MV Illahee

MV Illahee was a Steel Electric-class ferry operated by Washington State Ferries.

MV Illahee
History
Name	1927-1940: Lake Tahoe 1940-2009: Illahee
Owner	1927-1940: Southern Pacific-Golden Gate Ferries Ltd 1940-1951: Puget Sound Navigation Company 1951-2009: WSDOT
Operator	1927-1940: Southern Pacific-Golden Gate Ferries Ltd 1940-1951: Black Ball Line 1951-2007: Washington State Ferries
Port of registry	Seattle, Washington USA
Ordered	September 18, 1926
Builder	Moore Dry Dock Company, Oakland, California
Completed	Built: 1927 First Refit: 1958 Second Refit: 1986
In service	1927
Out of service	November 20, 2007
Identification	IMO number: 8836091 Official Number: 226588 Call sign: WXT9366
Fate	Scrapped in 2009, Ensenada, Mexico
General characteristics
Class & type	Steel Electric-class auto/passenger ferry
Length	256 ft 2 in (78 m)
Beam	73 ft 10 in (22.5 m)
Draft	12 ft 9 in (3.9 m)
Deck clearance	12 ft 7 in (3.8 m)
Installed power	Total 2,896 hp (2,160 kW) from 2 x diesel-electric engines
Speed	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Capacity	616 passengers 59 vehicles (max 24 commercial)[1]

Originally built as MV Lake Tahoe in Oakland, California for the Southern Pacific Railroad, she started out serving on SP's Golden Gate Ferries subsidiary on San Francisco Bay. She was purchased by the Puget Sound Navigation Company in 1940, and she was moved to Puget Sound and renamed Illahee until Washington State Ferries acquired and took over operations in 1951.^[2]

She was serving on the inter-island route in the San Juan Islands when the entire Steel Electric class was withdrawn from service on November 20, 2007^[3] due to hull corrosion issues.

In the summer of 2009, Illahee and her sisters were sold to Eco Planet Recycling, Inc. of Chula Vista, California. In August 2009 the ferry was towed out of Eagle Harbor and was scrapped in Ensenada, Mexico.^[4]