The Man Who Sank Two Ferries
The Dystopian Beauty of Abandoned Relics
On a recent visit to Anderson Island in the state of Washington, we were driving around the island finding different (small) attractions when we rounded a corner and discovered the hulking remains of a partially submerged Car Ferry in the bay in front of us.
The ferry is what is left of the M/V Ocean City formerly of Ocean City, Maryland. Of course such a large, seemingly abandoned object drew my attention and when we returned to the house later that evening I began poking around the different corners of the internet for information on the Ferry.
The first couple of pieces of information were rather benign and not to be unexpected. Apparently the ferry service to Anderson Island (located on the South end of the Puget Sound) had been a private service for a number of years until the County Stepped in to run the ferries for the residents of a few small islands. One of the former Ferry operators, Mr. Tom Palmer, began exploring options to maintain an alternate ferry or a back up to the County’s ferry. Deciding on a used unit that had been scheduled to be scrapped in the early 90’s, he travelled to the East Coast and bought the former Ocean City, Maryland ferry (M/V Ocean City). Originally built in 1923, the ferry spanned 189 feet and carried up to 50 vehicles. Originally steam powered, it had been converted to Diesel Electric at some point and reportedly later converted to pure Diesel by Mr. Palmer in his efforts at revitalizing the craft.
To get the craft from the East Coast to Washington State, Mr. Palmer welded some bulkheads to the front of the ferry to act as barrier to storm surge and waves and began his journey sometime around 1991 or 1992 to Washington State through by way of the Panama Canal. Mr. Palmer battled storms all the way up the West Coast before finally arriving in the Puget Sound after an arduous 54 day sail.
Mr. Palmer then offered the ferry up to the county to act as a back up to the new ferry system that Pierce County, Wa was in the process of establishing. Deemed to not fit their needs, they dismissed Mr. Palmer’s offer. What happened next isn’t exactly clear but around 1993 Mr. Palmer (age 58) was interviewed where he outlined plans to build a mobile RV park that could take vacationing RV’rs up and down the Puget Sound. Mr. Palmer also dreamed about mobile wedding receptions in the future after an extensive renovation.
What is known is that in 1998 - a lawsuit was filed by Mr. Palmer’s neighbors on Anderson Island. They claimed that the rapidly deteriorating ferry was inhibiting sunlight to their property and was causing diminishing property values. The result of the lawsuit isn’t clear but the legality of parking the rusting hulk on tide flats owned by the Palmer family seemed to favor the owners of the Ocean City rather than the aggrieved neighboring family.
Over the years the M/V Ocean City languished in the muds of the Oro Bay on Anderson Island. One might imagine with age, comes wisdom but alas that is not what happened next. In 2010, the historic ferry that operated out of Bainbridge Island (in the northern Puget Sound) was purchased towed off of the island by none other than the same Mr. Tom Palmer, now of the nearby Ketron Island. While in tow southward to his Marina on Ketron Island, Mr. Palmer encountered some kind of distress and his ferry was foundered and sank to the shore in his Marina.
Perhaps at age 70, Mr. Palmer had the best of intentions, but wreckage of two abandoned ferries now lined the coasts of two separate islands in the Puget Sound. When family members are questioned nowadays about the two ferries, they simply shrug their shoulders and mutter “That’s Tom’s problem, not mine”. Today Tom is about 86 years old, I don’t imagine he’s in any position to clean his properties before the relentless march of time. I did find one of his quotes when interviewed about the 1998 lawsuit to be prophetic:
"Those are my tide lands. The ferry is there and that's where it's going to stay," - Tom Palmer, Seattle Times
Sources:
https://www.riveted-blog.com/2015/02/1928-ocean-city/
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19930826/1717814/moored-ferry-harbors-big-dreams-big-complaints----owner-calls-it-great-neighbors-call-it-folly
https://www.bainbridgereview.com/news/historic-ferry-taken-off-bainbridge-island/
https://kw3.com/ferry-anderson-island/