MV Lituya

History
Name:	Lituya
Namesake:	Lituya Glacier, adjacent to Lituya Bay
Owner:	Alaska Marine Highway System
Port of registry:	United States
Route:	Metlakatla–Ketchikan
Builder:	Conrad Shipyards, Morgan City, Louisiana
Launched:	2004
Commissioned:	2004
Homeport:	Metlakatla, Alaska
Status:	in active service, as of 2024
General characteristics
Length:	180 ft (55 m)
Beam:	50 ft (15 m)
Draft:	10 ft (3.0 m)
Decks:	One vehicle deck
Ramps:	Port, starboard, and aft ro-ro loading
Installed power:	2,000 hp (1,491 kW)
Speed:	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Capacity:	150 passengers 18 vehicles

MV Lituya is a shuttle ferry for the Alaska Marine Highway System.

Lituya was built by Conrad Shipyards in Morgan City, Louisiana in 2004. The Lituya is the smallest vessel in the ferry system and, as of 2006 exclusively serving the 16.5-nautical-mile (30.6 km) Metlakatla–Ketchikan shuttle route, thus making it the only AMHS vessel to serve Metlakatla. The Lituya is one of the three ferry system vessels designed to operate only in the day (the others are the fast ferries M/V Chenega and M/V Fairweather), so it homeports in Metlakatla where its crew of six also resides. The Lituya has no food service on board and is also the only Alaska Marine Highway vessel to feature an open car deck (the design of the Lituya was based on offshore oil platform supply vessels).

During the night of 30 January 2009, the ship came loose from its moorings in Metlakatla, Alaska while unmanned. It drifted about a mile, running up on Scrub Island in Port Chester harbor. Winds at the time were averaging 26 mph (42 km/h) with gusts to 80 mph (130 km/h); seas were 8 feet (2.4 m). The hull was reported intact but some hull plates were bent and the keel cooler appeared to be leaking antifreeze.

External links

• Official Alaska Marine Highway System website