When I was home for Thanksgiving last year a dear friend and I were wandering around and saw this decommissioned ferry boat in the boat builder's marina. We were lingering there until dusk, wishing we could go on and check it out, and a man drove up in a car who ended up being the night watch. He was coming to trade places with the guy who was on the boat already, who we had seen walking loops on the passenger deck and tried to get the attention of. apparently there's a maritime requirement for vessels like that to always have someone present on board in case it starts sinking. The night watch invited us on for a tour and what followed was an absolutely radical experience.
Here are all the photos we took:
https://imgur.com/a/IByEf4u It was clear the watchmen had been doing this job for a while, because they seemed eager to host us. There were items in the booths around the loop of the passenger deck set up. as someone who has grown up taking a ferry boat to get home, it was fun to see what it was like in a passenger deck someone had set up camp in. They offered us drinks multiple times, and there was clearly a lot of snacks and alcohol everywhere in the galley. My friend and I were both under 21 at the time and politely declined.
They showed us down beneath the vehicle deck where the engine room and mechanical rooms are. This was very special to see because only engineers are allowed under the deck when the boat is active. The engine room had two large engines in it, which we were told were from old train engines from WWII. They had their "names" spray painted on them, Rose and Nadene. The guys even took us below all this to the very bottom of the ship, where the giant axel for the rudder was (I'm not a boat person so excuse my weak vocabulary). It was extremely eerie to be down there underneath the surface of the water.
The Evergreen State had many indicators of its age. It had only one vehicle deck, where most modern ferry boats have an upper and lower deck. Instead of custom chairs bolted to the floor in the passenger deck, there were loose metal chairs which I'm sure would be sliding all over during windy crossings. The galley was a full kitchen equipped for serving food that passengers would order from a menu. Most ferries nowadays just have an overpriced snack bar.
Hope you enjoyed this story and that you check out the photos. For some reason this old platform won't allow me to upload my jpeg images, hence the imgur link. Follow me on reddit (u/ShroomerMouse) or buddy me on here. I am looking for online friends to share pictures with
