Ferries Seventy-Six and Counting

By Guy Span, S.D.

So how old is too old for a ferry in regular service? Certainly vessels can be rebuilt to extend their operating lives, but at some point a vessel deserves museum status. Four interesting examples currently operate for the Washington State Ferries and each are refugees from the Bay Area. And they are refugees in time, as well. When these four were originally built in 1927, talking pictures were new and the last model T was coming off the assembly line.

Southern Pacific was the original owner and when these were built, the Golden Gate Bridge District had been in existence for some four years, foreshadowing that one day a bridge would span the Golden Gate. However, for the era, these were modern vessels, compared to the Key System’s 1926 Yerba Buena and the Peralta (steel constructed steamers). Southern Pacific decided on a radical new design, diesel engines coupled to an electric generator driving a traction motor that turned the propeller shaft.

From their propulsion and steel hulls, these six new auto ferries became known as the "Steel Electric Fleet" or simply the "Steel Electrics." With the collapse of auto and commuter ferries in 1940 and 1941, these and other older steamers were offered on the market. The buyer was Puget Sound’s Black Ball Line and the ferries went north to Seattle. Washington State Ferries was later formed in the face of the financial collapse of Black Ball and acquired the Steel Electrics at that time.

Washington State had acquired the fleet with the idea that it would build bridges and phase out the ferry service (sound familiar?). However, a cost-benefit analysis indicated it was cheaper to keep the ferries than it was to build the bridges. So the Steel Electrics stayed and stayed. In the 1980s, four were rebuilt and two were retired. Interestingly enough, the two retired ferries (the Fresno and Santa Rosa) drifted back down to the Bay Area, with one converted to offices and the other under restoration.

Back in Seattle, the four remaining sisters with a face-lift kept on plugging away. In 2002, they quietly celebrated seventy-five years of service. Reportedly, Washington State Ferries plans to keep them in service until 2010 or 2012, at which point they would probably be the oldest ferries in regular service anywhere in the world, chalking up an astonishing 85 years of service. In fact, even now, they may already hold that distinction four times over. Research indicates the nearest would-be competitor is the 1929 steamer Ollanta on Lake Titikaka in Peru and this vessel is now preserved for charter service.

While the distinction of being the oldest is an honor and testament to the design and the builders, there are other considerations. New York’s horrific ferry crash is a reminder that accidents do occur and these four elderly Steel Electrics were built to a different standard of safety. For example, the US Coast Guard issues a stability letter for each and it notes that the "vessel will remain afloat with any one compartment flooded …which was the standard in effect when the vessel was built."