The Enchantress rests in Fidalgo Bay, just east of Anacortes. She sits in seven to 14-feet of water, covered in a crust of barnacles and marine life, home to a family of otters and perch for a pair of nesting bald eagles.

The State Department of Ecology deems her a hazard to the bay on trumped up and unsubstantiated charges, while turing a blind eye to more pressing problems.

Their costly, counter-productive, and disrespectful destruction of this WWII tugboat was put on hold in February to allow S.O.S. (Save Our Shipwrecks) time to: Become a non-profit, come up with a plan in raise, haul out, and restore the boat, and have all the funding in hand to do this. They gave us six months to accomplish all of this.

On Sept. 4, the DOE goes before the Port of Anacortes to ask that the port sign a contract to tear up this tug and turn her from historic habitat to 300 tons of landfill. S.O.S. believes this is a terrible waste of an important landmark and a huge waste of public funds.

We would like the DOE to delay their plan and put The Enchantress at the end, not the start, of the Fidalgo Bay clean-up project. This would allow approximately two years to develop and implement a better and less expensive approach.

As the only visible shipwreck in the north of Puget Sound, this picturesque old tugboat is constantly photographed and is much beloved by locals and tourists alike. She deserves better than to be treated like garbage.

Help!

Bill Mitchell

Anacortes