Official Number:D1052576 Call Sign: WCX9244 Length: 460' 2'' Beam: 90' Draft: 17' 3'' Horsepower: 13,200 Draft: Speed in Knots: 18 Max Passengers: 2500
Max Vehicles: 202 City Built: Seattle Year Built/Re-built: 1997 Name Trandlation: Derived from the native word Tah-ho-mah for Mt. Rainier, or "snowy mountain." Tacoma was first attributed to the mountain in an 1860s book, "The Canoe and the Saddle" by Theodore Winthrop, a popular volume on the early Pacific Northwest. The city picked the name over Commencement City when the railroad made its terminius there in the 1870s.
Another successful trip to Seattle completed, the Tacoma comes in for a landing in the spring of 2011. Photo courtesy of Matt Masuoka.
The lovely steamer of 1913 would have been completely dwarfed by the Tacoma that went into service for Washington State Ferries in 1997. Built to accommodate the increasing traffic on the Winslow, Bainbridge Island to Seattle route, the ferry has served the north end of Kitsap County well over the years, rarely experiencing any problems.
There were some initial teething problems when first coming into service--mainly vibration, particularly around corners. It was a design flaw that had been present in the Jumbos and which, for reasons not ever well explained, got copied right into the new boats. The Tacoma was later retrofitted to get rid of the shimmy and is now much smoother running. However, only the Puyallup, which was still under construction at the time the problem was discovered escaped the vibration completely.
The added capacity of the Tacoma was very welcomed. In short order, however, the ferry was at capacity. The boats are now so regularly full that if the Tacoma or Wenatchee needs to go out for maintenance, they will be replaced by the Puyallup as the Spokane and Walla Walla with 500 fewer spaces for people can no longer work the route as commuters will be left at the dock. For one brief period of time in 2002 the Kaleetan was placed on the route. Even though the car capacity was cut, it was the Kaleetan’s 2,500 passenger capacity that was needed.
As the Tacoma and the others are “maxed out” and there is no room to put a third boat on the run (it was tried for one summer and resulted in such horrible traffic back ups across the island the idea for a third vessel on the route had quietly been dropped) there has been some talk of retro-fitting the solariums to be an enclosed passenger cabin, much like the "library" areas already on the upper deck
Since going into service, the Tacoma has called Bainbridge Island home. With few exceptions she has been there since that first day of service in 1997.
In November of 2007 the Tacoma returned to service after an absence of some three months for her ten year overhaul. She returned to service polished, cleaned and freshly painted, and ready for another ten years of sterling service. In early 2011, she went in for interior upgrades.
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The crack steamer S.S. Tacoma of 1913 was the fastest single propeller vessel in the world. Even today the steamer would give her namesake ferry a run for her money. Author's collection.u