Historic Washington State Ferry Cheats Scrappers to Become Floating Office
One of the storied ferries familiar to residents of Washington State for its more than 50 years of service is cheating the scrappers and by a quirk of fate will be saved through creative reuse. Everett Ship Repair and Washington State Ferries have reached terms to see the Elwha, which was built in 1967, repurposed at the shipyard.
Last fall, Elwha, which had been retired in 2020, was due to slip away on a towline bound for dismantling in Ecuador. She had been sold for $100,000 and a tug arrived to start her final voyage along with another WSF ferry. They got the boats away from the maintenance dock in Bainbridge, Washington, but that’s when things started to go wrong.
According to reports the hookup failed. Then there were reports of problems with the 60-year-old tug that was hired for the 34-day trip. The ferries were brought back to the maintenance dock while rumors swirled in the media that the operator had abandoned the crew which was made up of people from Peru, Colombia, and Panama. U.S. Customs and Border Protection stepped in detaining the four crewmembers and ordering them deported.
Embarrassed by the ordeal, Washington State Ferries reported the deal was canceled. The ferry operator however wanted to sell the decommissioned vessels to free more dock space at its Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility for planned and unplanned maintenance on its current fleet. They reported the two ferries were back up for sale.
Everett Ship Repair closed the deal this week to buy the Elwha for $100,000. According to the reports, the repair yard plans to modify and convert the ferry to a floating office and warehouse space. A tug was due to arrive on Thursday, January 30, to begin preparation to move the ferry to the shipyard.
“The Elwha has been part of Washington State Ferry history since 1968, and we're excited to see one of our ferries with so much history and memories for millions of passengers is being repurposed locally. It won't be the Elwha we've all come to know and appreciate, but I'm confident it's in good hands with a local shipyard,” said WSF Assistant Secretary Steve Nevey.
She was one of four 144-car Super-class ferries. It measures 382 feet and is 2,800 gross tons and when she was introduced, Elwha was considered to be one of the most modern ferries in service. She started service from Seattle to Bainbridge but was replaced by a larger ferry in 1972. Next, she was used to fill in on various routes for other ships that were undergoing maintenance and finally in the 1980s took up her permanent assignment sailing to British Columbia. She became a fixture of the route before her retirement. Two other ships of the class, Kaleetan and Yakima, are still in service.
After sitting at the repair facility, WSF was anxious to make space. They sold Elwha and a smaller ferry last year and reported that another retired ferry was also slated to be sold. The near-miss with the scrappers was not the only close call for Elwha during her long career. She went aground in 1983, with reports her captain steered off course to give a visitor a better view of her waterfront home reports the outlet MyNorthwest. In 1990, the ferry broke away from her dock in a storm and was damaged as she slammed into a concrete pier. There were also reports of several docking failures and problems during its career.
Washington State Ferries reports it plans to offer two other retired ferries, Klahowya and Hyak, for sale to clear more space at its repair yard. Klahowya was built in 1958 and is an 87-car Evergreen State-class ferry that was decommissioned on July 1, 2017. Hyak is a sister to Elwha that was decommissioned on June 30, 2019.
Top photo: Takeshita Kenji - CC BY-SA 3.0