Cool pic.

[Shane]

Heres a cool pic that I found on Bc Archives.

[Quinsam]

Well well well... what do we have here? an old steam ship?

[jcachristian2000]

The Bottom pic is the Sechelt Queen which ran aground on Snake ISland wich is located about 10 minutes out of Departure Bay on the Starboard side of the ship while heading to Horseshoe Bay.

When leaving Duke Point Snake Island is located also about 10 min from dock on the Port side of the ship.

I believe that it was foggy out and the radar equipment was removed from the ship which caused the grounding.

[Retrovision]

welwyn said:

Well well well... what do we have here? an old steam ship?

From the looks of it that's the Iroquois between 1928 and 1952, after the Iroquois (built for the Great Lakes in 1901) had been *re*purchased by the PSN and rebuilt as a vehicle ferry. She did the Seattle-Pt. Angeles-Victoria run until the Coho was built.

[Low Light Mike]

Here's the link to the Iroquois page on Steve's excellent website. It has a lot of info on this ship.

- click on the 2nd button on the left-side, for "iroquois/indianapolis"

www.evergreenfleet.com/forgotten.html

[Retrovision]

tsawwassenterminal said:

welwyn said:

Well well well... what do we have here? an old steam ship?

From the looks of it that's the Iroquois between 1928 and 1952, after the Iroquois (built for the Great Lakes in 1901) had been *re*purchased by the PSN and rebuilt as a vehicle ferry. She did the Seattle-Pt. Angeles-Victoria run until the Coho was built.

I realized my mistake after I got home last night: It was the Chinook, not the Coho that replaced the Iroquois. I always mix up the names of those two ships. Also, though I'm sure to find out once I review that page of EvergreenFleet.com, Robert D. Turner's "Pacific Princesses" book says that the Iroquois operated only between Victoria and Port Angeles, not to include Seattle as I mentioned. I could swear, though, that I've read somewhere that her sailings included a call at Seattle; I'm almost positive that I've read that the Chinook, that replaced the Iroquois, called at all three ports regularly. I also remember reading somewhere that the Iroquois stayed on as the night boat for a while before being transfered to freight service.

[Low Light Mike]

Here's a question:

Why was a night-run between Seattle & Victoria feasible back in the old days?

Why wouldn't it work now?

Is it because now we can fly by seaplane, plus the Clipper?

Or was the Iroquois & Chinook from another era when things were different and people actually enjoyed travelling by boat between the 2 cities?

Any thoughts on why this type of service is now obsolete?

[Retrovision]

I'm guessing that between ground transportation's low cost and the the accessibility of flight travel that there simply isn 't a market for long distance sea travel. Even though the Chinook seems to have been ahead of its time originally, it still had a fairly large number of state rooms and was heavy on frills; who would choose frills and a practically exponentially longer ride, let alone more expensive, over a fast car that gives you flexibility and control, with only a short hop on a ferry (Example: Taking the path of least resistance by driving to Port Angeles from Seattle and taking the speedy 90minute crossing of the Straight of Juan de Fuca to Victoria).

I don't agree with the lack of choice of possible modes of transportation that North America's "love affair" (more comparable to blind patriatism, if you ask me) with the automobile has brought about; I'd much rather take the senic, more relaxing route myself.

[Starbucks Queen]

I think it depends, these times the roads, cars and busses were not as quick and comfortable as nowadays. So during these days the most convenient was the ship.
Also I think the life "back then" was not so much speed - obsessed and therefore people have not been counting time in that much. They were just used to travel by ship.
Of course it would be nice to have a route like this nowadays, and tourists might like this too.
But thinking about people who have a business to do, they might plan the time-factor in and take the plane.
I personally would take the scenic, more relaxing route myself too, though.

[cascade]

Mr. Horn, Sir,

I must agree with your comments, why was there a route between Seattle and Victoria - and now it has stopped?

I am taking a wild guess here - but during the WWII - they took all the Chinese people from Victoria and forced moved them to the interior of BC - as the Puget Sound around Seattle was a major Naval base, and the thinking was that the Japanese would invade the West Coast - and mostly on Vancouver Island - Long Beach was marked out for this.

We had used the Chinese to help build the railway, and then if you all remember they were the first crews on the new BC Ferries - they worked as cooks.
People look at Chinese people and see Japanese - which at that time was the enemy. A lot of very important people in Victoria had Chinese staff - so the link between Seattle - Naval base - Boeing aircraft ect... and Victoria was stopped - as they feared the Japanese invasion.

Brian - I need your help on this point - as your 1940's & 1950's history is better than mind... over to you Brian..

[SS San Mateo]

Here's a brief history of the Iroquois:

www.fredb.com/Iroquois/

-- LB

[cascade]

That is really interesting for that vessel - but the bit missing is what did she do from 1939 to 1947 - when they moved her on?

I think if someone digs they will find that service was stopped after American came into the War - as Canada was already in the War. History shows the problems and the way we treated the Chinese people - who some of them were more Canadian than a lot of Americans who came from Germany & Italy for example - but of course they were American and they didn't attack Pearl Harbour - did they - but then again - this harbour was on the other side of the world.

My Grand Parents had friends in Victoria who had Chinese servants and they were even born in Victoria - but still were forced into camps in the Interior of BC. A lot of them died in these camps. I am sure some of the younger members of this forum didn't known that - about the way we treated these people - who had done nothing wrong - but been born looking the way they do. We pre-judge a lot the wrong way...

Also China was becoming a communist state during the War and America became very friendly with them - as they were against the Japanese - but then America changed sides during the build up to the War.

I am sure this route was stopped - due the links we had with Chinese looking people, and that ships were need to move troops around, then after the war - America really went to town on the communist thing.

[Scott]

I thought it was the Japanese who were interned in camps during World War II, not the Chinese. Some Chinese probably got mixed up in it, but I've never heard of all the Chinese in Victoria getting shipped out.

[Retrovision]

admin said:

I thought it was the Japanese who were interned in camps during World War II, not the Chinese. Some Chinese probably got mixed up in it, but I've never heard of all the Chinese in Victoria getting shipped out.

Yes, it was Japanese-Canadians who were interned in BC. After all, Japan is where the implied threat that supposedly warranted internment came from.

[cascade]

China Town in Victoria was cleaned out also the major Laundry companies which serviced the hotels ect... closed down - lack of employees.

My Grandfathers engineer was half Chinese and they had major trouble / problems with him and his family. They lived in the basement of my Grandparents house in Brentwood for 3 years.