The venerable Puget Sound ferry Chetzemoka sank 8:53 yesterday morning as she was towed down the coast to a planned new career in San Francisco.

The 240-foot wooden, diesel-electric boat went down nine miles northwest of La Push, on the Washington coast, after an all-night struggle with the seas by crewmen of the tug Express.

Tug and tow sailed from Puget Sound over the weekend.

Monday night the Express turned about off the coast when the ferryboat's seams opened and she started taking water. Tugboat skipper Tom Kent hoped to make it back into the protection of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. But at 5:30 yesterday morning the Express radioed the Coast Guard for help. The Coast Guard delivered three pumps to the Chetzemoka, and two tug crewmen board the ferry to try to keep her afloat. They were Larry Frank, 48, of Everett and Tom McGuirk, 27, of Seattle. Frank and McGuirk couldn't keep up with the flooding, though. A Coast Guard 42-footer picked them off, and the Chetzemoka sank. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Wed. June 1977