Posted on 03/29/2011 7:19:14 AM PDT by Bean Counter
Tacoma, WA--On Friday, March 25, 2011, Steve Rodriguez of www.kalakala.org announced that the former non-profit organization dedicated to saving and preserving the ferry KALAKALA would become a for profit entity. At the same time, it looked like his dream of saving the the unique vintage ferry was literally sinking as the ship took on water causing a list of up to 25 degrees to port, during low tide at her berth on the Hylebos Waterway in Tacoma, Washington. The former Black Ball Line and Washington State Ferry has been at this location since September, 2004. Various efforts to find a use and a home for the 1,417 gross ton vessel have not come to fruition. Although specific causes of the problem were unknown as this is written, it seems one of the pumps aboard the vessel quit working and at low tides water flows into the openings. It rights itself on the rising tide but settles lower each time due to the water that has entered. Reportedly, the pump has now been replaced and the ship is on an even keel once again.
Few ships have had as unlikely a history and career as the KALAKALA which translates as “Flying Bird” from the native Chinook language. Launched in 1926 as a conventional double-ended steam ferry designed for service on San Francisco Bay, the then named PERALTA operated for Key System Ferries following her 1927 maiden voyage. Her career in the Bay Area was cut short in 1933 when an arson fire destroyed the Oakland terminal and also set the unlucky ferry ablaze. She burned to the hull and was declared a total loss. Instead of being destroyed Captain Alexander Peabody owner of the Puget Sound Navigation Company, the Black Ball Line, purchased the hulk for $6,500.00. He had her rebuilt into something the world had never seen before. As the world’s first streamlined ferry the KALAKALA had an Electro-welded superstructure with no rivets, curves everywhere, accented by rows of giant portholes along the vehicle deck and the passenger cabin fore and aft. It was like a silver Airstream trailer sailing across the water. In this form, the ship made her debut on July 3, 1935. As reconstructed the KALAKALA could carry 1,943 passengers and up to 110 cars. Her length was 276.5 feet with a beam of 55.7 feet and a draft of 16 feet.
The ship became part of the newly formed Washington State Ferry fleet in 1951. It sailed for them until October 2, 1967 when it was retired. Another bizarre turn of events found the former ferry heading to Alaska for a new role as a crab-processing plant in Alaska. After moving around for two years the ship was taken to Gibson Bay at Kodiak, Alaska where it was floated ashore at high tide and became a land-locked seafood plant. The story could have ended there but instead when this role was over preservationists put forward plans to refloat the ship and bring her back to Washington. After 10 years of wrangling, the ship was refloated and towed back to Seattle arriving to a triumphant welcome on November 8, 1998. It was first moored in Lake Union before moving to its present location. Even if the ship remains afloat, the KALAKALA may not have much time left. The Coast Guard was aboard on Friday to analyze the structural integrity. Neighboring businesses have lost patience with the presence of the old ship and detractors claim it could pollute the environment. According to Steven J. Pickens, an expert on Washington State Ferries, “If the KALAKALA did keel over, she would cause quite a problem for navigation, although if I remember correctly, all the old fuel oil was removed long ago.” Steve Rodriguez himself estimates it would cost approximately $14 million to complete a full renovation, although some minor interior improvements have been made at the dock. This is one of the most unique vessels in history and deserves a better fate than this, but the odds of saving her grow longer with each falling tide.
Oregon and Washington *ping*
Here’s a link to a closely related thread...
Derelict vessel to be enclosed by cofferdam, scrapped
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2696291/posts
I remember riding on her when I was a little boy. At the time it was the nicest ferry on Puget Sound....hate to see her look like this....
I’m amazed that you can moor a floating liability like this anywhere without posting a substantial bond to cover the costs of cleanup after it sinks.
The costs involved with renovating a hull like this for any purpose are astronomical, and there was never any realistic hope of anyone doing anything with this other than scrapping it years ago. The State sold it off because it was no longer usable, and they should have made sure it was sold for scrap, period.
If the owner doesn’t have the means to fix this POS then it’s a fair guess he doesn’t have the means to salvage it after it sinks. And of course the State can’t step in now until it actually does, and starts leaking oil into the water.
This is a very beg and very expensive problem...
Here is a link to the Tacoma newspaper. A photo of what she used to look like is the first photo in the “other photo” section on the upper right of the story.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/03/26/1600378/kalakala-calamity-on-hylebos.html
That is not a 25 degree list to port!
Maybe she lists more at low tide because she is on the mud.
yep...she sure was something to look at in her day, but at some point she was no longer safe on the water under any conditions and should have gone to the scrapyard.
A couple of years ago we had a local group buy an ancient 100’ long retired Coast Guard cutter for a song and a dance, with the idea of “restoring” it to it’s former glory when it was built for the War. They moored it for a while on the Columbia River at a public dock here in Vancouver while they worked on it.
Vandals went down one night and cut her loose, and she floated free downstream, crossed the navigation channel, and grounded on some pilings on the Oregon side of the river. The pilings punched holes in the paper-thin hull plating, and they played merry hell refloating it so it could be towed away and disposed of.
This is becoming an enormous problem now as the economy continues to sink and the owners of these hulls abandon them on public waterways, or get themselves in so deep over their heads that they do not have the means to do anything with the vessel. They are loaded with hazmat and oily bilge residue that’s a real oil slick hazard when the vessel finally sinks.
There are at least 10 of these kind of potential disasters all through the waterways in Washington.
That is not a current picture, but is from 2009 I believe.
It’s been listing both ways for several years, and this isn’t the first story about it...
1958 picture
Recent
The best solution is to drag that good looking thing on shore and turn it into 100 Section 8 apartments for low income crab pickers. Obama would like that!
Talk to him.....
Thank you...brings back fond memories of when life was so much better.....
Dittos. I rode it to B.C. with Grandma in ‘55. She lived in Port Angeles.
I knew Art Deco.....actually, Art and Sally Deco, they had a double-wide down in Chesapeake, Virginia near the old Hiney Winery...
It would be so cool if it could be restored, but wow... that’s going to take an enormous amount of money. It seems awfully unlikely at this point.
I’ll thank you also. Takes me back to a nice time.
Say WA? Evergreen State ping
Quick link: WA State Board
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.
Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.
Maybe they could just drag it onto land, gut it, scrap the guts, but keep the unique upper section. Turn it into a restaurant or a nightclub or artsy studio spaces or something.
The idea sounds great, but just who are “they” that you speak of? The owners??
That’s the problem, if the owner has not found the means to do anything with this vessel so far then he probably isn’t going to.
And it costs a lot of money to scrap a hull. Its specialized work that’s really dirty and often requires expensive asbestos removal, bilge cleaning and removal of any other hazardous material including lead based paint.
These boats are vulnerable to illegal scrapping, and it takes very little damage to the hull to render it unusable for any purpose, and ready to sink at a moment’s notice.
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