Re: Alaska Marine Highway, and the future of our ferry system (DOT, yearly “Scoping Plan” report, Wrangell Sentinel Oct. 27, 2011.)
I didn’t know that DOT had a yearly “scoping plan.” I have lived in Alaska since 1963, when our ferries first started. I was here, when they enlarged our fleet so as to get our ferry service to our Indian villages, and our logging camps, so that all of us who lived in outlying towns would have access to our ferry system.
I worked for the ferry system for many years, and I watched as DOT did less and less maintenance on our ships. Every winter as our ships got ready to go into dry-dock, our A and B crew engineer on each ship would turn in their “rap” sheet to DOT stating the maintenance needed for each ship. The “rap” sheet was a long yellow sheet of necessary repairs for each ship, compiled by the engineers on each ship. It consisted of a full sheet of repairs and every winter for many years, DOT crossed out the full sheet of repairs, except for about the last four or five repairs, saying they weren’t necessary.
I worked on the Matanuska, when she backed into the dock in Bellingham, Wash. We had a new skipper that trip, and he was not aware that you had to “jiggle” the reverse gear to get it out of reverse. A crane fell onto our ship, crushing several cars, and a woman had her legs crushed. Since then, no one is allowed below decks until the ship is secured at the dock. There were many other incidents through the years, not because of our captain’s qualifications, but more because our maintenance had not been done on any of our ships for years. Talk to our retired engineers and other officers. The excuse was that AMHS couldn’t afford the repairs. Now, look at all the ships DOT has bought and are not in service, and they docks the have had to build in various places that have not been in use for years.
Also when the first fast ferry designs were being shown in Juneau, a new officer was being shown the new route they were to use, and was told that DOT would be skipping some ports. When the officer asked how their people would be able to get off their islands, someone replied “who cares.” I was deadheading and riding up on the bridge and he told the other officers that he didn’t want to work for this system.
When the fast ferry Fairweather was on her first run into Sitka she picked up a deadhead (log), the size of a basketball, and was dead in the water for several hours with several divers trying to chip her out. That was in April, in rough weather. Another time the Fairweather was leaving Skagway in February, in nasty weather, with 164 passengers aboard. She almost did not make it to Juneau, according to the reports of many passengers, as the wind and water tossed her up and down and sideways.
These “fast” ferries are double hulled catamarans, with very little ballast to hold them down in the water, therefore, the horrendous weather we have in Southeast Alaska, can have gusts of wind that will pick these ships up and throw them around, and overturn them. The only time they are really safe is when there is no wind and a sunny day. Perfect for the tourists that administration wants to cater to, but definitely not for the Alaskans that live here.
There are many other incidents, which should be investigated, regarding the workings of the administration. Don’t take my word for all of this, perhaps check with some of our retired engineers, and other officers, before we let DOT retire our ships and purchase a fleet of fast ferries for tourism.
One more thing should be considered - how will we get to Juneau from Wrangell? You would have to take a ferry to South Mitkof Island, then drive to Petersburg, ($40 cab fare), ferry across the Wrangell Narrows, take highway 7 to Kake, catch the ferry to Angoon, and then take a ferry to Juneau. Who pays for all these little “shuttle” ferries?
What about our Bellingham run? We have families here that travel south for medical, service men and women who travel via our ferries to and from Alaska, being transferred here with their families. Many go to Kodiak, therefore we need the gulf run also.
“Our ferries are too costly to run you say?” Has everyone in administration forgotten that this is “our highway?”
Well, administration has done a lousy job of taking care of our highway.
But, you haven’t forgotten to build and maintain the roads in interior have you? And now you want to build another bridge for better access to downtown Anchorage, from the Palmer Wasilla area, and widen the highway in that area also.
Well you seem to forget that Southeastern Alaska is part of Alaska too. We may not be as large as Anchorage, and for a long time now we may have been the forgotten part of Alaska so we feel that now is our turn to get the maintenance on our ferries and roads.
As you say, our ferries will last another 14 years or so. How about refurbishing, the ones we have left, you know new engines, new hulls, and paint, and all the maintenance you have neglected for all the years. Let Anchorage wait their turn.
I say we go back to the way our ferries will benefit all of us in SE Alaska.
Jeanne Lindley
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