on the Seattle/Bremerton route in 2017.
For more information on the Transportation Commission, see www.wstc.wa.gov.
