Kalakala As Seen From Space; Wawona Article to be Published

The folks at the Kalakala Alliance Foundation sent me this photo taken from space of the historic art deco ferry Kalakala. They used the mapping feature announced yesterday to locate and zoom in on the ferry in Tacoma's Hylebos Waterway. Even from above, you can get a sense of the ferry's teardrop shape, and seeing it from space reminds me of another space-like character from the 1930s: Flash Gordon. The vessel in the lower right is a tugboat tied to the dock.

I learned last week that Columbia, the magazine of the Washington State Historical Society, will publish a biographical article I wrote on Capt. Ralph E. "Matt" Peasley in the summer edition. Peasley was captain of the schooner Wawona from 1899 to 1906. During this time, he made an impression on a young clerk named Peter Kyne, who later wrote a series of popular novels with a character based on Peasley. The character's name was "Matt Peasley," and the real Peasley adopted the fictional name as his own nickname. Peasley appeared in the Cappy Ricks series of books, which were published from 1915 into the 1960s.