Kalakala

(Risawoleska RI-17)

Service: Built as the ferry Peralta for the Key Transit Co operating on San Francisco Bay, serving from 1927-33. On 6 May 1933 her superstructure was burned out as the result of an arson fire at the terminal where she was moored. The hull was still intact and on 12 October 1933 she was sold to the Puget Sound Navigation Co for rebuilding. Her new superstructure was constructed in a very streamlined "Art Deco" style at the Lake Washington Shipyard, Houghton, Washington. She reentered service on Puget Sound 3 July 1935 as the Kalakala. She remained in service into 1967, with particularly heavy usage during World War II ferrying workers from Seattle to the naval shipyard at Bremerton. After completing her final run on 2 October 1967, she was sold to a seafood processing company and towed to Alaska to work as a factory ship, and went through a series of owners at different ports, ending up beached at Kodiak. Her last owner having gone bankrupt, in 1982 the State of Alaska assumed ownership, later selling her to the Cit of Kodiak in 1986. A preservation group acquired her, refloated her, and had her towed back to Puget Sound in 1998. Unfortunately, restoration efforts have stalled; she currently resides in Tacoma, hopefully still to become a museum in the future.