1937: The Launch of a Chesapeake Bay Ferry

December 11, 1937

The ferry Gov. Harry W. Nice was launched in Baltimore, Maryland. This ferry, which had been built by the Maryland Drydock Company, was named after the state’s incumbent governor. His wife Edna Viola Amos Nice, as a matter of fact, was the one who christened the vessel. 

The Gov. Harry W. Nice ferry could accommodate up to 730 passengers and 65 motor vehicles. During the spring after her launch, the ferry was delivered to the Clairborne-Annapolis Company. This company, which made its debut in 1919, ran both passenger and automobile ferry service across the Chesapeake Bay between Maryland’s Western and Eastern Shores. The Gov. Harry W. Nice was specifically put to use transporting people and vehicles between the state capital of Annapolis on the western side and the Eastern Shore community of Matapeake on Kent Island. 

This vessel remained in service along that route for well over a decade. She was sold to Washington State Ferries in 1951. (The Clairborne-Annapolis Ferry Company’s own shuttle service, incidentally, came to an end the following year with the opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.) The ferry was renamed the Olympic and put to use along Puget Sound on the northwestern coast of Washington State. 

In 1997, the Olympic was purchased by a private owner who initially hoped to convert the ferry into a sightseeing vessel and museum. That idea did not pan out, so the vessel was handed over to Seattle’s Pacific Marine Foundation. This organization, in turn, sold the Olympic to another private owner sometime around 2010. The vessel is now moored at Ketron Island near the southern end of Puget Sound.  

Photo Credit: Bosco2944 (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Compdude123)

For more information on Chesapeake Bay Ferries, please check out https://easternshorebrent.com/2016/12/13/the-chesapeake-bay-ferries-1919-1952/