North Star's Arrival 08/28/2003
TACOMA, WASHINGTON -- Totem Ocean Trailer Express greeted the newest vessel to enter the Alaska trade, the M. V. North Star, the morning of August 28, 2003. Her arrival in the Port of Tacoma marks the conclusion of a many-year new ship building and reinvestment program that will benefit the Puget Sound and Alaska for decades to come.
Her sister ship, the M. V. Midnight Sun, entered Alaska service in April this year. Both ships are the first two members of the Orca Class, specifically designed for the rigors of the Alaska trade and built to protect the pristine environments of Washington and Alaska waters.
These vessels have already won several prestigious awards recognizing their environmental benefits, some of which go beyond what is required by law. The ships are double-hulled, twin-screwed, and notably for the marine ecosystems of Puget Sound and Cook Inlet, Alaska, fresh water ballast systems are aboard both vessels to avoid introducing marine species that are not indigenous to the waters of each state. The engines are clean-burning diesel electric.
As TOTE welcomes the North Star, she bids farewell this September to the first ship the Company employed in the Alaska trade route 28 years ago, September 10, 1975, the S.S. Great Land. The vessel will serve Matson in Hawaii.
Also as TOTE welcomes the North Star, which will embark on her maiden working voyage on August 30th, joining her crew is the first ever Alaska native woman to graduate from the Seafarers International Union's (SIU) maritime training apprenticeship program in Piney Point, Maryland. Eileen Lammers, 19, is a part of the Haida and Nishga tribe, and is from Ketchikan, Alaska.
Totem Ocean Trailer Express is a privately owned Alaska corporation operating a fleet of roll-on/roll-off cargo trailer ships between the Ports of Tacoma, Washington and Anchorage, Alaska.