MV Taku

MV Taku
History
Name: Taku
Namesake: Taku Glacier, Juneau, Alaska
Owner: Alaska Marine Highway System
Port of registry:  United States
Builder: Puget Sound Bridge & Dry Dock Company, Seattle, Washington
Cost: $4.5 Million USD[1]
Launched: 1963[2]
Commissioned: 1963
Identification:
Status: Retired, to be sold or scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type: Malaspina-class mainline ferry
Tonnage: 2,625 Domestic 7,302 International[2]
Displacement: 4,283 long tons (4,352 t)[2]
Length: 352 ft (107 m)[2]
Beam: 74 ft (23 m)[2]
Draft: 16 ft 11 in (5.16 m)[2]
Decks: One vehicle deck, three passenger decks [3]
Ramps: Aft, port, and starboard ro-ro loading
Installed power: Two 4,000 hp MaK Diesel engines [3]
Speed: 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph)[2]
Capacity:
  • 370 passengers
  • 69 vehicles[2]
Crew: 42[2]

M/V Taku is a Malaspina-class mainline vessel built for the Alaska Marine Highway System. The ship has been retired and is pending sale or scrapping.

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 and was in service steadily until the summer of 2015 when she was laid up due to budget considerations.[4][5] The AMHS subsequently announced that it would retire the vessel in preparation for sale or scrapping.[6]

Role

As a mainline ferry, Taku served the larger of the inside passage communities (such as Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Sitka), its route primarily stays 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 M/V LeConte hit a rock and went into dry dock.

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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Vessel Profiles, M/V Taku
  3. 1 2 Welcome Aboard
  4. ↑ Westmoreland, Charles (13 May 2015). "AMHS ferry Taku beached for the summer". Juneau Empire. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Bowman, Nick (13 September 2015). Juneau Empire http://juneauempire.com/state/2015-10-12/amhs-may-explore-selling-taku-ferry. Retrieved 13 September 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ AMHS focus of SE Conference. Bowman, Nick. Ketchikan Daily News, 25 February 2017

References

  • Cohen, Stan. (1997). Highway on the Sea: A Pictorial History of the Alaska Marine Highway System. Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 0-929521-87-0. 
  • "Vessel Profiles". Alaska Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on March 30, 2013. Retrieved January 26, 2012. 
  • Welcome Aboard! M/V Taku. Alaska Marine Highway pamphlet. 
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