MV Taku

Last updated
MV Taku BW.jpg
MV Taku
History
NameTaku
Namesake Taku Glacier, Juneau, Alaska
Owner Flag of Alaska.svg Alaska Marine Highway System
Port of registryFlag of the United States.svg  United States
BuilderPuget Sound Bridge & Dry Dock Company, Seattle, Washington
Cost$4.5 Million USD [1]
Launched2 July 1962 [2]
Commissioned1963
Identification
FateScrapped 21 April 2018
General characteristics
Class and type Malaspina-class mainline ferry
Tonnage2,625 Domestic 7,302 International[ clarification needed ] [3]
Displacement4,283 long tons (4,352 t) [3]
Length352 ft (107 m) [3]
Beam74 ft (23 m) [3]
Draft16 ft 11 in (5.16 m) [3]
DecksOne vehicle deck, three passenger decks [4]
RampsAft, port, and starboard ro-ro loading
Installed powerTwo 4,000 hp MaK Diesel engines [4]
Speed16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph) [3]
Capacity
  • 370 passengers
  • 69 vehicles [3]
Crew42 [3]

M/V Taku is a Malaspina-class mainline vessel built for the Alaska Marine Highway System. The ship has been retired and was sold to a Dubai-based company for $171,000. [5] The owner sought to sell the ferry internationally, and was unsuccessful, and it was last seen beached in Alang, India, to be scrapped.

Contents

History

Designed by Philip F. Spaulding & Associates, constructed in 1963 by the Puget Sound Bridge & Dry Dock Company in Seattle, Washington, [1] the M/V Taku is named after Taku Glacier which is located just southeast of Juneau, Alaska, and has been in the ferry system for over forty years. In 1981, the Taku received a major refurbishment[ citation needed ] and was in service steadily until the summer of 2015 when she was laid up due to budget considerations. [6] [7] The AMHS subsequently announced that it would retire the vessel in preparation for sale or scrapping. [8]

Role

As a mainline ferry, Taku served the larger of the inside passage communities (such as Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Sitka), its route primarily stayed between Ketchikan and Skagway in Southeast Alaska.

The M/V Taku was the largest of the three AMHS vessels able to serve the communities of Hoonah and Kake and because of this served as a critical component of providing transportation out of Hoonah and Kake after the "milk run" ferry, the MV LeConte hit a rock and went into dry dock.[ citation needed ]

Amenities

The Taku's amenities included a hot-food cafeteria; bar; solarium; forward, aft, recliner, movie, and business lounges; gift shop; 8 four-berth cabins; and 36 two-berth cabins.

Accidents and Incidents

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Cohen (1994), p. 16
  2. "Taku (5351052)" . Miramar Ship Index . Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Vessel Profiles, M/V Taku
  4. 1 2 Welcome Aboard
  5. Brooks, James (2018-01-23). "'Bittersweet for Alaska': Beloved ferry Taku just sold to a Dubai company". Juneau Empire. Juneau Empire. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  6. Westmoreland, Charles (13 May 2015). "AMHS ferry Taku beached for the summer". Juneau Empire. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  7. Bowman, Nick (13 September 2015). "AMHS may explore selling Taku ferry". Juneau Empire. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  8. AMHS focus of SE Conference. Bowman, Nick. Ketchikan Daily News , 25 February 2017

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southeast Alaska</span> Region of Alaska

Southeast Alaska, often abbreviated to Southeast or Southeastern, and sometimes called the Alaska(n) Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The majority of Southeast Alaska's area is part of the Tongass National Forest, the United States' largest national forest. In many places, the international border runs along the crest of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains. The region is noted for its scenery and mild, rainy climate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ketchikan, Alaska</span> City in Alaska, United States

Ketchikan is a city in and the borough seat of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough of Alaska. It is the state's southeasternmost major settlement. Downtown Ketchikan is a National Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoonah, Alaska</span> City in Alaska, United States

Hoonah is a largely Tlingit community on Chichagof Island, located in Alaska's panhandle in the southeast region of the state. It is 30 miles (48 km) west of Juneau, across the Alaskan Inside Passage. Hoonah is the only first-class city on Chichagof Island, the 109th-largest island in the world and the 5th-largest island in the U.S. At the 2020 census the population was 931, up from 760 in 2010. In the summer the population can swell to over 1,300 depending on fishing, boating, hiking and hunting conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alaska Marine Highway</span> Ferry system serving the U.S. state of Alaska

The Alaska Marine Highway (AMH) or the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) is a ferry service operated by the U.S. state of Alaska. It has its headquarters in Ketchikan, Alaska.

MV <i>LeConte</i>

MV LeConte is a feeder vessel for the Alaska Marine Highway System, built in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin in 1973 and commissioned in 1974 by Alaska's ferry system. LeConte is the older sister ship to M/V Aurora, and both serve as feeder vessels that pick up passengers in small communities such as Hoonah and take them to larger regional communities.

MV <i>Aurora</i> (1977)

MV Aurora is a feeder vessel for the Alaska Marine Highway System, built in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin in 1977 by Peterson Shipbuilders and commissioned by the Alaska Marine Highway System the same year.

MV <i>Chenega</i>

M/V Chenega is a catamaran ferry built by Derecktor Shipyards in Bridgeport, Connecticut for the Alaska Marine Highway System entering service 2005. After being laid up in 2017, in March 2021 it was sold by the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities to Servicios y Concesiones Maritimas Ibicencas along with sister ship MV Fairweather for service between Spain and Ibiza.

MV <i>Fairweather</i>

MV Fairweather is a catamaran ferry built by Derecktor Shipyards in Bridgeport, Connecticut for the Alaska Marine Highway System entering service 2004. After being laid up since 2019, in March 2021 it was sold to Servicios y Concesiones Maritimas Ibicencas for service between Mallorca and Menorca.

MV <i>Malaspina</i>

MV Malaspina, colloquially known as the Mal, is a mainline ROPAX ferry and the original Malaspina-class vessel for the Alaska Marine Highway System. Malaspina is named after the Malaspina Glacier, which, in turn, is named after Captain Don Alessandro Malaspina, an Italian navigator and explorer who explored the northwest coast of North America in 1791. Malaspina is nearly identical to her sister ship, MV Matanuska.

MV <i>Matanuska</i>

MV Matanuska, colloquially known as the Mat, is a mainline Malaspina-class ferry vessel operated by the Alaska Marine Highway System.

MV <i>Columbia</i>

The M/V Columbia is a mainline ferry vessel for the Alaska Marine Highway System.

MV <i>Kennicott</i>

M/V Kennicott is a mainline ferry vessel for the Alaska Marine Highway System.

MV <i>Lituya</i>

MV Lituya is a shuttle ferry operated by the Alaska Marine Highway System. Her route connects Metlakatla on Annette Island to Ketchikan.

MV <i>Tustumena</i>

M/V Tustumena is a mainline ferry vessel for the Alaska Marine Highway System.

The Inter-Island Ferry Authority (IFA) is a ferry service in the U.S. state of Alaska with its headquarters in Hollis, Alaska on Prince of Wales Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alaska Route 7</span> Highway in Alaska

Alaska Route 7 is a state highway in the Alaska Panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It consists of four unconnected pieces, serving some of the Panhandle communities at which the Alaska Marine Highway ferries stop, and connecting to the Alaska Highway in Yukon via the Haines Highway.

MV <i>Wickersham</i>

The MV Wickersham was a mainline ferry vessel for the Alaska Marine Highway. Wickersham was the second vessel, after the MV Chilkat, in the Alaska Marine Highway fleet to not have been constructed specifically for AMHS, but was rather acquired for from the Stena Line, where it was known as the Stena Britannica and served the Kiel, Germany–Gothenburg, Sweden route. Constructed just one year prior to its purchase by AMHS in April 1968, her arrival and status as an "oceangoing" vessel allowed AMHS to expand the southern terminus of its route system south to Washington and the Port of Seattle.

Alaska Coastal Airlines was an airline in the United States. It was formed in 1939 as a result of the merger of Alaska Air Transport and Marine Airways. On April 1, 1962, Alaska Coastal Airlines merged with Ellis Air Lines, trading for a while as Alaska Coastal-Ellis Airlines. Alaska Coastal Airlines was taken over by Alaska Airlines in April 1968.

The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) is a department within the government of Alaska. Its headquarters are in Alaska's capital city, Juneau. The mission of Alaska DOT&PF is to "Keep Alaska Moving through service and infrastructure."

MV <i>Tazlina</i>

MV Tazlina is a ferry operated by the Alaska Marine Highway System. It began serving Southeast Alaska Communities in 2019.

References