The Chetzemoka, Salish, Kennewick and the much needed 144-car ferries
Follow along with the DOT. Click HERE for the official link which includes photos of the progression of construction.
Welcome Chetzemoka!
After much public support the first ferry in the new 64 car ferry has been named Chetzemoka. The Jefferson County Historical Society led the charge to have the new ferry named in honor of both the famous S'Kallam chief and the Wood Electric ferry of the same name. There was widespread support for the name by visitors to my site as well, many of whom let WSF and the DOT let them know of their support for the name.
For the record, Chetzemoka was a S'Klallam Chief. The S'Klallam were led by Chetzemoka's older brother S'Hai-ak when white settlers first arrived in their territory around 1851 and it was he who granted permission for their settlement, Port Townsend. When S'Hai-ak drowned soon after, Chetzemoka succeeded to leadership of the S'Klallam. Chetzemoka was friendly toward the new settlers who dubbed him Duke of York. In the early 1850's he traveled to San Francisco impressing Chetzemoka and solidly placing him as allied to the Americans. He was instrumental in resolving the 1868 Dungeness Massacre when S'Klallam raiders killed 17 Tsimshians. Chetzemoka died at about age eighty. In 1904 the Port Townsend city park was named in his honor. (And perhaps as the boat serving Port Townsend, this one would be the most appropriate! History provided by "Iola")
The Chetzemoka is now in Everett for final fitting out. After her interior and eletronic equipment is installed, she'll undergo sea trials for about six weeks and is scheduled to go into serivce on the Port Townsend-Keystone run in late on 30 August 2010.
The Salish is currently under construction at Todd.
Steel is being cut for boat # 3, the Kennewick.
Salish refers to a coastal Native American people and is the name for the coastal sea comprised of the Juan de Fuca Strait, the Strait of Georgia and the Puget Sound
Kennewick means "Grassy Place" and is one of the "Tri Cities" on the Columbia River in Eastern Washington.
Recent events should give you plenty of reason. Check Google news for all the stories in the past few months on the state of the fleet. With the Steel Electrics gone, there are no back up boats save for the basically useless 34-car ferry Hiyu. What that means is, if your'e trying to get to Vashon Island, the Kitsap Peninsula or the San Juans and your boat breaks down, there is no boat to replace it, and won't be until it gets fixed.
In addition, the fleet now has one 60 year old boat, three boats that are 50 years old , and five that are 40. The retirement age for most ferries in Europe is 30-35 years of age. With our more sheltered waters, we can get more use out of our boats, but make no mistake: the Washington State Ferries fleet is old and needs replacing.
No one would expect you to run your car 16 hours (or more) a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, slamming it into forward and reverse without coming to a complete stop 20 times a day or more and expect it to last for 60 years. Add to that sticking into salt water for that amount of time. Boats wear out.
The engineers and maintenance crews at Washington State Ferries do a fantastic job at keeping the vessels shipshape and running well, (particularly given that for some odd reason the legislature refuses to fund the ferries adequately) but age, alas, gets us all. Parts become scarce or obsolete and boats, well, just get old.
Why 144 Car Boats?
The 144 car boat, which right now is about the size of a Super Class, is just about the best fit for most of the major routes on Puget Sound--Vashon- Southworth-Fauntleroy, Bremerton-Seattle, Mukilteo-Clinton, San Juans-Anacortes.
Winslow-Seattle and Kingston-Edmonds have larger boats because they merit it.
Why 64 Car Boats?
It was determined that it was best to replace the Steel Electrics with vessels of a similar size for the Port Townsend-Keystone run. Keystone Harbor is unique in that it can only fit vessels of that size or smaller into the narrow, shallow habor opening. This is why we do NOT need four 64 car boats. Aside from Port Townsend-Keystone and perhaps Point Defiance-Tahqulah, 64 car vessels are useless anywhere else in the system. The current contract calls for two more 64-car ferries to be built, with an option for a third. The third could be for either a 64 car or 144 car ferry, depending on what funds are available.
You have to figure that WSF had retired the fourth Steel Electric for nearly five years (the Nisqually) and didn't seem to have any use for it then...why now would we need a fourth car ferry that size suddenly?
When Will They Be Built?
Construction on the Chetzemoka is well underway, and should be completed by summer of 2010, with the ferry going into service hopefully by fall. The two sisters are scheduled to follow in 2011 and 2012, with the 144 by 2013-14. This still leaves the state two full building cycles behind.
Click Here for the Official Page for the new 144 car Ferries!
As noted above, we have a Chetzemoka!
The Class has been named the "Kwai-di Tabil" (kwah-DEE' tah-bayl) a Quileute word (phrase?) meaning "Little Boat."
The general rules for naming a vessel since the state took over have been it should be Northwest Native American/Chinook Jargon name with a known meaning and should be fairly easy to pronounce by looking at it. There was some controversy over having named the new ferry "Chetzemoka" after an individual--never mind that we've already got a Sealth and a Kitsap. Currently the legislature is mulling over SB 6700, which states--When naming or renaming state ferry vessels, the commission shall avoid naming vessels after individuals in preference to names of groups or places.
Since the 64's have been named, for the 144's, how about the "River Class" ferries...?
SKYKOMISH: The name was taken from that of the Indian people who lived along the river, Skaik-mish, or Inland people.
SNOQUALMIE: Snoqualmie is the name of a tribe of Indians, of a river, a pass through the Cascade Range, and a sawmill town near the beautiful falls, also of the same name, in King and Snohomish Counties. On most of the earlier maps the spelling was "Snoqualmoo." The river joins with the Skykomish River near Monroe, forming the Snohomish River. The white men have softened the native word Sdohkwahlb-bhuh; which refers to the legend that their people came from the moon. Sdoh-kwahlb means moon.
CHEHALIS:This Indian name, altered from Chi-ke-lis, means shifting sands, and refers to the sands at the mouth of the Chehalis River. At least 32 spellings of Chehalis are on record.
SKOKOMISH: The name Skokomish means "river people" for the river which is the largest stream of fresh water in the region. It is related to the term Skaw-kaw-mish with the "kaw" meaning fresh water.
SOLDUC: The name means magic waters.
Or rerun some old names...
KLAHANIE: "great out of doors." Also the name of a sister to the first Chetzemoka.
KEHLOKEN: " swan." Also the name of a sister to the first Chetzemoka. I was originally against the idea of another Kehloken, due to the history of the first vessel--it having been the ferry that took the Japanese residents off of Bainbridge Island for relacation into internment camps during WWII. However, I had it pointed out to me that having a new Kehloken on the water could very well serve as a way to open a dialogue about that history and its impact--and as several other people have pointed out--a bit of history that shouldn't be forgotten.
KULSHAN: "Great white watcher" is perhaps the most popular translation for the Native American name for Mount Baker. People may not have had much affection for the old open decked ferry retired in 1982, but they love the name. Probably the second most popular name choice I've been emailed about.
ENETAI: "across, on the other side." A very appropriate name for a ferry, and used on one of the single-ended Bremerton boats retired in the late 60's. Since retirement the old Enetai has enjoyed a second life under her oringinal name Santa Rosa back in San Francisco.
QUILCENE: The tribal name means "saltwater people." Also a very successful ferry that sailed for Black Ball for many years and was one of the Anacortes-Sidney boats.
QUILLAYUTE: "joining together of rivers." Also a long lived ferry. Worked for both Black Ball and B.C. ferries, and had a long afterlife as a fishing camp until broken up a few years ago.
The Names To Avoid:
HOH: Obvious. It is too bad the name got drastically shortened, as it should be: The name Hoh is a much-simplified form of the Indian name Oh-la-qu-hoh or Hooh-oh-ah-lat, meaning "...can speak Quinault at that place. "
BOGACHIEL : no one will be able to pronounce it. FYI, it means "muddy waters" --so not exactly a pleasing mental image either.
HUMPTULIPS: again, obvious, but in addition it means "hard to pole"
DOSEWALLIPS: again, hard to pronounce to those who aren't used to hearing it. (Dough-see-wall-ips) The name is from the Twana or Clallam word Dos-wail-opsh, the title of a mythical Indian chief who was transformed by The Great Changer into a mountain near the head of the river.
DUCKABUSH: The Indian name for a village at the river's mouth was Do-he-a-bos or Do-hi-a-bos, meaning "reddish face, as applied to a red bluff or escarpment."
CLALLAM: No. Just no. You never, ever name a vessel after one that has had any sort of disaster associated with it. You have to figure that is why there's never been another Titanic. Just ask the ferry operators in San Francisco that (foolishly, in my opinion) named one of their boats Peralta. The Clallam, for the record, sank in a storm in the same waters these new boats will be sailing, with the loss of 54 lives. If a ferry was ever named this, I suspect it would be a nightmare trying to crew it.
KALAKALA: there was only one of her, and heck, she's still around. Even if she weren't, the ferry is just so unique that it shouldn't ever be reused. I think you'd probably find similar opposition to using Vashon. Aside from the obvious fact that the name Vashon is not Chinook/Native American, she's too fondly remembered as the last all-wood ferry in the WSF fleet to be replaced by anything of steel. And let's not forget that the name is trademarked.
Back in 1974-75 when the first contract was written up for the "new Evergreen ferries" as they were being called, this design was brought out. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it was the vessel was capable of being sliced in half to have section added to expand capacity at a later date--something B.C. Ferries had been doing successfully for years.
There were to be three of these vessels built (although listed as Issaquah here, there hadn't been any names chosen at the time) but the sole bidder on the contract from a shipyard in the southern U.S. came in so much over budget that the contract was recalled and the ferries were never built. A new contract was drawn up a year later for six slightly smaller ferries. Marine Power and Equipment got the contract and the rest as they say is history.
When WSDOT first released the drawings of the new 144's, it was hard not to see the similarities between the old drawing from 1975 and the proposed new 144's.
Drawings on this page all appear courtesy of Johan Iversen.
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