Anscomb

[YZFNick]

Couple Anscomb pictures. The ship sunk in 2004. Has anyone been on it, or dove to it? This is the boat that was on the Balfour run before the Osprey 2000

[Balfour]

Looks a bit big for the Balfour run if you ask me.

[Curtis]

It looks like something BC Ferries would have used on their routes she reminds me of the Queen of the Islands in a way

[Koastal Karl]

Here are some more photos of her

community.webshots.com/photo/144849363/144849363aeXRbj
community.webshots.com/photo/144849476/144849476xuRhSa
community.webshots.com/photo/144850332/144850332Pzhiog

She does sort of remind you of the Queen of the Islands.

[Quinsam]

Now I wonder why she sank, she looked like she was in good working order in those photographs.

[YZFNick]

It was a 25 car ship. That first shot makes it look pretty big.

[Ferryman]

I believe I've been on her once. I can't remember it that well though.

[KLF Captain]

She sank because the moron that bought her never winterized her. As a matter of fact he never checked on her until several days after he was told she was sinking. He hadn't even closed the sluice gate between the tunnel and the engine room or she would still be afloat.

[Mike C]

Found these pictures of the original Anscomb in the 1940's. Enjoy!
www.geocities.com/kootenaylakeferry/images.html

[KLF Engineer]

As well as being a moron that sank it , I worked on this ship as well as engineer and I know for a fact that it had fuel in the fuel tanks when it went down and vents on fuel tanks have a check ball in them thus the fuel is still in the tanks... possibly 10000Liters.... but it is sitting upright on the bottom at about 120ft deep as seen by the ministry of environment r.o.v that they sent down to take a look

[KLF Engineer]

I should have written the reply as" a moron did sink the vessel" and that" I sailed on this ship previously to it being privately sold" ....
Sorry for the gramarical error...oooppps!!!

[KLF Engineer]

As well as a moron did sink this vessel, I previously worked on this ship as engineer and I know for a fact that it had fuel in the fuel tanks when it went down and vents on fuel tanks have a check ball in them thus the fuel is still in the tanks... possibly 10000Liters.... but it is sitting upright on the bottom at about 120ft deep as seen by the ministry of environment r.o.v that they sent down to take a look

[KLF Captain]

The Anscomb was built in 1946 at Nelson. She was originally powered with a pair of Vivian engines at 800 HP total in 1972 she was rebuilt and re powered with a pair of Cats producing 480 horse each. Later yet she had a 8V92 GM powered bow thruster installed.
She was 170' in length and 46' in breadth with a draft of 8'.
She was licensed for 150 passengers and a crew of 8 and would carry about 38 cars at best.
In 2000 she was replaced with the Osprey 2000 but was put back into service almost immediately when the Osprey suffered a minor engine room fire. After being tied up in Balfour for quite some she was sold to a Clayton (sinker) Jones and his partners to be used for cruises and gambling. After being run up to Kaslo and anchored in the bay there causing considerable furor she was moved down to Woodbury resort and subsequently sunk by her new owner.
I worked on her for better than 20 years as deckhand, Mate and Captain; and can attest to the fact she was a good seaworthy and comfortable vessel. She probably logged a million or more miles for the ministry of highways. But she only made one trip from Balfour to Kaslo, and then from Kaslo to Woodbury a distance of roughly 20 miles total and then sank due to the stupidity of her new owner(s).
As the previous post stated she was full of fuel and oil when sold and still has most if not all of that fuel and oil on her now. It is slowly escaping into the pristine waters of Kootenay Lake. Maybe now that the MLA and MP in this area has changed this will be looked into and cleaned up before an environmental disaster occurs due to this most unnecessary sinking.

[Ferryman]

Well, this is a fairly old subject......But this is worth posting!

I've found a few pics of the Anscomb in service on Kootenay Lake back in the mid 1980s, while searching through an old family photo album.

(Please excuse the large size of it...)


Also, some pics of it just days before she sank, and while she was sinking.






The last four pics found from:
www.bkradio.com/photogallery.html

[NMcKay]

so she is in relativly shallow water?

[NMcKay]

because im planning to take diving lessons. and the anscomb would be a good vessel to dive too.

[WettCoast]

One note re history of the Kootenay Lake xsing.

Prior to the completion of the Salmo-Creston section of the Crowsnest Highway the only through route across southern BC was via this ferry. Use of both the Anscomb and the Balfour was required to satisfy the demand, especially during the summer. Apparently there were often sailing delays of one or two hours. That changed when the Salmo-Creston (Kootenay Pass) Hwy was completed in the late 1960's.

I believe that this route remains the busiest of the inland ferry routes with one exception - that being Albion.

I have traveled on this ferry a couple of times in the past, and somewhere have some old slides or negative that I will scan and maybe post on this site.

[Balfour]

It's a nice route. I travelled it at Christmas time when I was driving from Calgary to Nelson.

[WettCoast]

A couple of views of the Anscomb from a crossing that I made on the other ferry [the Balfour] on 11 August 1988.

[NMcKay]

she would have looked good plying the coast of BC