MV Coho
Encyclopedia

The M/V Coho is an auto ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

 operated by Black Ball Line
Puget Sound Navigation Company
The Puget Sound Navigation Company was founded by Joshua Green in 1913. It operated a fleet of steamboats and ferries on Puget Sound in Washington and the Georgia Strait in British Columbia...

. Black Ball owns and operates this single ferry between Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 and Port Angeles
Port Angeles, Washington
Port Angeles is a city in and the county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The population was 19,038 at the 2010 census. The area's harbor was dubbed Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles by Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza in 1791, but by the mid-19th century the name had...

, Washington.

Construction and design

The Coho was designed by Phillip F. Spaulding & Associates, of Seattle and is named after the coho salmon
Coho salmon
The Coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch, is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". It is the state animal of Chiba, Japan.-Description:...

 commonly found in the Pacific Northwest. The Coho was the first large vessel built on the West Coast in 20 years solely with private financing. The vessel was built by Puget Sound Bridge & Dry Dock
Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company
Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company , was a shipyard in Seattle, Washington on Harbor Island at the mouth of the Duwamish River. Founded in 1898 as the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company, the company that built Harbor Island, it was purchased by Lockheed in 1959...

 in Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

, Washington and made her first sailing to Victoria B.C. on December 29, 1959. She was originally powered by two Cooper-Bessemer
Cooper Bessemer
Cooper-Bessemer refers to the Cooper-Bessemer Corporation and the Cooper-Bessemer brand of industrial engines and compressors, manufactured in Mount Vernon, Ohio....

 diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

s rated at 2080 BHP each. In 2004 she was refitted with two V-12
V12 engine
A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....

 Electro-Motive Division (EMD)12-645F7B diesels rated at 2550 hp each. Coho has twin 8 feet (2.44 m) stainless propellers with twin rudders. Her overall length is 341.5 feet (104.1 m) with a service speed of 15 kn (29.4 km/h; 18.3 mph). The ship's vehicle clearance is 14 feet (4.27 m) with a carrying capacity of 110 vehicles and up to 1,000 passengers.

The design of the Coho was the basis for that of BC Ferries
BC Ferries
British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. or BC Ferries is a de facto Crown Corporation that provides all major passenger and vehicle ferry services for coastal and island communities in the Canadian province of British Columbia...

' first two ships, the Sidney class
Sidney class ferry
The Sidney Class consists of the original two ferries built for the British Columbia Ferry Corporation in 1960. The design for the ships was based on the MV Coho ferry with changes made to accommodate loading of vehicles through the bow of the vessel....

 Queen of Sidney and Queen of Tsawwassen.

Terrorist incident

The Coho made news on December 14, 1999, when Ahmed Ressam
Ahmed Ressam
Ahmed Ressam is an Algerian al-Qaeda member who lived in Montreal, Canada.He was convicted of attempting to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999, as part of the foiled 2000 millennium attack plots...

 was arrested by border authorities in Port Angeles after
he attempted to enter the United States via Victoria on the Coho with home-made explosives and timing devices hidden in his car.
He admitted he and accomplices had planned to bomb LAX on New Year's Eve, 1999.

External links

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