Queen of Richmond

[Scott]

The Queen of Richmond has been mentioned in several other threads. I've created this thread so that we can discuss and share our research and possible sightings of this mysterious and fabled ship in one place. Please share your stories, theories, and perhaps scientific research that will hopefully help us bring to the surface what has been submerged for so long.

[Scott]

Here's a sample of what was mentioned in another thread.

mainlander101 said:

Here's what I think happened:

Proud Canuck did in fact see a double-deck ferry. He saw... the Queen of Richmond.

It's ghost mysteriously appears every year on the first week of April at Deas Marine because it was there and then that she sank at her berth in 1986.

Here's the story:

After the new C class boats arrived, BC Ferries was so concentrated and distracted on constantly fixing the C class for service on the major routes, that the Queen of Richmond's problem, which was a hole in the hull, was entirely ignored. Theoretically, the boat sank.

The premier at the time was so embarrassed that he destroyed all records of the Queen of Richmond, brainwashed the citizens with propaganda about the C class, and destroyed the hull days later. People have never before heard this story of the eight sister.

True Story. maybe.

------------

Now you're probably wondering "are you done yet Michael?"

yes. yes I am.

barnacle said:

That explains why the page numbers are screwed up in my copy of Dogwood Fleet...

prqueenkid16 said:

Ah, so there was eight. I guess this is one mystery that can't be solved unless we had the files.

hardy said:

Only "half" of this story has been told -- the Queen of Richmond, upon her sinking, did not fully submerge. Not having easy access to demolitions explosives or certified underwater welders to "hide" the remaining superstructure below water level, the Evil Empire of the day actually RAISED the area of Woodwards Landing!!

This was accomplished, as most lifelong Richmondites know, by adjusting the "piles" upon which all of Richmond is built (I am, of course, referring to the clothes-line posts, and the older style wooden telephone poles! )

[To those of you not native to Richmond, it may come as a surprise to you to find out that Richmond is actually a "free-floating" island, not attached to any firm ground -- henceforth the common concern about "liquifaction" during any kind of significant seismic event. The more surprising thing, is that the clothes-line poles and telephone poles are indeed the pilings that "hold" Richmond in place!]

When the Queen of Richmond partially sank, the Evil Empire engaged ALL available pile driving units from Hope to Whistler to converge on Woodwards Landing and IMMEDIATELY raise the area by the 4-5 feet required to completely submerge and hide the sunken Queen of Richmond. It is not insignificant that there was repair work needed on the Massey Tunnel in the following week due to some "mysterious" newly formed cracks .......

barnacle said:

I thought the Queen of Richmond was scrapped at Alang...?

[Low Light Mike]

I think I've found the Queen of Richmond, and her name is Faye Leung:

[D'Elete BC in NJ]

tsawwassenterminal said:

hardy said:

[To those of you not native to Richmond, it may come as a surprise to you to find out that Richmond is actually a "free-floating" island, not attached to any firm ground -

It also should be mentioned here that Richmond is actually below sea level, making a major seismic even more of a threat to Richmond.

hardy said:

- henceforth the common concern about "liquifaction" during any kind of significant seismic event. The more surprising thing, is that the clothes-line poles and telephone poles are indeed the pilings that "hold" Richmond in place!]

From my source with YVR (Vancouver International Airport):
Liquifaction is no longer considered as significant of a threat from a significant seismic event in the area.

Ahhh yes, the issue of liquefaction was addressed by the city engineers and builders by designing the houses to float like ships in a light sea. The only concern that has come to light is a concern for how seaworthy the design is in the event of a hurricane event. However, it is generally believed the clothes-line poles should provide sufficient anchoring to prevent shifting of houses in high winds of up to Category 3 though it is recommended that people wrap their houses in plastic bags up to the bottom of the first floor windows to minimize water infiltration.

author=flugelhorn board=oldbcferries thread=1176536605 post=1176561403]I think I've found the Queen of Richmond, and her name is Faye Leung:

I thought they scrapped the Faye Leung years ago. Do you have any evidence to back up your assertions?

[Low Light Mike]

Faye Leung: the person, or the ferry?

I was talking about the person, who I believe is the literal Queen of Richmond. She helped overthrow the old King, back in 1991.

re the Ferry "Faye Leung"....I believe that was just a nickname for the ship called the Queen-of-Richmond.

[Northern Exploration]

I thought the Queen of Richmond (person) abdicated her throne, refloated the fabled Queen of Richmond (boat) and now cruises up and down the coast at night in a real life version of Pirates of the Caribbean. Rumour has it that James Cameron is going to film a movie about it called "Coastal Piracy." He is rapidly trying to outdo Oliver Stone for fiction cloaked under the illusion of veracity and figures this may do it.

[Hardy]

The original "Faye Leung" was indeed scrapped at Aalang - apparently the metal flake content in her nail polish and the multiple layers of foundation in her makeup made her a quite worth scrapping.

But, as is the nature of politico-thrillers here in sleepy town BC, this is not the end of the story.

While the famed "Fantasy Gardens" was under renovations, a fingernail fragment was apparently found that had a portion of the cuticle still attached. "Spirit of Faye Leung" or "Faye Leung II" was re-born thanks to some disgruntled researchers at UBC who wanted to compete in the "Imelda Marcos Cup" for largest collection of useless shoes.

As for the Queen of Richmond (the ship), I doubt that we will ever find out the truth about her, as there has been so very much shredding done in the days after the FastCats (and not to forget the subsequent scandals) that there exists some doubt as to what HASN'T been shredded!

I think that if we ever find the Queen of Richmond refloated somewhere, that we should sell her to the Great Canadian Casino Corp and have her become another "Royal City Star" but down along Rice Mill Road ..... perhaps then we could roll back the fuel surcharges if we had others paying the faint-hope surcharge for us at the gaming tables!

[Northern Exploration]

Hardy is so much better at this than I am . Maybe the BC water, or ... nevermind lol.

[Low Light Mike]

I'll be pushing hard to convince the other moderators to include the "Queen of Richmond" as a forum-flagship for 1 month next year.

So starting looking in your scrapbooks for photos that you might have of her.

[BrianWilliams]

An unconfirmed rumour:

MV Spirit Of Faye Leung may have been saved from the shipbreakers, and is now employed on North Carolina's Ocracoke-Cape HATteras route.

Just a possibility.

[Hardy]

pnwtraveler said:

Hardy is so much better at this than I am . Maybe the BC water, or ... nevermind lol.

;D I've just found a place to express my cynicism and sarcasm where I am not shunned as an outcast or shat-disturber! I've had years and years of practice.

On a related note, I hear that BCFS brass may be inquring at FSG to see if they can introduce alternate propulsion into the later boats built there -- apparently shredded paper has a high energy content when burned in the presense of alcohol and could almost be used to power a Super-C. Preliminary engineering figures equate a week's worth of BCFS shredding to one full service day on Rte-2 propulsion wise. If they could find a way to harness HOT AIR, we could alternately power all of the vessels on Rte-1 by running a dedicated pipeline from the legislature buildings in Victoria out to Swartz Bay ......

[Hardy]

brianwilliams said:

An unconfirmed rumour:

MV Spirit Of Faye Leung may have been saved from the shipbreakers, and is now employed on North Carolina's Ocracoke-Cape HATteras route.

Just a possibility.

I beleive that there is a local ordinance down there that prohibits interfering or tampering with native and migratory birds and waterfowl. Ms. Leung's headwear, while often mistaken for nests or nesting material has apparently been embargoed and banned by local, regional, state and federal agencies.

[Political Incorrectness]

LOL!!!!!!!! That is some great satire there mr hardy

[Mike C]

When the Queen of Richmond was sent in for scrap, BCFS removed the engines and secretly sold them to WSF for the installation in the Cathlamet, and later in the Skagit.

So for those of you wondering why they break down more often than a C class, this is why.

[D'Elete BC in NJ]

hardy said:

If they could find a way to harness HOT AIR, we could alternately power all of the vessels on Rte-1 by running a dedicated pipeline from the legislature buildings in Victoria out to Swartz Bay ......

Man, but then what would we do with all the manure! I know a lot of it is dumped directly into the ocean in a covert operation by an undisclosed government agency as retaliation against our neighbour to the south for what was considered a underhanded blow in the forest products war, but right now the rumor is several MLAs are conspiring to use the hot air to combust the BS in an attempt to hit it big in the alternative energy market; using a privately owned company funded completely by the tax payer, of course.

[Hardy]

ferrymaniac101 said:

LOL!!!!!!!! That is some great satire there mr hardy

Thanks ... btw: you can drop the Mr., as I actually DO work for a living, contrary to what everyone else seems to say about me! Sarcasm and witful insight are only part time occupations compared to feeding and clothing all of my welfare-paid dependants! (sidenote: claiming 450 dependants on my 2001 income tax return when we had all the boat people from China land on our coast here did NOT go over so well with Revenue Canada ... I will only be claiming 5 or 6 of the homeless drug addicts from DTES this year...)

I will check with them the next time I pay my taxes off my salary to see if they have any scrappy books of the QofR (aka Spirit of Illusion)

[Ferryman]

I found a sign on the Sea to Sky Highway that shows the missing 8th Sister of the V-Class. BC Ferries must have forgotten about taking this sign down, when they were destroying all records of it? It has the same bow and everything!

[Political Incorrectness]

However, if that is the Queen of Richmond, then where the heck is the Vic?

[kieran h]

chris that pic with the victoria on the scrap beach do you know a site where theres allot of pics of ships on the beachs?

[balto]

Hello

I was just wondering, I've gone over all the post in this thread. But might someone be able to tell me a bit of a discprition of the Queen of Richmond? And also, was there ever a real ship called the Qeen of Richmond? I asked my grandfather who back in the day rode on all the ferries and he said that the name rings a bell.

[Low Light Mike]

Balto, welcome to exclusive club, that we call "Friends of the Queen of Richmond".

Seriously, this is a forum-joke. There never was such a ship.

Our made-up legend has the Q-R as the "Eighth Sister" of the V-Class.

I believe that this joke started, around the time that some of us were questioning whether the Queen of Victoria had actually be scrapped at Alang, India, or not.

....now you know. ;D

[WettCoast]

Balto,

The Queen of Richmond is, in fact the fabled 8th sister of BC Ferries venerable V/B class ships, what I like to call the Seven Sisters. The vessel never was, but it does exist in our imaginations.

Way back in 1959 when BC Ferries was born the first two ships to come along were the sisters Sidney & Tsawwassen. Then, in 1961, BCF commissioned Seattle naval architect Phil Spaulding to come up with a bigger, better and improved version of the originals - you could call these the Super S (for Sidney) Class, but today we call them the 'V'/'B' Class. The first two vessels of this new class entered service in 1962 and were named City of Victoria & City of Vancouver. Then BC Ferries bought rights to the plans for this class of vessel from Spaulding. He probably had no idea that BC Ferries would go on to produce five more vessels from the same plans, the vessels now known as the Queens of Esquimalt, Saanich, New Westminster, Burnaby and Nanaimo, in addition to the Victoria & Vancouver. All of these vessels, when first built, were virtually identical. A somewhat different funnel arrangement on the latter three vessels led them th being called 'B' Class (for the Burnaby), as opposed to the four 'V' Class vessels (for the Victoria). All these vessels were proudly built right here in BC ship yards.

During the summers from about 1966 onward service on both routes was hourly, 7 am to 10 pm. On Route 1 were the four V's, while on route 2 you would find the the three B's. They obviously were short one vessel on route 2 so one of the originals, the Tsawwassen, did duty as the fourth ship. The eighth sister (i.e. the Queen of Richmond) would have served as the fourth boat on Route 2, had it been built.

In 1969 BC Ferries started stretching the seven sisters, starting with the Esquimalt. Over the next few years all seven were stretched, but the eighth boat, the Tsawwassen, remained in its original configuration. So, by 1974 Routes 1 & 2 were being served by the seven sisters with an auto capacity of 192 each, and the Tsawwassen, with a capacity of about 135. Clearly, the eighth sister was missing. In desperation that year the government of the day, Dave Barrett's NDP, bought a second hand vessel in Europe* to replace the Tsawwassen on Route 2. At the same time they commissioned the construction in BC yards of three new 'Jumbo Ferries' the first of the C Class, that entered service in 1976.

* That European ship was named the Stena Danica... and had an auto capacity of 157.

[Mike C]

I found this picture on my hard drive here at home. Honestly, I have no idea what ferry it may be... it's too blurry to tell.

i18.tinypic.com/4qgbleb.jpg

Could it be.....?

[balto]

lol, why do I get the feeling that I just fell for a well planned joke . That story of her sinking at Deas Island really fooled me . But it would have been nice if they really did built the Queen of Richmond.

Oh and Micheal.
No, it couldn't be. Could it..........?

[Hardy]

balto said:

lol, why do I get the feeling that I just fell for a well planned joke . That story of her sinking at Deas Island really fooled me . But it would have been nice if they really did built the Queen of Richmond.

;D I think that is also a back-handed way of saying that our creative writing project gets high marks! ;D