Alaska Ferry Design

[Scott]

I found it interesting, reading through the Alaska ferry book "Highway on the Sea", that many of Alaska's ferries were designed by Philip Spaudling who designed the Coho and Sidney/V-class ferries. And looking at ferries like the Malaspina, Taku, Matanuska, and even the Aurora and Le Conte, you can definitely see the resemblance to the Coho and the V-class ships. Below are a few photos from the official Alaska ferry site:



Matanuska



Malaspina

Le Conte

[Curtis]

All of Spaulding's Ferries look to be designed the same way. And still today they run these waters looking about as modern as the ships of today. The Taku, Malaspina, and Matanuska are basically the Coho only with the extra deck between the car deck and the main passenger deck. The Le Conte and Aurora look like small versions of the Coho.

[Scott]

I also found it interesting that the Matanuska and Malaspina were stretched in 1968 and 1972 respectively. Right around the same time (maybe even before?) BC Ferries did the same to some of their Spaulding-designed vessels.

[Northern Exploration]

I have always liked the dark hull and design of the ferries. There is a classic look to them that doesn't look too outdated.