Ferryboat Santa Rosa

The Ferryboat "Santa Rosa" was originally built as the Steel Electric Class ferry MV "Santa Rosa" in Alameda, California for Northwestern Pacific Railroad, she started out serving Southern Pacific Railways on their Golden Gate Ferries line on San Francisco Bay.

She was purchased by the Puget Sound Navigation Company in 1940, and moved to Puget Sound. Puget Sound Navigation Company, believing that a single ended ferry would be more economical and faster, replaced her engines and converted her to a single-ended ferry, effectively making her no longer a true Steel Electric Class ferry. She was also renamed the MV "Enetai", which is the name she kept when she was later acquired by Washington State Ferries who took over operations in 1951. The ferry was returned to San Francisco after her sale in 1968, but sat largely unused until purchased by Hornblower Cruises & Events in 1989. Hornblower restored her aft wheelhouse in an attempt to make her look like her original profile from 1927, however the passenger cabin retained the remodeled outline from her conversion to a single ender back in 1941. [http://www.hornblower.com/about/20years.asp History of Hornblower Yachts] ] She is currently moored at Pier 3 in San Francisco, where she serves both as office space and as a rental facility. [http://www.hornblower.com/fleet.asp?port=sf Hornblower Cruises & Events] ]

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