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| Treasure Seeker on a balmy St. Thomas day. |
Yesterday I received two pieces of email with information on the former island ferry C.G. Richter, now mored alongside a harbor boulevard in Charlotte Amalie Harbour, St. Thomas as the Treasure Seeker. It was spotted by Washington Island property owner and cruise ship passenger Charlie Imig who forwarded the above photo. Charlie recognized the Walter Haertel designed hull under disguise of pirate facade and tomato-red paint. The other pertinent email came from David Wright in Washington state, who forwarded a link with photos of the Treasure Seeker from a different angle.
Ten years ago, this ferry was snorting diesel and bucking February ice in the Door passage, making the necessary trip to the mainland and back. The single Cummins K-19 (500 hp) that powers the Treasure Seeker today worked hard to keep the propeller turning through chunks of ice, maintaining way through fields that sometimes were sliding toward the open lake. Inside the cabin, passengers visited elbow-to-elbow as the boat sometimes ran freely in open water and other times slowed in deep, rugged ridges, or stews of fine, compressed ice. Nostalgia comes in many forms, and anyone who thinks of the good old days on board the C.G. Richter will also recall there were many trips that either took hours, or were cancelled, due to overwhelming ice conditions.
Well, you can relive such days in your short sleeves if you sign on to one of the Treasure Seeker's cruises around the harbor to drink rum and cokes and play pirate before going back to the comfort of your cruise ship. The Hixon family, after fits and starts and a Bahamian grounding that took off the rudder and anchor, motored the final leg in late 2011 from the Puerto Rican shipyard, where repairs were undertaken, to St. Thomas. (See photos in blog link below.)
Arni, if he were still around, would caution about the exposure to the concrete quay and apparent lack of large fenders. Its a tough hull, and so we'll wait for more follow-ups to learn how its doing, both pier side and underway with would-be pirates in charge. It's big, it's red and it's waiting for the next cruise ship to pull in with customers for a pirate ship ride.
For more photos, including some shots of the former Washington Island ferry sitting on blocks in the Puerto Rico shipyard, use this link:
http://kerryhucul.com/2011/11/17/treasure-seeker-in-st-thomas/
Meanwhile, here's what it looked like a decade or more back in time. - Dick Purinton
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| Life as a ferry: A load of groceries for the island on board Mann's Store truck. |
