amdavis
Veteran Member
The former ferry Kalakala took its final voyage before dawn today.A2 mile tow to a graving dock here in Tacoma. She now lays on her side awaiting demolition.No salvage , strait to the scrap yard.
Kalakala
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That's got to be hard on the fellow who rescued her from the beach on Kodiak Island years ago where she had been parked as a fish cannery. He put a lot of effort into trying to save her.
I'm not sure she would have had any real value in preservation outside of her unique presence in the Seattle ferry fleet. Her hull was a burned out San Francisco ferry towed up the coast to Puget Sound and her topsides were the product of the imagination of a former Boeing design engineer. From what I read she had a terrible vibration at cruise speed and wasn't a particularly remarkable boat outside of her unique appearance.
If there was no interest in preserving her, I would have thought the state would at least have considered sinking her as fish habitat/dive wreck as has been done with several vessels here and in BC.
One thing I have always been curious about-- The Kalakala's superstructure is not double-ended as all the other Washington ferries are. So did she back in at both ends of the run, which wouldn't have made sense since the vehicles would have had to back off?
If there were doors at the front end that opened to let cars on and off, how did the crew run her in the opposite direction?
Or did she always run bow first, but was turned and backed in on every other run, which I'm guessing was the case. Which would have made her even less eficient to operate.
I'm not sure she would have had any real value in preservation outside of her unique presence in the Seattle ferry fleet. Her hull was a burned out San Francisco ferry towed up the coast to Puget Sound and her topsides were the product of the imagination of a former Boeing design engineer. From what I read she had a terrible vibration at cruise speed and wasn't a particularly remarkable boat outside of her unique appearance.
If there was no interest in preserving her, I would have thought the state would at least have considered sinking her as fish habitat/dive wreck as has been done with several vessels here and in BC.
One thing I have always been curious about-- The Kalakala's superstructure is not double-ended as all the other Washington ferries are. So did she back in at both ends of the run, which wouldn't have made sense since the vehicles would have had to back off?
If there were doors at the front end that opened to let cars on and off, how did the crew run her in the opposite direction?
Or did she always run bow first, but was turned and backed in on every other run, which I'm guessing was the case. Which would have made her even less eficient to operate.
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O C Diver
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I do a fair amount of reef building work off MD. The cost of cleaning a vessel such as that to meet EPA and CG standards would be huge. Between the value of scrap steel, the high cost of cleaning, and the lack of funds available from federal, state, and private sources, ships to reefs has all but ended. It's far more economical for our foundation to buy scrap concrete (failed castings, culvert pipe, etc,), and the occasional clean barge than fund huge cleaning projects.
Ted
Alaskan Sea-Duction
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The ship looks like an Airstream trailer on the water!
OFB
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Marin
Yes the front doors opened for load on and off.
From memory I think the Black ball ferries where based on the same design like the MV Coho be it a side load vessel. The original BC ferries where then based on the design of the black ball ferries. Not that any of the BC ferries or black ball ferries looked as sweet as the Kalakala the base design held on for years with the original Sidney class BC ferry and Victoria class BC ferries.
Yes the front doors opened for load on and off.
From memory I think the Black ball ferries where based on the same design like the MV Coho be it a side load vessel. The original BC ferries where then based on the design of the black ball ferries. Not that any of the BC ferries or black ball ferries looked as sweet as the Kalakala the base design held on for years with the original Sidney class BC ferry and Victoria class BC ferries.
