Device that stalled ferries was lantern

SOUTHWORTH, Wash. — A suspicious device that disrupted state ferry service to this Kitsap Peninsula town last week turned out to be a makeshift lantern, a State Patrol spokesman said Wednesday.

The apparatus was rigged by a man who had been having engine trouble while crabbing, Trooper Brian George said. Ferry workers found the device in the man’s 12-foot skiff that had drifted to the ferry terminal where he left it tied up last Thursday.

The terminal was cleared, six ferry runs were canceled and a bomb squad was dispatched to secure the device.