MV Tustumena

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M/V Tustumena, docked at the Kodiak city port.
Career
Name: M/V Tustumena
Namesake: Tustumena Glacier in the Kenai Peninsula
Owner: Flag of Alaska.svg Alaska Marine Highway System
Port of registry:  United States
Launched: 1963
Commissioned: 1964
Homeport: Kodiak, Alaska
Status: in active service, as of 2024
General characteristics
Displacement: 3,067 long tons (3,116 t)
Length: 296 ft (90 m)
Beam: 56 ft (17 m)
Draft: 14 ft 4.5 in (4.382 m)
Decks: One vehicle deck
Ramps: Aft port and aft starboard ro-ro loading
Propulsion: 5,100 hp (3,803 kW)
Speed: 13.85 knots (25.65 km/h; 15.94 mph)
Capacity: 211 passengers
36 vehicles

M/V Tustumena is a mainline ferry vessel for the Alaska Marine Highway System.

Tustumena was constructed in 1963 in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and refurbished in 1969 in San Francisco. As the only mainline ferry in Southcentral Alaska and the Aleutian Chain, it principally runs between Kodiak, Seldovia, Port Lions, and Homer with Homer providing a road link to the other communities on the Kenai Peninsula (Seldovia) and the Kodiak Island area (Kodiak and Port Lions). The only interruptions from this schedule occur when making a voyage out the Aleutian Chain (the Aleutian Chain run consist of the communities of Akutan, Chignik, Cold Bay, False Pass, King Cove, Sand Point, and Unalaska/Dutch Harbor) which the vessel undergoes eight times a year all of which occur during the summer as winter weather becomes too dangerous. The M/V Tustumena will be in a shipyard for maintenance from the end of February 2010 until April 11. The M/V Kennicott will serve Homer and Kodiak for a few trips in March 2010.

Trivia

  • The Tustumena's amenities include a full service dining room; cocktail lounge and bar; solarium; forward, aft, movie, and business lounges; eight four-berth cabins and 18 two-berth cabins.
  • The Tustumena is the smallest AMHS vessel to have cabins.
  • The Tustumena is replaced by the M/V Kennicott when it undergoes annual maintenance.
  • Because of the exposed and volatile parts of Alaska it plies, the Tustumena is an accredited ocean-going vessel, a quality it shares exclusively with the Kennicott.
  • The large black structure on the aft portion of the vessel is a car elevator. It is used in all communities where there is not a dedicated ramp loading directly into the car deck. While the car elevator for the Tustumena is exposed on the exterior, the Kennicott car elevator is located inside the vessel.

External links