In 1967 when the Hyak, the first of the superferries, was brand new, the last of the double-ended steam ferries on the West Coast, the San Mateo, was still in service.

The Hyak was operating on the Seattle-Bremerton run, but none of her sisterships had arrived yet from San Diego, so the Seattle-Bainbridge Island run was still served by older tonnage.  In addition to the Tillikum and Illahee, the San Mateo operated at peak periods.  She made a 4:45 p.m. rush hour supplementary sailing every weekday from Colman Dock to Winslow.

When the superferries were new, they made 45-minute crossings on the Seattle-Bremerton run and left at the top of every hour.  Thus, the Hyak would leave Bremerton at 4 p.m. and dock at Colman Dock just as the San Mateo was leaving for Winslow.

I went downtown one day to make my first roundtrip on the Hyak and was happy to see the new and the old together at 4:45 p.m. The contrast between the 1922 steamer and the first super- ferry could not have been greater: 55 cars on one deck versus 160 on two; one passenger deck for 659 versus two carrying up to 2,500 people; steam versus diesel-electric; 12 knots versus 20; wooden superstructure versus all-steel.

As I stood out on the Hyak’s picklefork watching the proceedings, San Mateo got underway and I was treated to a beautiful double departure blast using both of San Mateo’s whistles. The quartermaster pulled the rope on the forward whistle first and held it down while a second later the captain in the stern pilothouse pulled the rope of the aft whistle, which was a different tone.  The beautiful chord reverberated off the skyscrapers.  All too soon, the quartermaster let up on the forward whistle and a second later the skipper let up on the aft whistle. San Mateo needed to get out of the way of Tillikum, so she executed a sharp turn to starboard and then corrected her course for Bainbridge Island.

Soon, the superferry Kaleetan went into service in January 1968 and there was no longer any need for a third vessel at Bainbridge Island. The San Mateo ran two more summers at Edmonds-Kingston, where I got the chance to blow her arrival signal, one long and two shorts, in August 1967, coming into Apple Tree Cove and the Kingston dock. In less than a month, Captain Bill Irving sailed her on Labor Day on her final trip from Kingston to Edmonds and rang up “finished with engines” at Eagle Harbor that evening. That was the end of the steam era for Washington State Ferries.

Public Ferry Meeting: Dec. 8, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Kingston Community Center. Topics will include: transportation spending, new vessels, LNG propulsion, on-time performance and ways to simplify fares and fare payment.

Kingston Traffic: The Herald recently mentioned relocating our toll booths and here’s a recap on this project.

Fifteen years ago, an extensive public process developed a solution for Kingston’s ferry traffic congestion. The first phase would route in- and outbound ferry traffic to East 1st  Street.  The second phase would build a holding lot at the intersection of Highway 104 and Lindvog.  As the project wasn’t funded six years ago, Commissioner Endresen formed a working group to resurrect the idea.  

An automated tally machine at Lindvog and converting the current WSDOT parking lot to a holding area were being considered when the Legislature directed that a reservation system be substituted for new holding lots. This system is being piloted at Port Townsend and for San Juan’s commercial traffic. If successful, it will be considered for Puget Sound commercial traffic reservations and, ultimately, non-commercial traffic.  Rerouting our downtown traffic still remains viable, and last winter public meetings were held on design alternatives.

— Rex Lee Carlaw is a member of the Kingston Ferry Advisory Committee.