🎂 HAPPY 65th BIRTHDAY 🎂

This 1951 brochure
 announced 19 ferries 
that were included in the 
purchase to establish the world's
largest ferry system.
On the inside page of the folder,
the State listed the purchase 
cost at $6,800,000.
Courtesy of historian R.R. Burke

Captain Alex M. Peabody (L) six years after
the State took over Puget Sound Navigation Co.
In this photo, he is down from BC to attend a
party given by the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society. 
The honoree was WSF Senior Master Captain Louis Van Bogaert on
his retirement after sailing on the Sound for 54 years. 
Original 1957 dated photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

In the early morning darkness sixty-five years ago at Colman Dock, Capt. Alex M. Peabody, the gentleman in the photo above, President of Puget Sound Navigation Co, moved from his paneled office to a new one on Pier 53, the next dock to the north. Mr. Floyd McDowell moved in to manage the ferries for Washington State, a change that went from private ownership to public operation of the ferry system. 

M.V. ENETAI
Last ferry to sail under the flag of
Puget Sound Navigation Co.
Click to enlarge.
Two photos from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

      The Enetai's early morning arrival in Bremerton marked the end of the PSNC's 53 years of serving Puget Sound points. The formal changeover was 3 AM Friday morning, 1 June 1951. At that time the ticket sellers turned over the cash and any new cash after that time went instead to WA State. 
      With the brightness of the morning, the crews began painting green over the orange colored stacks of the vessels.
      The first ferry to cast off from the dock, under the Washington State flag, was the 1930 wood ferry, the VASHON, that loaded at Lofall headed for South Point. "Old Reliable" served until she was retired in 1980.

M.V. VASHON
Built on Lake Washington, Seattle, 1930.
Photo by Smith's Scenic Views, Tacoma, WA.
From the archives of S.P.H.S.©

      Text: Ross Cunningham, Associate Editor,  Seattle Times. 27 May 1951.