Letters

Where’s Wawona - Drydock or Landfill?

Six years ago I watched Steve Rodriguez tow the

Kalakala out of Lake Union in search of a safe harbor. I thought I saw a flicker of life when the old ferry shifted and moved, but time will tell about that. Good luck to Steve Rodriguez.

Now it’s been 13 months since the City of Seattle

evicted the derelict that used to be the sailing ship Wawona from its berth in South Lake Union. No question about any life flickering in that old hulk—she was tired and ready to sleep forever. In the blah-blah-blah from the mayor’s office that morning about the best allocation of resources et cetera, et cetera, they promised to move the Wawona to a drydock for careful deconstruction yadda, yadda, yadda to better understand and preserve selected component parts… you get the picture. Mostly the City wanted to get that old hulk out of their new software, high tech playground and would have promised anything to make it happen. So what happened with that? I called and emailed Northwest Seaport a few times to ask what was the current disposition of the Wawona, but never got an answer. Do any of your readers know?Was drydock a City euphemism for landfill?

Smooth sailing, Douglas Pratt Bertram 31, Amberjack

You’re partly right. According to David Erskin at the Center

48° NORTH, MAY 2010 PAGE 12

for Wooden Boats, some of her is in a landfill in Arlington, Oregon, but only after pieces of historic significance was saved; rudder, wheel, examples of construction technique, etc. These artifacts are in storage at Northwest Seaport’s area at Sand Point, to be displayed in the new Museum of History and Industry when it moves. The end of the summary of “Wawona’s” history on Northwest Seaport’s (www.nwseaport.org/wawona.html) website states:

“…the Wawona eventually degraded beyond repair. After conferring with many experts in the maritime heritage field, locally and across the nation, Northwest Seaport created a plan to preserve key artifacts from the vessel. In March, 2009, the vessel was carefully deconstructed in a local shipyard and artifacts (including wooden knees, beams, and paneling) removed for storage and later display in on-land exhibits and memorials.” Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98