M.V. FOX ISLAND Original Name:Wollochet   Built:  Skansie Brothers, Gig Harbor, 1925.  Length:  89' 5"  Beam: 32' 5"  Propulsion: diesel The Fox Island sails into Keystone Habor, circa late 1940's.
The Wollochet (which in Chinook means "squirting clams") was diesel ferry built in 1925 by the Skansie Brothers  for their Washington Navigation Company.   She was a small ferry at a mere  89.5 feet in length with a beam of  32.5 feet.   Built at Gig Harbor, the ferry was put into service  to Day  and Fox Islands near Tacoma.        At some point in her career she was renamed Fox Island. She continued to work for the Company until 1942 when she was  sold to the Horluck Transportation Co., which  was in desperate need of  additional ferries  to meet the passenger demands of its ferry service between Port Orchard and Bremerton.   During World War II the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was working around the clock. and traffic to and from the yard was non-stop.    After traffic returned to normal levels when the war ended, so Horluck sold the ferry in 1947 to Captain Oscar Lee.   Lee , H.J. Carroll and A.C. Grady formed Olympic Ferries Inc. and purchased the Port Townsend-Keystone route from the Puget Sound Navigation Company (Black Ball Line) after the company had essential abandoned the route in 1943.  They had to rebuild the dock at Keystone which had been destroyed by storms  during the years it hadn’t been used. The 20 car Fox Island went into service on the route after the dock was rebuilt  in 1947 and sailed on the route until being displaced by the ferry Defiance . The date this took place is uncertain, although the Fox Island was sold in 1955 to the Gulf Island Ferry Company in British Columbia between Crofton and Vesuvius.       Gulf Island Ferry Company renamed the ferry George S. Pearson and started operations in the Gulf Islands, but the ferry was charted for use by Black Ball Ferries for use between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale.       In 1961 she was transferred to B.C. Ferries when the Crown Corporation took over the Gulf Island Ferry Company.  She continued to sail until 1966 when she was sold to Nelson Brothers Fishers, Ltd., presumably to be used as a fish camp. The whereabouts of the George S. Pearson, ex Fox Island, ex-Wollochet is unknown.  If you have any information about the old ferry, please feel free to email.
At left, as launched, the Wollochet was a cute little ferry, neatly painted in the original WNC livery.  Photograph:  unknown.   At right, as the Fox Island, the all white  livery made the ferry look somewhat dumpy.   Photograph: unknown.
To the DEFIANCE FORGOTTEN FERRIES HOME
				A Mystery still.....      I've had a heck of a time tracing down the final disposition of some of these forgotten old ferries, but none are so vexing as the ex-Fox Island. Countless searches have turned up nothing on the old boat, which allegedly ended her days as a fish camp on the B.C. coast.       Last known as the George S. Pearson, B.C. Ferries gave the old Fox Island a major rebuild, which considerably  neatened the looks of the ferry. Photograph courtesy B.C. Ferries.