End Of The Steel Electric's Ferries

[Skagitguy]

End Of The Steel Electric Ferries

Here's some pictures of the 4 Steel Electric Class Ferries being cut up in Mexico. Chuck

[mikekronick]

That's just painful to see.

[ron12]

sad sad sad to see that happen

[John Berg]

It is painfull

Chuck, I see the quinault. What others are there? Hopefully I wont recognize the names. John

[Skagitguy]

John, The Klickitat and Quinault were on the Port Townsend-Keyport run. The Quinault was on the Vashon island route for 30 something years before the PT route in the summer only. The Illahee ( that the one that had sunk ) was on the San Juan inter island route for about the last 10 years and before that it was the Nisqually. The Klick was on the San Juan from about 1947-1981 before she was rebuilt in 1981.These four ferries serve just about every route in the Black Ball/WSF system since coming up from San Francisco with two other Steel Electric Willapa and Enetai and that where on the Bremerton route for all of the years they where here 1940-1968 ) then retired and went back to SFO in 1968. That's another story in itself. Chuck

http://www.evergreenfleet.com/quinaultretired.html

[FINS]

Amazing that we, as a Country, outsource everything including demolition and recycling. Sad to see the boats retire. Sad to see that the area does not treasure the ships that made the area famous. There should be enough steel in all of those that would pay for at least one to be restored.

[Sammamish1]

Mexico will probably take that steel and build 1967 Volkswagen Beetles. They bought the dies from Germany and turn them out like hotcakes. Bought one new in 67, and rent one every year in Los Cabos. Best car ever made IMHO, and they float. What better use for old ferries than floating cars?

[Helmar]

I guess I don't understand this very well.
What gets warn out. Engine, shaft, hull??

Why not be smart then. Build a ferry and when the engine, shaft and hull goes bad, dry dock it, cut the old hull out from under it, float a new hull under it, weld it back together, add new updates.

Can anyone come up with a Real reason this would not save money ?

See, I must be missing something Big about this other than politics are involved..

Still grinds on me that they will sell brand new cars and trucks (junk) to people that can't afford the payments but will not loan money to Update some of the older better built cars and trucks.

These new cars and trucks, they keep telling us how much better they are.
Right......Just go visit a local wrecking yard and she what your Really safer driving.

Last I heard, the Hull's were getting what they called Unsafe or Thin, too much rust?Screwy1
Must be more than that to it as that is One Lame $#s excuse in my book of Realism.
Our hard earned money at work

[Tim_Mattson]

Joe,
These hulls are like Swiss cheese,the steel has become a shale -like substance that leeches rust out from every seam or repair.
Green and White paint can only hide it for so long....
The bottom probably can`t be saved and guarenteed to not leak or dribble at some point.
They sandblast and do Ultra sound testing while in Drydock and you`d be scared to ride on one if you saw the daylight thru holes as they find them.
Once you build a complex hull with holes and voids you can`t easily get to,it`s pretty much over wehn the hull reaches a certain point.
My first Alum SAFE hull actually was scrapped after needing many repairs to the well salted skin.
The Metal hulls,both Alum and Steel, try to trade places with the Seawater which contains even more minerals,Elements and stuff we don`t realize.
A repair needs to cover 3 times the area in question....once they all overlap,now what do you do?
The welds start to splatter and make popcorn.
My parents used to warehouse the WSF(WaStateFerries) spare Shafts and props in our Harbor Island shop....we`d get late-night phone calls asking for items to be cleaned of their Cozmaline( a black tar-like goo they use to protect the 4` props and 25` SS shafts).
Seems they hit logs and stuff all the time,winter time especially.A water drip can even bore thru a bottom.
I`m all for saving older items but we`d never want to know what a ferry going down in Puget Sound would result in.

I always wanted to open a 2nd hand Marine store onboard one of those 2nd hand hulls......would be mobile and still have parking on-board.Or as a concert venue or Seafair Hydro event grandstand.:HandHorn1:
Someday ,they`ll put Corporate names on these boats instead of people and places,kinda like our stadiums and Hi-rises.
TimM

[Bflaherty]

Just look at the NYC ferry that sank last week... :NoWay1:

I am probably a little young and nieve to be speaking here but as some one who has grown up in the Puget Sound area my entire life, I am a big fan of trying to save the old heritage of the area. I actually donate money every year to the seemly lost cause of saving the Kalaka... Screwy1

[Super Sportster]

I guess I don't understand this very well.
What gets warn out. Engine, shaft, hull??

Why not be smart then. Build a ferry and when the engine, shaft and hull goes bad, dry dock it, cut the old hull out from under it, float a new hull under it, weld it back together, add new updates.

Can anyone come up with a Real reason this would not save money ?

See, I must be missing something Big about this other than politics are involved..

Still grinds on me that they will sell brand new cars and trucks (junk) to people that can't afford the payments but will not loan money to Update some of the older better built cars and trucks.

These new cars and trucks, they keep telling us how much better they are.
Right......Just go visit a local wrecking yard and she what your Really safer driving.

Last I heard, the Hull's were getting what they called Unsafe or Thin, too much rust?Screwy1
Must be more than that to it as that is One Lame $#s excuse in my book of Realism.
Our hard earned money at work

Since this is what I do for a living I think I can answer some of this based on experience. Besides the the rust and the hull becoming thin there is another factor that is a big part of this. The hulls are constantly flexing, the steel then becomes brittle with age and cracks, spider web cracks. We all know if you bend a piece of steel back and forth enough it eventually will break in two. When you try and weld cracks in the hulls, you might seal that crack but from the heat the surrounding steel then develops cracks. It's not limited to the hull skin, every frame and stringer is also flexing and becoming brittle with age. They have a life span and eventually they become unsafe and must be replaced. You can rebuild, repower, replace parts and pieces in the course of the lifespan but there becomes a limit and judging by the age of these and my experience I'd say they were long overdue for replacement.

Have you seen the youtube video of the '59 Belair vs the new Malibu?
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g"]YouTube- Crash Test 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air VS. 2009 Chevrolet Malibu (Frontal Offset) IIHS 50th Anniversary[/nomedia]

[Tim McCrain]

Darn shame to do that to that '59. That was my first car, even the same paint color. It didn't come out as well as the Malibu, but you have to admit it sure looked cooler doing it ...

[Lootas1]

Great! Now I'm not only afraid to ride in a '59 Bel Aire but decided it isn't wise to ride in our 50 year old ferry. What's a person to do? Guess I'll put on my PFD and climb in my truck and chance a ride on the Lummi Island ferry. Guess I'll pull my 5th wheel trailer off in case I'm afraid to come back home.

[Ken]

My youth being scrapped?

I rode all those boats as a kid (and later) and my favorites were the Quinalt, the Klickatat and especially the Rhododendren. I recall one wild ride on the Defiant (?) from Whidbey one winter evening. Every time it slammed down the lights would flicker. I thought it was being defiant because in that it was still floating! Memorable!
-Ken

[Wally]

Hi, Chuck,

Jack mentioned floating cars (Bugs). My high school friend (NKHS, Class of '62) started as a Wash Ferry deck hand (and ended a captain). He says they would sometimes "float" cars on the Port Townsend run. Waves would come over the front and move cars around. I'm not sure which boat he was talking about.

Any truth to that?

Ed