The historic Tourist No. 2, a former Columbia River ferry built in the 1920s, capsized at a dock near downtown Thursday.
Good Samaritan boats arrived to try to help contain some of the fuel that spilled from the vessel as the smell of diesel filled the air. An orange containment boom was placed around the ferry later that day with oil spill cleanup beginning Friday.
A containment boom was placed around the Tourist No. 2.
Lissa Brewer/The Astorian
Donald Anderson, chief marine science technician with the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Columbia River, said the Coast Guard has been in touch with Christian Lint, the vessel’s owner. The scope of the potential pollution threat was not known.
The ferry was leaning deep to one side and was not in the way of any ship traffic, Anderson noted.
Lint could not be reached for comment.
Bill Wechter, the owner of Coastal Towing and Salvage, was one of the boat operators who responded when the ferry began to sink. He put out material to absorb the diesel that was, he said, “coming out in gallons” from the Tourist No. 2.
“I just didn’t want all that oil going out in the river,” he said.
Wechter estimates it will easily cost Lint tens of thousands of dollars to deal with the ferry cleanup and removal, and it is unlikely the Tourist No. 2 can be salvaged now that saltwater has damaged the vessel’s engine and electrical systems.
The Tourist No. 2 once carried people and cars back and forth across the river before the Astoria Bridge was built in 1966.
The vessel returned to Astoria in 2016 when a group of locals hoped it could be turned into a sort of floating museum and host events. The campaign to restore the ferry included Dulcye Taylor, the owner of Old Town Framing Co. who was a leader in the Astoria Downtown Historic District Association, Cindy Price, an Astoria planning commissioner who has served on the City Council, and Robert “Jake” Jacob, the late hotel developer and entrepreneur.
After an unsuccessful attempt by the group to raise money for the project, Lint abruptly left moorage at Pier 39 and moved the vessel to pilings near the Sixth Street viewing platform in 2020. He listed the vessel for sale in 2021.
