2009 Week 12 in Review
March 15 to March 21, 2009
This week, OTM stopped by the old ferry Skansonia to photograph its Fairbanks-Morse diesels. Maintenance guy John was happy to show us the engine room and let us poke around two great old mains:
Steven at the Evergreen Fleet has a nice history of the Skansonia that he's posted here. Here's a summary:
The Skansonia was built in 1929 by the Skansie Brother shipyard for the Washington Navigation Company. She and sister ship Defiance transported passengers and automobiles on the Tacoma to Gig Harbor route. In 1940, when the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened, the Skansonia took over a Tacoma to Vashon Island Route - until "Galloping Gertie" crashed into Puget Sound a few months later!
The Skansonia went back to work on the Tacoma to Gig Harbor Route until 1950, when the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened. The new Washington State Ferry system bought her in 1951 and put her on the Vashon Island to Point Defiance run until 1967, when the Hiyu took over the route. The ferry system used her as an overflow boat in the summer of 1969, then tied her up in Eagle Harbor. They sold her in 1971, and in the mid-1980s she was turned in to a banquet facility and moored at the north end of Lake Union for years.
John led us down into the engine room and just like on the Olympic (back in 2008 Week 48), I felt like I went back in time, with the last engineer's coffee cup still sitting by the dangling remains of the telegraph. Except for being used for storage, the belowdecks space had been hardly touched since the boat was retired. Someone had removed most of the access panels from the two main Fairbanks-Morse diesels, but other than that they looked completely untouched:
We took a lot more pictures of the boat that are uploaded to the Flickr site here. They're definitely worth browsing through.
Now normally, I am a hopeful engine restorer. I see running potential in any engine that is mostly complete, and the Skansonia's engines are great examples of "mostly complete." With a lot of work, they could run again, but I don't advocate for it in this particular situation. The banquet-ferry business works and the boat won't run again, so parting out the mains would be okay. The boat is beautiful and I have actually attended a few weddings there. It works really well as a venue, and the owners have showcased a lot of the boat's history in the main galleries. Plus, the Skansonia has the one most important thing for anything in the world to survive: it provides a service that is valued enough to support itself. It's a shame that this service doesn't include running the engines, but having a business that supports it is a wonderful thing for the old gal.
Thanks for the tour, John!
The Arthur Foss turns again!
I finished putting Arthur Foss's clutch together. After I reinstalled the linkages on the throw-out bearing, I spend some time adjusting the clutch to get the right snap. This is the final motion that the clutch makes as the linkages go over center with some tension and the crowder collar runs into the clutch housing. If it's well-adjusted, the linkages retain the tension and keep the clutch "in." I spent a few hours adjusting it, then turned the engine over on compressed air to test it.
Here's a video of it:
After it looked really good, we tightened up the dock lines and ran the propeller for the first time in about eight years. It was great! I can't wait until we get under way again, but there's still some work that needs doing before then.
World premier of the Westward movie
Right after running the Arthur, I went around the corner the see the John Sabella documentary about the Westward. Hugh and Teresa brought the boat down and moored it at Lake Union Park for the event, and tons of people came - including three generations of owners.
They showed the movie itself on a big projection screen in the Armory. My favorite part was, of course, the part about Westward's Atlas-Imperial. They have a great segment of engineer John oiling in high speed. Check it out:
The boat has had the best career any vessel could ask for and she's not finished yet. The website has more information on the documentary, including how to order it for yourself.
