MV Klickitat

The MV Klickitat was a Steel Electric Class ferry operated by Washington State Ferries.

History
Name:	1927-1940: MV Stockton 1940-2009: MV Klickitat
Owner:	1927-1940: Southern Pacific-Golden Gate Ferries Ltd 1940-1951: Puget Sound Navigation Company 1951-present: WSDOT
Operator:	1927-1940: Southern Pacific-Golden Gate Ferries Ltd 1940-1951: Black Ball Line 1951-2007: Washington State Ferries
Port of registry:	Seattle,  USA
Builder:	Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, San Francisco, CA
Completed:	Built: 1927 Refit: 1981
In service:	1927
Out of service:	November 20, 2007
Identification:	IMO number: 8836106 Official Number: 226567 Call Sign: WA6855
Fate:	scrapped in 2009, Ensenada, MEX
General characteristics
Class and type:	Steel Electric Class auto/passenger ferry
Length:	256 ft (78 m)
Beam:	73 ft 10 in (22.5 m)
Draft:	12 ft 9 in (3.9 m)
Deck clearance:	13 ft 4 in (4.1 m)
Installed power:	Total 2,400 hp from 2 x Diesel-Electric engines
Speed:	12 kn (22 km/h)
Capacity:	617 passengers 64 vehicles (max 24 commercial)[1]

Originally built as the MV Stockton in San Francisco for Southern Pacific Railroad, she started out serving Southern Pacific Railways on their Golden Gate Ferries line on San Francisco Bay. She was purchased by the Puget Sound Navigation Company in 1940, and she was moved to Puget Sound and renamed the MV Klickitat. PSN operated her until Washington State Ferries acquired and took over operations in 1951.[2]

In 1978 MV Klickitat was used for exterior shots in the Emergency! TV movie "Most Deadly Passage", a story about a ferry that catches fire while at sea due to gasoline, instead of diesel, being put into one of the ship's fuel tanks.

She was serving on the Keystone-Port Townsend crossing in November 2007 when the entire Steel Electric class was withdrawn from service due to hull corrosion issues.

In August 2009 the Klickitat and the other three Steel Electric ferries were sold to Eco Planet Recycling, Inc. of Chula Vista, California. All four ferries were scrapped in Ensenada, Mexico in the fall of 2009.[2] One of the original 1927 wheelhouses (removed in the 1981 rebuild) of the Klickitat was salvaged and converted into a small house currently located just outside Arlington, Washington.

References

1. Vessel Information on the MV Klickitat - WSDOT, WSF
2. The MV Klickitat - evergreenfleet.com

I rode the Klickitat many times while growing up on Friday Harbor Island from 1965, 6 months after my birth (adopted), when it brought me to my new home, to 1976 when at age 12 we moved inland to Leavenworth, WA. The Walrods were well known on the Island and my grandfather was born on Friday Harbor and I am sure he rode that ferry thousands of times. Sad to see that it was scrapped.