Below Decks

The Engine Room

Below decks today remains a direct-drive diesel engine that was once the largest ever built. The 3,000 horsepower Busch-Sulzer was the largest ever installed in a ferry. The engine was built by the Busch-Sulzer company in St. Louis. Augie Busch, of beer-making fame, had kept his brewery workforce employed during prohibition by making diesel engines. Of the thirteen identical engines built at the same time, the Kalakala has the only one installed in a ship.

The KALAKALA's massive Busch-Sulzer engine
Asahel Curtis Photograph - Washington State Historical Society

The engine's crank shaft held the record for the longest in North America. However, it is suspected that the engine and crank shaft may have been poorly aligned. This may have been the culprit for her teeth-rattling vibration. Part of the problem was her propeller. After having her original four-blade prop replaced with a five-blade propeller in 1956, the vibration on the ferry was reduced by a substantial 40%.

Some engineers feel that the shape of the hull itself contributed to the shaking. When the Kalakala started her journey home in 1998 across the Gulf of Alaska, at the end of tow line, Peter Bevis reports feeling the vessel start to shake and shimmy as she got up to speed. "She was excited to be going home," he recalls.

Washington State Ferries followed in the steps of Puget Sound Navigation when it came to the engine room: it was absolutely spotless from stem to stern. The engine was kept cleaned and well maintained, walkways and stairs were always painted, and there was no debris anywhere to be seen.

When she first went to Alaska as a cannery, she operated under her own power until 1970 when a piston problem forced a decision to repair her or make her a stationary object. it was her owners' decision to leave the engine broken and beach the ferry. Not used for any part of the cannery processes, the engine room fell into silent disrepair.

Painstaking efforts by volunteers have been made to scrape, clean, and paint the engine. Years of neglect have been taken off, and engine will once again look as it did when the ferry was in service. An important piece of history, the massive engine will be a highlight of the vessel tours.

In 2001, the Kalakala Foundation was contacted by Logan Light and Power in Logan, Utah. They had a nearly identical 1934 Busch-Sulzer diesel engine that was due to be scrapped. They had stumbled across the Foundation's web site and called to see if they wanted the parts. Bevis lept into action and spent the following weeks salvaging 70,000 pounds of parts, including six gigantic pistons - identical to those on the Kalakala.

It is the dream of many that someday the Kalakala will operate under her own power again. The motor heads who work on the engine say it could become a reality. The final deciding factor will be the hull inspection that will occur during dry dock. Nevertheless, the idea of taking her out for spin someday continues to stir the imagination!

The Tap Room

One of the most unique design features of the Kalakala was her below decks tap room - located just aft of the engine room. While Mrs. Peabody had insisted on having a ladies lounge on the aft passenger deck, Captain Peabody had a men's lounge installed just under the car deck in the stern.

The stairway to the tap room was located just underneath the aft grand staircase. (It has since been removed.) The narrow stairs lead down to a room located in the hull, just about at waterline level. While no known pictures of the tap room have been located, it was reported that there was a bar along one side, and a circular Art Deco bench in the center of the room.

Just aft of the tap room was a changing room, and in the aft-most part of the hull were the men's showers. The entire space was designed to cater to the Navy Yard workers who commuted to work from Seattle. The tap room was a men's santuary, where a man could clean up and knock back a beer (or two) before stepping off the ferry in Seattle to wife and family.

The reality of the tap room, however, turned out to be quite different. After the outbreak of World War II, the pressures and uncertainties of wartime, coupled with the volume of sailors and young recruits turned the tap room into a rowdy, brawling den of smokey chaos. The Black Ball line shut down the tap room and showers forever in the early 1940's. Most passengers never knew it was ever there, however, intrepid commuters would sometimes slip below decks to be shaken to sleep on the circular bench of the darkened tap room as the Kalakala rattled to Seattle.

Today, the tap room is empty and fixtures and showers are gone. A single teak grate from the showers is all that remains, along with the locations of the drains in the decking.