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7. Midshipman Mason

I need to say something about ferries. If for no other reason than I covered so many miles aboard them on my way north. They also have a special fascination for me. I am a former Navy man and have made my living in the employ of various maritime organizations from time to time. In addition, I have had a long standing interest in things nautical or marine, and I have owned several boats in the past.

I come from a state which long ago gave up any dependence on ferries in favor of bridges. In California there are, at present, a few commute ferries operating on San Francisco Bay for foot passengers only, but the large vehicle ferries are long gone. This is not just a result of California’s superb highway system, it also has to do with geography. California (and Oregon) are much more contiguous than Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska.

To the best of my recollection, I was a passenger on ten different ferries in three different ferry systems as I followed the Sun north. Those that I rode in the Washington State system were for the most part short haul or commute carriers. Alaska probably has the most extensive ferry system in the world and I have only experienced a small portion of it. In fact, Alaska has several distinct ferry systems serving geographically separated areas of the state.

The ferry that impressed me the most, however, was the QUEEN OF THE NORTH in the B.C. system which I took from Port Hardy on the northern end of Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert near the border with Alaska. A trip of about fifteen hours. A large ferry the QUEEN was nicely appointed, had live entertainment on board, and the food was superior.

I did most of this ferry travel during the month of May. A month or two before the peak summer traffic. The passengers were divided into two main categories, the younger set who occupied the solarium back aft, and the older set who roughed it in the forward observation lounge. The solarium, a greenhouse with the after end open, was very much a fresh air accommodation and tents were often pitched right on deck. Some of the ferries had radiant heaters installed in the solarium overhead. I had about twenty years on most of the solarium dwellers and felt a little out of place there. Most of the folks in the forward observation lounge had about twenty years on me and the conversation tended toward the nature of their retirement plan, their grandchildren, and the type of motor home they were driving. I didn’t feel that was my place either. There were not many people in my age group.

I spent time in both places, but I also discovered that there was usually a reclining lounge amidships. The reclining lounge must have been for my age. It was uncrowded and quiet. People were writing, reading or sleeping. The other two locations tended to be conversation oriented. I became a midshipman.

I had never been a midshipman before. Even though I was at one time an officer in the U.S. Navy, I hadn’t attended the Naval Academy where that term is used. I received my commission from the Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, where we were known as Officer Candidates. So, at the age of forty-eight I fancied myself the world’s oldest midshipman.

The reclining chairs were not that comfortable. I found it almost impossible to actually sleep in one. In fact, late at night people would lay on the floor between the chairs rather than try to sleep in them. Maybe they made them that way on purpose. If they were really comfortable to sleep in people might not rent the few cabins which were available.

The scenery was everything that the travel guide says it is. The mountains plunge steeply down to the water, and because the passages  are often quite narrow, the land is near at hand. Small waterfalls and cataracts descend abruptly from considerable heights, and wildlife can be easily seen on the shore. One passage called the Wrangle Narrows was particularly fascinating to a former navigator like me. It is on the approach to Petersburg, Alaska from the south and it is narrow. Not only is it full of dogleg bends and rocky little islands that seem to reach out for the vessel, but we went through it just as the Sun was setting and there was a rather apparent current running. I never had to do any piloting half so exacting as that during my tour with Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club. It made me feel humble . . . like a midshipman should.

Much of the time that I was on the ferries the weather was overcast and misting, but even so, the visual menu was impressive. It appears as if the whole area is a submerged mountain chain with the tops of the mountains forming the many steep islands. Often when the Sun was low in the northern sky, the lighting gave the illusion of gliding along suspended between two planes. The surface of the water was perhaps sixty feet below eye level and the overcast ceiling was not much farther above. This illusion is enhanced by the smoothness of the water. It’s more lake like than ocean. The mountains rising from below, pierce the surface of the water, pass through your world, and disappear up through the overcast. At twilight you could almost imagine that this was a strange world on some distant planet.

This unearthly, two dimensional quality reminded me of something, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Finally, it dawned on me. This is how it must feel to be a microbe suspended in a thin medium between two layers of glass ready to be examined under a microscope by some immense, unseen presence.

Tags: Alaskan Ferries, Inside Passage, Officer Candidates, QUEEN OF THE NORTH, Wrangle Narrows

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