M/V Kennicott

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Career

Commissioned:	1998
Classification:	Unknown
Home Port:	Ketchikan
Decommissioned:	Currently active
Fate:	Currently active
General Characteristics
Displacement:	Unknown
Length:	382 ft (116 m)
Beam:	85 ft (26 m)
Draught:	17 ft 6 inches
Horsepower:	12,350
Speed:	16.75 knots
Capacity:	Passengers, 748 Automobiles, 80
Access:	Aft, port, and starboard ro-ro loading One vehicle deck
Named After:	Kennicott Glacier in the Wrangell Mountains

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

Constructed in 1998 by the Halter Marine Group in Gulfport, Mississippi, the M/V Kennicott has been one of the most vital vessels to the Alaska ferry system since its inception. It is nine-deck, ocean certified vessel and is also able to serve as a command and logistics vessel in the event of disaster or oil spill. The ferry system, taking advantage of her ocean-going status, sends the vessel on a monthly trans-Gulf of Alaska ("cross-gulf") voyage beginning in Juneau and concluding in Whittier. On this voyage, the Kennicott is able to provide service to the isolated Gulf of Alaska community of Yakutat and is the only vessel able to do so. The cross-gulf voyages are very popular and quite often sold out. The Kennicott also serves as a mainline ferry beginning its inside passage voyages in either Bellingham, Washington or Prince Rupert, British Columbia and, when not continuing on to a cross-gulf voyage, running up to the Alaskan Panhandle community of Skagway and stopping in communities along the way.

[edit] Trivia

The Kennicott's amenities include a hot-food cafeteria; cocktail lounge and bar; solarium; forward, aft, movie, and business lounges; gift shop; 51 four-berth cabins; and 58 two-berth cabins.
The Kennicott and the M/V Tustumena are the Alaska Marine Highway's only accredited ocean-going vessels.
The aft portion of the Kennicott appears bloated because there is a car elevator built into the superstructure. The elevator is used in communities where the tides make it dangerous to load directly onto the car deck. While its elevator is external, the Tustumena is the only other ferry with this feature.