Mill Bay
Voyager
Long Suffering Bosun
Posts: 2,886
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Post by Mill Bay on Nov 21, 2013 11:50:33 GMT -8
I've been after deck plans of the Chinook/Sechelt Queen for years now. I sent in inquires to the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society (No answer) Gibbs/Cox back in east (no answer) and Todd Shipyard (they didn't have them.) I stumbled onto this 1947 edition of Pacific Marine Review and lo and behold, they had a fold out with deckplans. I've had to shave back the size of these for posting purposes here, but if anyone one would like the full size scans, send me an email and I'll be happy to send you the full size scans. Enjoy! That's pretty impressive. It would be interesting to see a comparison of how the cabin layout changed after her days of a luxury liner had passed, but it gives an idea of what was on the inside of all those old photos of the ship.
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mrdot
Voyager
Mr. DOT
Posts: 1,252
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Post by mrdot on Nov 21, 2013 16:57:54 GMT -8
:)in a collection of my west coast ferry material is a 1947 description of the new Chinook that I have passed on to my brother wettcoast, and he may be able to look thru it and scan some further material of interest, I did one line drawing when she was working our gulf islands run from long harbour! :)mrdot.
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Post by Barnacle on Nov 23, 2013 10:05:14 GMT -8
I'm really impressed with how much they managed to get into a vessel that, to be honest, wasn't that big. Those cabins must've been TINY...
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Post by Starsteward on Nov 23, 2013 11:35:53 GMT -8
When the Sechelt Queen was on the H.S. Bay - D.B. run, they had stripped out all the cabins on the Prom and Boat deck, save for a couple on Boat deck that they kept as Officier's cabins. Back in the day the catering staff's room was compiled of what looked to be at least three stripped out cabins on Prom deck, jsust forward of the Dining room and the cabin size appeared to be quite roomy.Yes,the old "staff-room" was a combination of dining area, smoke room and most infamously, raging gambling table. Mucho dinero changed hands during card games between trips. The Bridge and upper interior decks were finished dark red concrete that had to be polished every shift, which was the bane of most of the Busboys back then as they had to use a cast iron circular polisher that seemed to have a mind of its own and would take off in any direction with the slightest pull on the power levers. Ah yes, damned old machine....but the decks sure looked sweet if one could get them done without killing or maiming oneself. Great to see the deck plans of the old girl. A shame that by the time she became the Sechelt Queen, there wasn't much left of the 'finery' that were part of her original finish.
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Post by WettCoast on Nov 26, 2013 14:30:40 GMT -8
:)in a collection of my west coast ferry material is a 1947 description of the new Chinook that I have passed on to my brother wettcoast, and he may be able to look thru it and scan some further material of interest, I did one line drawing when she was working our gulf islands run from long harbour! :)mrdot. Here are four pages from an article about the Chinook that appeared in the October 1947 issue of a magazine called Marine Engineering & Shipping Review. These have been scanned from the DOT Collection. Please note that the two photos at the bottom of page 2 are from later in the life of the Chinook and were not part of the magazine article. Note also the reference to the large quantity of John Manville 'Marinite' & acoustic tile used. Those products were rich in non-friable asbestos content; non-friable unless disturbed by cutting,grinding, abrading, etc. Oh for the good ol'days! From the DOT Collection
There are a few other articles re the Chinook / Sechelt Queen that may be of interest.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,150
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Post by Neil on Nov 26, 2013 22:31:54 GMT -8
Thanks to mrdot and WCK for that great post. I always wondered how they fit so many staterooms onboard, and the shot of the car deck shows that many were over the outside car lane. Barely enough clearance for autos underneath and stateroom headroom, since I think the Sechelt Queen's auto clearance was only about 13'6". One mistake in the text... she had six car lanes, not four.
She was unique on our coast, in being a hybrid of the old, more luxurious steamers, and the modern car ferry.
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Post by EGfleet on Nov 27, 2013 5:43:40 GMT -8
Thanks to mrdot and WCK for that great post. I always wondered how they fit so many staterooms onboard, and the shot of the car deck shows that many were over the outside car lane. Barely enough clearance for autos underneath and stateroom headroom, since I think the Sechelt Queen's auto clearance was only about 13'6". One mistake in the text... she had six car lanes, not four. She was unique on our coast, in being a hybrid of the old, more luxurious steamers, and the modern car ferry. I was wracking my brain trying to remember where I had seen a color shot of the car deck. Finally it dawned on me it was in the full color brochure Black Ball put out for the ferry. You don't get to see nearly as much of the deck, as they're obviously touting the level of service you get, but you can get an idea of how 1940's sized cars fit in. I'm actually kind of surprised they used the shot, given they cut the top of the model's head off.
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Post by EGfleet on Mar 27, 2015 9:48:04 GMT -8
From the same magazine...extolling the virtues of their own ship.
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gnaz
Oiler (New Member)
Posts: 18
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Post by gnaz on May 27, 2015 14:56:22 GMT -8
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Post by Low Light Mike on May 27, 2015 18:59:20 GMT -8
Some nice shots of the Sechelt Queen - photos found on Steamship Historical Society webpage On the assumption that the Steamship Historical Society hasn't given you permission to display these photos here on this forum, this flurry of postings should be done instead as links.
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gnaz
Oiler (New Member)
Posts: 18
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Post by gnaz on Sept 30, 2015 11:30:54 GMT -8
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Post by Starsteward on Sept 30, 2015 12:47:49 GMT -8
Thanks to mrdot and WCK for that great post. I always wondered how they fit so many staterooms onboard, and the shot of the car deck shows that many were over the outside car lane. Barely enough clearance for autos underneath and stateroom headroom, since I think the Sechelt Queen's auto clearance was only about 13'6". One mistake in the text... she had six car lanes, not four. She was unique on our coast, in being a hybrid of the old, more luxurious steamers, and the modern car ferry. I was wracking my brain trying to remember where I had seen a color shot of the car deck. Finally it dawned on me it was in the full color brochure Black Ball put out for the ferry. You don't get to see nearly as much of the deck, as they're obviously touting the level of service you get, but you can get an idea of how 1940's sized cars fit in. I'm actually kind of surprised they used the shot, given they cut the top of the model's head off. I wonder if the chap carrying the suitcase is a model or Blackball employee? Either way, get a load of that uniform! Thank goodness that style never saw the light of day when the Chinook came over to BC Ferries.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,150
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Post by Neil on Oct 24, 2015 21:19:59 GMT -8
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Post by princessofvanfan on Oct 24, 2015 21:34:59 GMT -8
I wonder why the Dept. of Highways didn't wait until the P.o.V was ready before retiring S.Q. Also, it would have been interesting to see Q.o.T. in the highways white, yellow, and black colors.
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Post by Starsteward on Oct 25, 2015 9:15:53 GMT -8
I wonder why the Dept. of Highways didn't wait until the P.o.V was ready before retiring S.Q. Also, it would have been interesting to see Q.o.T. in the highways white, yellow, and black colors. That news article raises a couple of interesting points. Why the Dept. of Highways wanted to use the 'Princess of Vancouver' on that route is very odd. The 'P.O.V.' was a single-ended vessel, whose main car deck had rail car tracks on it, (although I assume they were removed before assuming her new life), and a larger vessel than what would have been needed for that run. The upper car deck which was accessed from a raised loading ramp must have gone unused as neither dock at Little River or Westview was so equipped. The 'Sechelt Queen' may have needed some serious dollars spent on upgrades to extend her service life but how much did the D.O.H. spend getting the 'P.O.V.' ready to go? Whoever wrote that news item should have double checked their spelling of the 'Q.O.T's' name. One too many 's'.
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Post by northwesterner on Oct 25, 2015 10:01:11 GMT -8
I wonder why the Dept. of Highways didn't wait until the P.o.V was ready before retiring S.Q. Also, it would have been interesting to see Q.o.T. in the highways white, yellow, and black colors. That news article raises a couple of interesting points. Why the Dept. of Highways wanted to use the 'Princess of Vancouver' on that route is very odd. The 'P.O.V.' was a single-ended vessel, whose main car deck had rail car tracks on it, (although I assume they were removed before assuming her new life), and a larger vessel than what would have been needed for that run. The upper car deck which was accessed from a raised loading ramp must have gone unused as neither dock at Little River or Westview was so equipped. The 'Sechelt Queen' may have needed some serious dollars spent on upgrades to extend her service life but how much did the D.O.H. spend getting the 'P.O.V.' ready to go? Whoever wrote that news item should have double checked their spelling of the 'Q.O.T's' name. One too many 's'. One of the greatest gaps in the collective knowledge base of this forum is accounting for the operations/renovations/configurations of the P.O.V from the late 1970s until she finally left B.C. waters.
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Post by princessofvanfan on Oct 26, 2015 20:34:14 GMT -8
I think S.Q. was getting old and expensive to run and maintain. When P.o.V. became available, highways jumped at the opportunity to get a slightly larger and newer ship for the route. The upper car deck would have reverted back to passenger lounge space, and the tracks on the main deck would have been removed. I remember seeing P.o.V. in drydock at the shipyard in Victoria (Allied?) along the Gorge waterway, being refitted for the Comox-P.R. route, minus her bow.
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Post by EGfleet on Dec 16, 2015 6:23:55 GMT -8
Some time ago when I got this magazine, I somehow overlooked these two ads, both of which proved two points long asserted about the Chinook and that I'd seen in print elsewhere ( Ferryboats: A Legend on Puget Sound) but nowhere else. The first,that Frederick & Nelson outfitted the ferry, and the second the quote by William F. Gibbs comparing her to the Queen Elizabeth. Well, here's the proof on both:
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Post by WettCoast on Jan 5, 2016 18:20:28 GMT -8
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Post by EGfleet on Jan 11, 2016 17:22:29 GMT -8
Here's a neat little ad, probably from 1947 or 1948. I split it in two and put it side by side for the sake of space. This ad would never fly in today's world, given the "Chief Chinook" bit at the bottom.
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 1, 2016 22:48:49 GMT -8
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,150
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Post by Neil on Feb 1, 2016 23:10:22 GMT -8
The advantage of a fine drawing like Mr DOT's, above, is that the artist can exercise some artistic kindness and not show her waffled plating... which detracted from the fact that, even minus her bow, the Chinook/Sechelt Queen had very pleasing lines.
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Post by EGfleet on Mar 5, 2016 6:13:17 GMT -8
Summer, 1950 in Victoria.
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Post by EGfleet on Jun 7, 2016 4:20:51 GMT -8
This has always been one of my favorite postcards of the Chinook. I can count four CP steamers in this photo as well...can we name them all?
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Post by WettCoast on Jun 8, 2016 20:04:16 GMT -8
I was talking on the phone to my brother, mrdot , and I got him to put names on the CPR ships opposite to the Chinook, in the above post card photo put up by EGfleet . From left to right, the first one is either of the two 'night boats' P Elizabeth or P Joan. Behind that is either the P. Alice or P. Adelaide. Further to the right is the P. Louise, & behind that the unmistakable Motor Princess. To the right of that is the British-American Paint Company's (BAPCO) plant (see this for more on BAPCO). The Motor Princess was sold to Gulf Islands Ferry Company in 1955. The Alice & Adelaide were retired in 1949. So this photo dates from between when the Chinook was new, and the sale of the Alice & Adelaide in 1949. The cars at the 'filling station' appear to be of that vintage ...
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