Today was a blustery, sunny, happy day for us in Whittier and Passage Canal. We launched our 17-foot Klamath and went out to Pigot Bay via Shotgun Cove. We didn't fish much.Above is a cruise ship, tied to the outer piers of the new west harbor, below Maynard Mountain. That's the mountain the long tunnel goes through.
Begich Towers are in the background. When Judy and I were married, we lived near the top floor. She taught at the school, I was the harbormaster.
This is the sign on the south side of Hobo Bay Trading Company. For years, Babs Reynolds cast out humongously delicious buffalo burgers, and endless wit and barbs to her hooked customers. The sign lists a number of various changes in town while she ran the place. Hobo Bay is looking for a new owner.Of the 14 harbormasters, I was number one on her list chronologically.
This is all that is left of the ferry Leschi. In better days, it cruised from Madison Park to Bellevue, on Seattle's Lake Washington. After retirement, it was bought by Cordova developer Jim Poor. He brought it to Alaska, turned it into a crab and fish processor, and had his office in the upper stern compartment. I bought my first boat, the Swanee, in that office in 1974.In 1979, it was surplused, and towed from Cordova to one of the "battleship" buoys in Shotgun Cove, near Whittier. Soon afterward, a moderate storm tore it loose. It fetched up in Neptune Cove, where it has since been ravaged.
Here's the Leschi before World War II, plying Lake Washington.
3 comments:
fascinating bit about the ferry, phil. i kinda followed the fate of the larger puget sound ferry, the kalakala, that spent 30 yrs. or so in kodiak as a crab processor after 30 years on puget sound. that was a streamlined art deco design. it looked really good, anyway although i hear it was loud and uncomfortable in use compared to the more boring ferries in use today. i rode on it in my childhood but don't remember. it was taken out of service when i was seven. since its 'rescue' it has been touring the west coast looking for someone willing to restore it to its former glory. so far, no takers.
clark,
I was involved in the Kalakala project up to my eyeballs. Peter Bevis, the guy who "saved" it, is one of my closest friends. I tried to talk him out f saving the Kalakala, as he's one of the best bronze sculptors of our day, and the project cost him years and about $1.5 million of his own bucks.
I love the stories of old ferries and tugs...
in our field we have similar debates all the time -- what is worth saving? why go through a great deal of effort to keep an old building around, when it has few redeeming characteristics and little relevance to the modern world? but then at some point you're asking yourself, where is your soul, brother?
too bad your friend didn't take your advice. i didn't follow the story enough to know any of those details. but i did sneak through the fence to see the kalakala up close and took a few photos, in '05 when it was moored at lake union.
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