Steel Electric class ferry

The MV Nisqually on Puget Sound
Class overview
Operators:	1927-1940 Southern Pacific-Golden Gate Ferries Ltd 1940-1951 Black Ball Line 1951-2007 Washington State Ferries
Built:	1927 Refit: 1981-1987
In service:	1927-2007
Building:	6
Completed:	6
Retired:	6
General characteristics
Type:	auto/passenger ferry
Tonnage:	gross-tonnage: 1,368 net-tonnage: 930
Length:	256 ft (78.0 m)
Beam:	73 ft 10 in (22.5 m)
Draft:	12 ft 9 in (3.9 m)
Deck clearance:	13 ft 9 in (4.2 m)
Installed power:	Total 2,896 hp (2,160 kW) from 2 x Diesel-Electric engines
Speed:	12 kn (22 km/h)
Capacity:	616 passengers 59-64 vehicles (max 24 commercial)

The Steel Electric Class ferries became part of the Washington State Ferry System when Puget Sound Navigation Company was acquired in 1951. They were built on San Francisco Bay for service on Southern Pacific and Northwestern Pacific Railroad routes across that bay.

History

The Steel Electric class ferries were built in 1927 for Southern Pacific Transportation Company service on San Francisco Bay. After a decade of service on San Francisco Bay, they were idled by completion of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936 and the Golden Gate bridge in 1937. They were sold in 1940 to Puget Sound Navigation, also known as the "Black Ball Line". In the 1940s the Enetai and Willapa were extensively rebuilt and their engines replaced (thus precluding them from being part of the "Steel Electric" class). All six boats were purchased by the Washington Toll Bridge Authority in the fifties. In the sixties the Enetai and Willapa were sold. In the '80s the four remaining boats were given an overhaul and continued to serve until November 2007. The six boats are now fairly different. The Enetai and Willapa were both converted into single-ended boats and had their engines replaced. The Klickitat was rebuilt before the other units and has a shorter cabin and lacks an elevator. The remaining three all have elevators.

Vessels

Number	Builder	SP name	Washington name
226344	Bethlehem Steel, San Francisco	Fresno	MV Willapa
226567	Bethlehem Steel, San Francisco	Stockton	MV Klickitat
226588	Moore Dry Dock, Oakland	Lake Tahoe	MV Illahee
226599	General Engineering & Dry Dock, Alameda	Santa Rosa	MV Enetai
226712	Bethlehem Steel, San Francisco	Mendocino	MV Nisqually
226738	Moore Dry Dock, Oakland	Redwood Empire	MV Quinault

Willapa

Keel was laid on 8 November 1926, and launching was 16 January 1927. The ferry was christened Fresno by Miss Shirley Harding, daughter of Southern Pacific's engineer of standards. The $525,000 ferry went into service between San Francisco and Oakland, California in April with an all-electric galley for the dining room and capacity for 100 automobiles. Fresno was disabled when heavy seas shorted the electrical power plant during a stormy January 1932 evening bay crossing from San Francisco to Oakland. The ferry drifted nearly to Alcatraz Island before tugs were able to rig a tow to Oakland. After 28 years in Puget Sound, Washington State declared Willapa surplus in 1968. After years of languishing, she was to be turned into a storage warehouse under her old name, Fresno. However the owners, Parker Oceanic, never really did much work on her; she was sold to NYMET Holdings, a salvage firm, and scrapped in Stockton, CA in 2009.

Klickitat

Keel was laid on 15 November 1926, launching was 5 March 1927, and service between San Francisco and Oakland began in May. The ferry was christened Stockton by Miss Louise Shoup, daughter of Southern Pacific's president, Paul Shoup.

Illahee

Launching was 23 March 1927, and service between San Francisco and Oakland began in June. The ferry was christened Lake Tahoe by Miss Helen Dyer, daughter of Southern Pacific's general manager. Lake Tahoe was involved in a minor collision with the Southern Pacific ferry Oakland in fog on 14 August 1943. This ferry made the last Southern Pacific San Francisco Bay auto ferry run on 16 May 1940. The tug Commissioner towed this ferry out of San Francisco Bay on 10 August 1940 bound for Puget Sound. The tow line broke off Trinidad, California and the ferry drifted for 36 hours until it could be towed to Humboldt Bay for emergency repairs before continuing northward.

Enetai

This ferry was built as Santa Rosa to inaugurate Northwestern Pacific auto ferry service on 1 July 1927 across the mouth of San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and a new terminal at the foot of Mission Street in Sausalito. After 28 years in Puget Sound, Washington State declared Enetai surplus in 1968. She was purchased for restoration and is now the headquarters of Hornblower Yachts in San Francisco, California under her old name, Santa Rosa.

Nisqually

This ferry was built as Mendocino to inaugurate Northwestern Pacific service across the mouth of San Francisco Bay.

Quinault

This ferry was built as Redwood Empire to inaugurate Northwestern Pacific service across the mouth of San Francisco Bay. The tug Commissioner towed this ferry out of San Francisco Bay on 10 August 1940 bound for Puget Sound.

Withdrawal from service

Corrosion on the Steel Electric hulls was discovered in 2007 inspections. On November 20, 2007, the Washington State Secretary of Transportation, Paula Hammond, announced that Washington State Ferries (WSF) will pull all of the Steel Electric class vessels out of service on that day. The decision closed the Port Townsend-Keystone route until WSF began to operate the high-speed passenger-only ferry Snohomish on the run starting November 23.

During Nov. and Dec. the Snohomish was pulled from this run and began a new interim service between Seattle and Port Townsend. This was done, in part, because there were much fewer visitors to Port Townsend during the holiday shopping season; it was hoped that a special run directly from Seattle would bring more visitors and shoppers to town. During this time, WSF got a third party to operate passenger only service on the PT-Keystone run, using a much smaller whale watch boat. The Snohomish was eventually put back on this run.

Unfortunately the corrosion on the ferry's hulls was too extensive and Secretary Hammond has announced they will be scrapped instead. All four of the ferries are berthed at the systems main storage facility in Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island. Governor Gregoire announced plans for their replacement, and the Washington State Legislature directed WSF to build new ferries to replace the Steel Electrics. On February 14, 2008, Governor Gregoire signed Senate Bill 6794 into law, which authorizes construction of replacement ferries.

Washington State Ferries has commissioned TODD Pacific Shipyards to build the first the replacement ferries. Its design is based on the Island Home, a vessel which serves the Martha's Vinyard run. The new vessel will hold 64 autos, 1,200 passengers and up to 200 bicycles. The vessel will be launched in January, 2010 and be delivered to Washington State Ferries June, 2010. Bids for an additional 1 to 2 hulls of this class will be received by the state in October 2010.

In the interim, the state is leasing the Pierce County ferry service's Steilacoom II to cover the Port Townsend-Keystone run. This ferry is being utilized in preference to other State-owned ferries due to the restrictions the Keystone passage imposes on the size of vessels serving that route.

The state had hoped that the first ferry would enter service in April 2009, however in early April 2008 the state rejected a bid of $26 million to build a ferry based on the Steilacoom II design as being too high. Reasons cited for the bid being $9 million over the state's estimate include the requirement that the shipbuilder complete the ferry within one year (or face stiff daily fines), and changes to the specifications including improved safety, security and quality. Washington State Ferries will not re-bid this project.

Despite several proposals to save the vessels, all four of the class were towed to Mexico in June 2009 for scrapping.

External links

• Washington State Ferries class information
• Washington State Ferries history
• Past vessels of the Washington State Ferry system at evergreenfleet.com
• NYMET announces the acquisition of M/V Fresno and M/V San Leandro