Save The SS Catalina
Fellow Veterans, Mariners, and Historians:
The "Grand Old Lady" of West Coast Steamship History needs your help. The SS Catalina is dying, sinking in the mud flats in the harbor of Ensenada, Mexico.
The Old Girl, known as "The Great White Steamer" to generations of Southern California residents, has been a historical landmark of the pacific coast for 75 years. Both as a "ferry boat" from San Pedro Harbor in Los Angeles to Catalina Island, safely transporting over 25 million passengers to and from the Island, and for her war time service as the USAT Catalina FS99 where she delivered 820,199 troops from Camp Stoneman to San Francisco Bay to waiting Army Troop Transports. She saw military service from 1942 until 1946 before going back to her peace time job. She is the “Grand Old Lady" of the West Coast Steamship era and deserves a dignified home to honor her service.
A volunteer group has organized to try to save her from the scrap pile and has successfully obtained her ownership from the Mexican Government, but she has to be pumped out, and towed to Los Angles where she will be restored in a manner befitting her status as a Los Angeles County, State of California and National Historical Site.
We need your help. Any assistance you or your organization can offer would be greatly appreciated.
James D. Whatley
Marine Engineer, Retired
Lieutenant, USNR, Retired
Click on the following web site for story of the present efforts being made to save her and for pictures and a complete history.
