POSSIBLE COUSIN TO THE NANAIMO FOUND!!!

[Quinsam]

I was looking for random pics, and found Victoria line ferries, looks like the Burnaby/Nanaimo with a large resturant on the back like the Sidney.

[Doug]

Harry...that is the Burnaby when it ran between Victoria and Seattle....

[Political Incorrectness]

Doug is right. That was when she was with her first operator.

[Doug]

Here is a picture of it docked: .

[Balfour]

After that it was the Princess Margurite III, doing the same run.

[Quinsam]

Wow, Victoria Lines gone then?

[Ferryman]

Long gone.

[Quinsam]

What happened? Bankruptcy? Merger?

[Ferryman]

I believe the company went bankrupt. But it was run run by Clipper Navigation Inc. So I'm not really sure what happened there. I would have to do more research.

[Political Incorrectness]

Clipper Nav. went BANKRUPT on the operation and it was costing them so they sold her back to BCF I believe.

[Ferryman]

According to Johns site, the ferry was leased to the two companies, and was also moved by the BC Government in the first place.

[Dane]

It was leased by BCF, never left the fleet technically.

[Koastal Karl]

yes, I actually was on the Princess Margurite once to Seattle. It was about 4.5 hours to Seattle from Victoria. She had green decks and was really fancy inside like the Saanich. I think that is where some of the chairs are that are on the Sidney were off the Princess Margurite.

[Dane]

The set up they have for the joint Cafeteria/Gift Shop is a really good utilization of space, and saves on crew if you're running on a low ticket.

[Scott]

That's why you'll find several differences between the Burnaby and Nanaimo today. The gift shop in the cafeteria, the partially enclosed deck above and behind the bridge (I think it's closed off now).. was a beer garden I think when it went to Seattle.

[Dane]

David Hamn wants it reopened, wait and see game I guess.

[cascade]

Dane,

What does David Hahn want re-opened the route or Beer garden?

[Ferryman]

The Beer Garden, but it would just be used as a solarium, because the original solariums were sealed up into another lounge when it was the Royal Victorian.

[Koastal Karl]

Actually the area on the Burnaby that was closed in wasent actually a lounge. It was a Duty Free Shop. I remember cause we went in there and looked around and all the stuff they had in there. Well that was on the Princess Margurite I dont know if it was the same when it was the Royal Victorian.

[Retrovision]

Here's an excerpt from part of the recently re-released (2004), and updated, Robert D. Turner book "Pacific Princesses". Found on Page 228, part of the caption reads:

"...In 1987, under a different government, the Maggie (Princess Marguerite (II)) was joined by the former "Princess of Vancouver", renamed the "Vancouver Island Princess", the "VIP", on an expanded Victoria-Seattle servce. However, just two years later, both ships were sold to the Stena Line. Although promising new ships and expanded services, Stena's tenure on the Victoria-Seattle service was brief with the Marguerite being withdrawn in 1989 and the whole operation closed in 1990. Stena sold both Princesses and withdrew the one ship, the "Crown Princess Victoria" that was brought in from Europe to the Swedish-based BC Stena Line. The Marguerite was scrapped in India and the Vancouver Island Princess ran in ferry service in China. The Seattle service was revived using BC Ferries' "Queen of Burnaby", renamed the "Royal Victorian", for the government-owned Victoria Line in 1994 and then, 1997 under Clipper Navigation as the "Princess Marguerite III", but this service ended in 1999. The story of the "Princess Marguerite (II)'s later years is told in more detail in "Bhose Beautiful Coastal Liners (Robert D. Turner)."

I don't know about any past bankruptcy due to the Princess Marguerite III, but Clipper Navigation does currently run high-speed passenger-only ferry service between Victoria and Seattle, year round, with a monopoly on the route.

[Koastal Karl]

Where was the Queen of Burnaby before she was on the Seattle run?? Why would BC ferries sell her off to do a Seattle run?? Wasent she needed in the BC Ferries fleet?

[Ferryman]

I believe she was an extra after the Oak Bay and Surrey were built for route 2. I think I have a postcard of it passing the Oak Bay while coming into Departure Bay, which was probably right before route 30 was made, and when the Newwest was getting lifted. On a newsclip I have from the incedent when the Newwest left the dock at Departure Bay early while a van was still on the ramp, the Burnaby appears to be sitting in berth 1, judging by the aerial shot of Departure Bay BCTV did at the time. Here is a screenshot of it all...
Also, does anybody notice the turning dolphin right by berth 3, which was taken out when BCF modified the terminal for the Fastcats? I always remember thinking the Newwest was going to hit that thing everytime it was doing the turnaround into the dock..

[Dane]

Burnaby, and the New West were both on Route 2 for a long time. My first ferry trip, when I was 6 days old, was on the Queen of Burnaby from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay. Some how they had a two hour turn time, which they can no longer make? Wiieeerd. Maybe it's because they're old.

[Scott]

karl said:

Where was the Queen of Burnaby before she was on the Seattle run?? Why would BC
ferries sell her off to do a Seattle run?? Wasent she needed in the BC Ferries fleet?

BC Ferries didn't sell her, the government moved her from BC Ferries to the government owned Victoria Line.

[cascade]

So to cut to the end of the story - where is she now? and what is she called?