MV ''Walla Walla'' (Motor Vessel ''Walla Walla'') is a operated by

Washington State Ferries Washington State Ferries (WSF) is a public ferry system in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It is a division of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and operates 10 routes serving 20 terminals within Puget ...

History

The ''Walla Walla'' was originally assigned to the San Juan Islands, however, in its first year of service it was reassigned to the Seattle-Bainbridge route for which ridership better aligned with the high capacity of the Jumbo-class vessels. After being replaced on the Seattle–Winslow route by a , the ship began serving as a fill-in vessel for whenever one of the larger ferries goes into scheduled maintenance periods; usually she can be found on either the

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

– Bremerton or Edmonds–

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routes. Occasionally the ''Walla Walla'' will still end up filling in on the Seattle–Bainbridge Island run where it spent its early years. In late July 2014, the Jumbo Mark-II-class ferry, sailed to

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

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for repairs. Since

had no large backup vessels, the ''Walla Walla'' once again found herself on her old run, the Seattle–Winslow route. As a result, she was the other vessel on the route on the day the suffered her massive electrical failure.

April 1981 grounding

On April 23, 1981, the ferry ran aground near Bainbridge Island at approximately 7:50 a.m. after heavy fog impacted the navigation of the vessel. No serious injuries were reported among the more than 600 commuters. Two tug boats attempted to pull the ferry free but were unsuccessful leading officials to wait until high tide approximately 12 hours later. Passengers walked off the vessel at approximately 10:15am onto a waiting barge and 2 tour boats. The vehicles on the boat were made available to passengers at about 7:30 p.m.

November 2012 incident

In early November 2012, during routine maintenance, one of the ship's four drive motors was damaged and failed after it overheated. The ferry was removed from service while a replacement was installed.

WSDOT The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Establi ...

announced that if the damaged motor could be replaced with a spare already in its warehouse, the ferry could be back into service within several months.Walla Walla ferry out of service indefinitely
– Seattle Times, retrieved November 9, 2012Electrical Accident Puts Walla Walla Ferry Out Of Service
– KGMI, retrieved November 12, 2012 The spare motor was refurbished by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

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and then installed at

Vigor Shipyards Vigor Shipyards is the current entity operating the former Todd Shipyards after its acquisition in 2011. Todd Shipyards was founded in 1916, which owned and operated shipyards on the West Coast of the United States, East Coast of the United St ...

. The ''Walla Walla'' returned to service in April 2013.

April 2023 grounding

At approximately 4:30 p.m. on April 15, 2023, the ferry ran aground on a Bainbridge Island beach after a generator failure while transiting Rich Passage during a Bremerton–Seattle run. No injuries or hull damage were reported among the 596 passengers and 15 crew members. All passengers were evacuated onto Kitsap Fast Ferries and returned to Bremerton within a few hours. The ''Walla Walla'' was towed by tugboats back to Bremerton for inspections and to unload the 200 vehicles left onboard until the following morning. A subsequent investigation by Washington State Ferries and the U.S. Coast Guard determined that contaminated fuel had clogged filters leading into the boat's generators and caused them to shut down. The fuel contamination was caused by excessive air that entered the "two-day tank" and formed a black sludge of bacteria and fungus that clogged the filters. The onboard backup generator also failed and the crew were unable to start a third generator, leaving the vessel without power. ''Walla Walla'' sustained a bent propeller and other minor damage. The ferry later reentered service, but again damaged a propeller and was withdrawn for dry-docking on September 18.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Walla Walla, MV Washington State Ferries vessels 1972 ships Ships built in Seattle