She was a slow, clunky looking boat. She broke down often, and once was pushed to and from the dock by a tugboat. B.C. Ferries sold her off as soon as it was possible. Today, few people remember the little Smokwa, which ended its days in Alaska.
It's likely that even fewer people remember her in her first life as the Scotian, where she steamed the cold waters of Nova Scotia.
The rare photo at left is the only one I've ever seen of the ferry in her early life. Compared with the postcard shot below, it looks as if Captain Peabody made similar changes to her as he had done with the Quillayute and Bainbridge, refining her looks.
Author's collection.
First the Golden Anchors on Lake Washington and then the Four Winds on Lake Union, the ferry was successful in its second life for a number of years. As the Surfside 9 she met her doom when the power was cut and she sank at her mooring.
You can find the full story here.
Good work on all those who guessed correctly!
Writer and playwright Russell Hunter said in a 1980 interview that he based many elements from The Changeling on experiences from his first months in Denver in 1968, while living in a large house at 1739 East 13th Avenue—the north edge of Cheesman Park. The house was razed in the 1970s and a condominium building now stands on the site.
This house was the Henry Treat Rogers Mansion. Hunter rented it for the "unbelievable price of $200 per month, because no one else wanted to live there," Hunter relates. A little more than a week after moving in, strange things began to happen, he said. Banging and crashing were heard regularly, coming from the direction of a bedroom fireplace. One morning, Hunter yelled "Stop it!" and never heard the noise again, he said later. Next, doors mysteriously began to open and close unaided, while walls vibrated and threw paintings to the floor.
A woman he met at a bridge game told Hunter that undoubtedly a poltergeist was in the house. At another social gathering, he said, he met a man whom no one later could identify. The man told him the house had a third floor which could be accessed through a secret stairway concealed at the back of a second-floor closet. With help, he broke open the back closet wall revealing a narrow stairway, covered with a thick layer of dust. In the attic, Hunter discovered a child's trunk that contained the diary of a 9-year-old boy whose family had hidden him in the attic because they were ashamed that he had been born a cripple. The journal mentioned that the boy's favorite toy was a red rubber ball.
At the suggestion of friends, Hunter reportedly called a well-known medium to conduct a seance in the house. The medium told him the crippled child would have inherited a large fortune from his grandfather, but the child died before he could inherit it. He was buried secretly, and the family adopted a similar-looking boy from an orphanage and played him off as their own in order to collect the inheritance. The second boy graduated from a leading university and became a successful industrialist, said the medium.
The spirit of the crippled boy would not rest, according to Hunter. The medium said his body had been buried in south Denver, at a spot that was now under a closet sill of a bedroom in a designated house. The medium said they would know it was him, because they would find a gold medal inscribed with his birthday. The medium also said the spirit threatened harm to the children of the house where he was buried if the owners of the house would not give permission for the search. After a couple of warning incidents affecting their children, the owners of the house gave permission for the excavation under the bedroom floor, and the gold medal was found.
Disturbances at the Henry Treat Rogers Mansion continued, however. Some glass doors blew up as Hunter approached them and shards of glass cut an artery, he said. Some bedroom walls shook. Not long afterward in the 1970s, the house was demolished on order and, during the work, walls of a bedroom exploded and crushed a man operating the bulldozer, said Hunter.
Hunter moved into a house on Kearney Street, but the poltergeist moved with him, he said, and the disturbances continued. At the urging of friends, Hunter called in a priest from Denver's Epiphany Episcopal Church to perform the rites of exorcism at the house. The priest, who asked not to be named, said of Hunter: "He did seem to have a problem. We performed the rites of exorcism in his second house, on Kearney Street." The priest said it apparently worked — at least, he heard no more from Hunter.
The ferry has called the Edmonds-Kingston route home since it was built in 1999, though it will sometimes fill in on the Winslow-Seattle route when one of the other Mark II's (the Tacoma and Wenatchee) is out for annual maintenance.
The Kingston-Edmonds route has been the subject of some controversy of late. Frequently delayed by large back-ups and train traffic (not to mention having to slow down to a virtual crawl to get over the rail bed in front of the dock to prevent damaging the underside of your car) the state has proposed eliminating several sailings to increase the lag time at the dock. This they maintain will help keep the vessels on time...what they propose to do with the back up in traffic this will most assuredly spawn has not been addressed. Stay tuned for more on that...
*One of the rare vessels to stay on her original route for nearly her entire career
*Became a casualty of the modern diesel ferries and was scrapped in '38.
*her name was reused by Washington State Ferries and had been proposed for one of the new 64 car boats
Good luck! EMAIL
For those keeping up on the ferries missing from the WSF Fleet currently...(Be aware this is updated monthly and may not reflect the current state of affairs.)
EVERGREEN STATE CLASS:
Evergreen State: SJI interisland;
Klahowya: Vashon-Southworth-Fauntleroy
Tillikum: Annual Drydocking
Hiyu: Standby
SUPER CLASS
Hyak:Anacortes-San Juan Islands
Yakima:Out for annual repairs. Back for summer schedule.
Kaleetan: Seattle-Bremerton
Elwha: Anacortes-San Juan Islands
JUMBO CLASS
Spokane: Kingston-Edmonds
Walla Walla: Seattle-Bremerton
ISSAQUAH CLASS
Issaquah: Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth
Kittitas: Clinton-Mukilteo
Kitsap: Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth
Cathlamet: Clinton-Mukilteo
Chelan: Anacortes-Sidney, San Juan Islands
Sealth: Point Defiance-Tahlequah
JUMBO MARK II CLASS
Tacoma: Seattle- WInslow
Wenatchee: Seattle-Winslow
Puyallup : Edmonds-Kingston
MONOHULLS
Skagit and Kalama: For Sale
ON LOAN
Steilacoom II-Port Towsend-Keystone.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Chetzemoka, second 64 Car Boat
Email me your ferryboat or scenic photos, past or present from Washington, Oregon,
California, Alaska or British Columbia and I'll post it on the site!
August 2009
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