Post by Mill Bay on Jul 5, 2007 14:34:25 GMT -8
Hey.... did anyone hear about the Robertson II going aground in Winter Cove on Saturna Island.
She may not be a ferry, but this tall ship is definitely a ship native to Canada,
and a veteran resident of BC coast.
From the Globe and Mail newspaper:
Tall-mast 'landmark' teeters on edge of reef
Storied 67-year-old schooner at risk of twisting apart, veteran sailor says, after miring in B.C. waters on Canada Day
MARK HUME
July 5, 2007
Mr. Blagborne, who has 50 years of sailing experience and knows the tricky waters around his island better than just about anyone, said the 40-metre schooner, built to sail the Grand Banks with fishing dories nestled on its decks, hit a reef at high tide, at about 3 a.m.
"The difficulty is the reef is in an unexpected place. ... At night, at a high tide, you wouldn't see the reef at all," he said.
"It appears they cut the corner just a little bit shy. I mean, if he'd been another 20 feet he would have made it. So he was very close."
The Robbie became mired in the mud. Then the tide fell and it keeled over on the starboard side. Mr. Blagborne said the problem got worse when the tide next rose and the ship remained stuck fast.
"I was out there three hours before high tide and the water was already up half way across her decks," he said.
He said a salvage crew is hoping to refloat the Robbie, but several tides have risen and fallen. "Unless they can lighten the ship a lot and pump her out completely, they are still going to be stuck."
Mr. Blagborne said the Robbie may be more damaged than it appears because the ship's wooden hull could have been twisted out of shape.
"Sometimes a big old ship like that, sometimes just the weight of itself, being left high and dry like that, and the twisting of the masts, because they weigh a hell of a lot, puts stress and strains on the hull that are enough to rack it, you know, open it up," he said.
Don Rodden, Coast Guard superintendent for environmental response, Pacific region, said yesterday afternoon that it was still too soon to determine if the vessel can be floated free.
Mr. Rodden said the Coast Guard responded shortly after the schooner ran aground and took what measures they could to contain diesel fuel spilling from the vessel.
A Coast Guard crew was meeting a marine surveyor at the stricken ship yesterday to assess the situation. "First we've got to determine the damage and then look for salvors," Mr. Rodden said.
He said it is up to the owner, Roy Boudreau, to get the ship off the reef, but he hadn't been able to find out what plans are being made.
"We are having ... problems [reaching the owner]," he said. "Now we're moving ahead, regardless. If we have to take action without his permission then we'll have to do that. We have spoken to him on the morning of the incident, and then he contacted us again yesterday morning. He was supposed to meet us there yesterday, and for whatever reason he didn't show up."
Mr. Rodden said he wasn't sure were Mr. Boudreau was, but expected him to get in contact soon.
"To walk away from a vessel like this is not common," he said.
Robertson II was brought to B.C. 33 years ago by the Sail and Life Training Society, a non-profit organization based in Victoria that used the ship to give generations of young people a taste of adventure under sail. The ship was sold in 1995, for $15,000, to Atlantic and Pacific Seafoods Ltd. At the time, the ship needed an estimated $1-million in repairs.
The Victoria-based seafood company owns a large fleet of fishing vessels, but Robertson II - the last commercial boat under sail when it left service in the Grand Banks in 1974 - was not used as a fishing boat.
The ship is listed as one of two vessels run by the Merchant Marine Sail and Steam International Society.
Humphrey Killam, one of the founders of the society along with Mr. Boudreau, said Mr. Boudreau told him he hopes to salvage the vessel from the reef.
"They are working on that. ... But that's a big ship. ... I think you could round it off to 100 tonnes. That's no easy thing when they are over that far, lying on their side like that," he said.
Mr. Killam said several people were on the vessel when it went aground but everyone got off without mishap. He said that practically speaking "there is no value in a boat like that," other than in its historic importance.
But Robertson II is not likely to be written off easily. It was among a fleet of fishing schooners launched in 1940 in Shelburne, N.S. Most of the ships were built of "green wood" and few lasted more than a decade.
In 1942, according to the SALT website, Robertson II was tracked by a U-boat, but wasn't torpedoed.
The ship was being used for commercial fishing on the Grand Banks in 1973, when it was purchased and sailed to Victoria to become part of a program offering adventure sailing to young people. On the voyage, it survived a hurricane south of Bermuda.
Over 10,000 young people sailed on the schooner under the SALT program.
She may not be a ferry, but this tall ship is definitely a ship native to Canada,
and a veteran resident of BC coast.
From the Globe and Mail newspaper:
Tall-mast 'landmark' teeters on edge of reef
Storied 67-year-old schooner at risk of twisting apart, veteran sailor says, after miring in B.C. waters on Canada Day
MARK HUME
July 5, 2007
Mr. Blagborne, who has 50 years of sailing experience and knows the tricky waters around his island better than just about anyone, said the 40-metre schooner, built to sail the Grand Banks with fishing dories nestled on its decks, hit a reef at high tide, at about 3 a.m.
"The difficulty is the reef is in an unexpected place. ... At night, at a high tide, you wouldn't see the reef at all," he said.
"It appears they cut the corner just a little bit shy. I mean, if he'd been another 20 feet he would have made it. So he was very close."
The Robbie became mired in the mud. Then the tide fell and it keeled over on the starboard side. Mr. Blagborne said the problem got worse when the tide next rose and the ship remained stuck fast.
"I was out there three hours before high tide and the water was already up half way across her decks," he said.
He said a salvage crew is hoping to refloat the Robbie, but several tides have risen and fallen. "Unless they can lighten the ship a lot and pump her out completely, they are still going to be stuck."
Mr. Blagborne said the Robbie may be more damaged than it appears because the ship's wooden hull could have been twisted out of shape.
"Sometimes a big old ship like that, sometimes just the weight of itself, being left high and dry like that, and the twisting of the masts, because they weigh a hell of a lot, puts stress and strains on the hull that are enough to rack it, you know, open it up," he said.
Don Rodden, Coast Guard superintendent for environmental response, Pacific region, said yesterday afternoon that it was still too soon to determine if the vessel can be floated free.
Mr. Rodden said the Coast Guard responded shortly after the schooner ran aground and took what measures they could to contain diesel fuel spilling from the vessel.
A Coast Guard crew was meeting a marine surveyor at the stricken ship yesterday to assess the situation. "First we've got to determine the damage and then look for salvors," Mr. Rodden said.
He said it is up to the owner, Roy Boudreau, to get the ship off the reef, but he hadn't been able to find out what plans are being made.
"We are having ... problems [reaching the owner]," he said. "Now we're moving ahead, regardless. If we have to take action without his permission then we'll have to do that. We have spoken to him on the morning of the incident, and then he contacted us again yesterday morning. He was supposed to meet us there yesterday, and for whatever reason he didn't show up."
Mr. Rodden said he wasn't sure were Mr. Boudreau was, but expected him to get in contact soon.
"To walk away from a vessel like this is not common," he said.
Robertson II was brought to B.C. 33 years ago by the Sail and Life Training Society, a non-profit organization based in Victoria that used the ship to give generations of young people a taste of adventure under sail. The ship was sold in 1995, for $15,000, to Atlantic and Pacific Seafoods Ltd. At the time, the ship needed an estimated $1-million in repairs.
The Victoria-based seafood company owns a large fleet of fishing vessels, but Robertson II - the last commercial boat under sail when it left service in the Grand Banks in 1974 - was not used as a fishing boat.
The ship is listed as one of two vessels run by the Merchant Marine Sail and Steam International Society.
Humphrey Killam, one of the founders of the society along with Mr. Boudreau, said Mr. Boudreau told him he hopes to salvage the vessel from the reef.
"They are working on that. ... But that's a big ship. ... I think you could round it off to 100 tonnes. That's no easy thing when they are over that far, lying on their side like that," he said.
Mr. Killam said several people were on the vessel when it went aground but everyone got off without mishap. He said that practically speaking "there is no value in a boat like that," other than in its historic importance.
But Robertson II is not likely to be written off easily. It was among a fleet of fishing schooners launched in 1940 in Shelburne, N.S. Most of the ships were built of "green wood" and few lasted more than a decade.
In 1942, according to the SALT website, Robertson II was tracked by a U-boat, but wasn't torpedoed.
The ship was being used for commercial fishing on the Grand Banks in 1973, when it was purchased and sailed to Victoria to become part of a program offering adventure sailing to young people. On the voyage, it survived a hurricane south of Bermuda.
Over 10,000 young people sailed on the schooner under the SALT program.
