Retired working freight vessels

[Neil]

Not historic, not a BC Ferry, not a 'steamship', and, while it was a predecessor to the current Seaspan fleet, it wasn't one of them. So where to post about this minor member of BC's shipping history?

Well, I guess if the Spirits can be historic, so can the Trailer Princess. At least it's old and gone.

Built 1944 for the U.S. Navy, rebuilt for CP in 1966.


From the Vancouver Sun, Jan. 25, 1986....

Ferry move cuts 19 jobs

CP Rail is scrapping its trailer ferry Trailer Princess, throwing 19 men out of work, the company confirmed Friday.
Crew members aboard the vessel met Friday with Ed Moule, CP Rail's director of coastal marine operations, who told them the vessel's operating certificate would not be renewed after it expires in June.
CP Rail spokesman Don Bower confirmed in a telephone interview that the 42 year old vessel, a former U.S. Navy landing craft that was converted to carry rail cars and drop trailers in 1966, will be scrapped.
"It's worn out," he added. "It's come to the end of its useful economic life."
Bower said the Trailer Princess, which has a capacity of 28 drop trailers, has not carried rail cars for several years.
He said taking it out of commission will not affect CP Rail's nightly rail car and trailer service to Vancouver Island from downtown Vancouver.

[WettCoast]

This is an interesting item, Neil. The Trailer Princess was, I believe, a model of sorts, for newer vessels that came along, such as the Carrier Princess.

BTW, this item would probably fit better in an existing thread, or possibly a new one located somewhere in the "In their Wake - BC's Historic Ships" section.

[Retrovision]

Great angle, Neil, thanks for that. I'd argue that she's quite historic, not just by how long ago the photograph was taken let alone the massively changed landscape today where she's sitting (perpendicular to where the CR's Open House was held and missing numerous landmarks including Canada Place in the background), but more to the point the historical shift in the transportation of intermodal traffic that she represented for the C.P.R., the first of her kind in our waters other than Yorke & Sons pioneering efforts that came very soon before and were were contracted and chartered by the C.P.R. anyways, taking the place of former tug and barge services and, as Harry Tyson - Manager of the B.C. Coast Service until 1973 - predicted with this venture, a successful glimpse at what would be the standard in intermodal transportation to the island through today and the foreseeable future.


From "The Princess Story - A Century and a Half of West Coast Shipping" (Published 1974) by Norman R. Hacking and W. Kaye Lamb, starting on Page 319...

From its earliest days the passenger steamers of the Coast Service had een supplemented by barges, towed by tugs, that moved railway cars back and forth between Vancouver Island and the mainland. When the Canadian Pacific took over the C.P.N. the rival Great Northern Railroad, which at the time was making a determined effort to extend its operations in British Columbia, was arranging for such a service. The C.P.R. countered the move by and agreement with the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railways (at the time still and independent company) to operate car barges between Ladysmith and Vancouver. By a coincidence the same day that Captain Troup became Manager of the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company - March 5, 1901 - the tug Pilot towing the barge Transfer No. 1 moved the first freight cars across the gulf.

Many other tugs and barges followed in their wake during the next half century, including such well-known tugs as the Nanoose, Qualicum and Nitinat. The latter, originally the William Jolliffe of Liverpool, was a handsome craft with two funnels which in her day had been the most powerful salvage tug in the world. In 1957 the Kyuquot, the last Canadian Pacific tug in operation on the Coast, was retired and thereafter C.P.R. car barges were towed under contract, first by the Island Tug & Barge Company and then by F.M. Yorke & Sons.

The design of the Princess of Vancouver, which enabled her to carry railway cars as well as automobiles, trucks and trailers, indicated that the C.P.R. felt that the day of the car barge might be ending, and Tyson brought this about in 1964. That year Yorke & Sons completed the car ferry Greg Yorke (Now Seaspan Intermodal's Seaspan Greg), which began carrying C.P.R. freight cars under charter. A steel, twin-screw motorship 325 feet long, she can best be described as a large self-propelled barge. She could carry 25 railway cars on her four tracks. Four years later she was replaced by the Doris Yorke (Now Seaspan Intermodal's Seaspan Doris), similar in dimensions but fitted with an upper deck that accommodates 26 trailers.

Meanwhile Tyson had decided that it was time the C.P.R. acquired a somewhat similar ship of its own. Looking about for a suitable ship of its own. Looking about for a suitable ship in 1966 he found the U.S.S. Coronis which was purchased, rebuilt and renamed Trailer Princess. A motorship 308 feet long and of 2689 tons gross, she was originally the LST 1033, a tank landing ship built at Baltimore in 1944. Later she was converted into an auxiliary repair ship for landing craft and renamed Coronis. After serving in the Soloman Islands with the tank force that captured Okinawa, and in Japan, she was laid up in Portland. The Canadian Pacific brought her to Victoria, where she was refitted to carry railway cars and also road trailers, which had become an important element in the Company's transportation system. She could carry thirty-two 40-foot trailers and was soon busy ferrying merchandise, much of it perishable goods, between Vancouver and Swartz Bay.

And starting on Page 328, showing how historic the foot in the door of Intermodal ferrying the Trailer Princess was for the C.P.R....

In 1973 the fleet welcomed what may well be the ship of the future. The Trailer Princess was a distinct success, and Harry Tyson began to think in terms of a companion ship. In essentials she would be similar to the Trailer Princess but she would be considerably larger and above all much faster. In 1972 the order for the ship - the first new Princess ordered in 18 years - was given to the Burrard yard in North Vancouver. On February 20, 1973, she was launched and christened Carrier Princess, and on the last day of May she was turned over to the Coast Service. With a length of 380 feet and a width of 66 feet she displaces more than 6000 tons and can carry fifty 40-foot trailers or any desired combination of automobiles, trailers, trucks and railway cars. Four diesel engines, each of 2875 b.h.p., give her a service speed of 18 knots. This enables her to make three round trips between Vancouver and Swartz Bay each 24 hours. Tyson was able to convince his superiors that some passenger accommodation would be worth while, and the new Princess has comfortable quarters for several hundred day travellers. Cost of the new ship was $5,250,000, and she is expected to pay her way handsomely. Strictly utilitarian, she is well equiped to do her work efficiently. J.N. Fraine, regional vice-president of the Canadian Pacific, remarked: "She's frugal in design, She's no Queen Mary, but we're very pleased with her." Her speed impressed him: "You could water ski behind that ship!"

So successful has she been that two very similar ferries have been ordered from her builders by Incan Marine Limited, a firm in which the C.P.R. has a half interest. One is for service on Lake Superior (Now Seaspan Coastal Intermodal's Princess Superior, ex-Incan Superior), where she will carry rail cars and truck trailers between Thunder Bay and Superior, Wisconsin. The other is bound for the lower St. Laurence River.

[Neil]

hornbyguy said:

.

From the Vancouver Sun, Jan. 25, 1986....

Ferry move cuts 19 jobs
CP Rail is scrapping its trailer ferry Trailer Princess, throwing 19 men out of work, the company confirmed Friday.
Crew members aboard the vessel met Friday with Ed Moule, CP Rail's director of coastal marine operations, who told them the vessel's operating certificate would not be renewed after it expires in June.
CP Rail spokesman Don Bower confirmed in a telephone interview that the 42 year old vessel, a former U.S. Navy landing craft that was converted to carry rail cars and drop trailers in 1966, will be scrapped.
"It's worn out," he added. "It's come to the end of its useful economic life."
Bower said the Trailer Princess, which has a capacity of 28 drop trailers, has not carried rail cars for several years.
He said taking it out of commission will not affect CP Rail's nightly rail car and trailer service to Vancouver Island from downtown Vancouver.

postscript: Although this 1986 article said the Trailer Princess was to be scrapped, I see she is still on the Transport Canada Registry, owned by Helifor Canada, a helicopter logging and heavy lift company. Their website has a number of videos, but the 'Princess isn't in them.

[Low Light Mike]

Here's a new thread for retired working-freight such as CP's Trailer Princess.

[Low Light Mike]

A few quick views of Trailer Princess, as a heli-logging barge camp, in this Rick Mercer Report video from 2010:



Just near the beginning of the video.

[Neil]

Pursuant to Mr Horn's post of a year ago on ex-CPR Trailer Princess...

Page 29 of the December '13 issue of Western Mariner has a small photo of this vessel, now owned by Helifor, which makes it apparent that the superstructure has been removed and replaced with housing and other structures. The caption describes her as a 'camp barge'. Interesting that Transport Canada still has her powered, at 1800 hp, with a service speed of 10 knots. Anyone know what protocol TC goes by for keeping their information current?

[Low Light Mike]

Dec 18, 2013 21:43:50 GMT -8 Neil said:

Pursuant to Mr Horn's post of a year ago on ex-CPR Trailer Princess...

Page 29 of the December '13 issue of Western Mariner has a small photo of this vessel, now owned by Helifor, which makes it apparent that the superstructure has been removed and replaced with housing and other structures.

I noticed the same thing in the magazine, and I spent a bit of time staring at the small photo and trying to envision the old Trailer Princess.

[Neil]

Dec 19, 2013 9:00:59 GMT -8 Low Light Mike said:

Dec 18, 2013 21:43:50 GMT -8 Neil said:

Pursuant to Mr Horn's post of a year ago on ex-CPR Trailer Princess...

Page 29 of the December '13 issue of Western Mariner has a small photo of this vessel, now owned by Helifor, which makes it apparent that the superstructure has been removed and replaced with housing and other structures.

I noticed the same thing in the magazine, and I spent a bit of time staring at the small photo and trying to envision the old Trailer Princess.

If you look at the photo in the first post in this thread, you can make out that in WM's shot, the end with the orange helicopter would have been the bow. It is hard to visualize much else, stripped as she is.

I believe the Trailer Princess, built 1944, might be the oldest vehicle ferry in BC which is still in use in some form.

[hullnumbers]

Here's some interesting finds

www.navsource.org/archives/10/19/1910.htm

Down at the bottom there are two pictures of the former Trailer Princess for Helifor.

Then there's this page

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Coronis_(ARL-10)

Such a find XD


There's more on this ship if you type in her former names LST 1033 or USS Coronis. Also a note is that most webpages say she was bought for Helifor after war time use in 1965. This is wrong. There's no mention of her joining British Columbia Coastal Steamships. On Wikipedia I made that quick correction. She must have been a steamship from 1944 to 1966 before being transformed into a Motor Vessel for CPR. Also in the first post of this thread (By Neil) the article said the Trailer Princess was to be scrapped but she never was since Flugels find of Rick Mercer Report video from 2010. She must have been sold to Helifor in 1986. Which makes me wonder, when was Helifor formed.

[hullnumbers]

Update...

Found when Helifor was formed. It was 1978. So the Trailer Princess was bought by Helifor. As for the Steamship (SS) to Motor Vessel (MV) transformation, this did happen when BCCS took possession before the ferry was put in service.

[hullnumbers]

Feb 7, 2015 16:22:20 GMT -8 hullnumbers said:

Update...

Found when Helifor was formed. It was 1978. So the Trailer Princess was bought by Helifor. As for the Steamship (SS) to Motor Vessel (MV) transformation, this did happen when BCCS took possession before the ferry was put in service.

Sorry, forget what I said on the engine part, I don't even know if it was changed to MV from SS so for now I'm going to leave it unknown.

[hullnumbers]

Did a cool down and relooked at the info carefully. I found the Trailer Princess was diesel when built as LST- 1003 during WW2. This would have made her a Motor Vessel, but since she was built for the United States Navy she was a USS (United States Ship).


Here is also another find I came across in my search.

forms.otc-cta.gc.ca/sins-cvis/navire-ship_eng.cfm?ShipID=327072


The only question now is, is how many rail Cars, passenger cars and passengers did she carry? Did she even carry cars and passengers before the 1974 change? Does anyone know?

[Neil]

Thank goodness there haven't been enough incidents for a 'refugee/ illegal immigrant ship' thread, so I'll stick this here. The infamous Sun Sea, rusting away along Annacis Island, seven years after bringing 500 Sri Lankans to our shores.


www.flickr.com/photos/146484140@N05/36454541751/in/dateposted-friend/

[Ferryman]

The old CPR Trailer Princess is making the news headlines right now as she takes on water in Duncan Bay, just north of Campbell River. This has been turning into a fight to prevent a fairly significant environmental event, as crews work to pump thousands of litres of fuel off the vessel. And no, the environment inside the ship is deemed too unsafe for crew to enter, and so efforts have turned to capture the fuel from outside the hull..::

If I’m not mistaken, there’s a rather large collection of vessels at Duncan Bay now? The North Island Princess, ex Coast Guard Ice Breaker, ex Royal City Princess, ex Mill Bay ferry, to name a few…

www.campbellrivermirror.com/news/large-barge-sinking-in-campbell-river/?fbclid=IwAR15PUWcMgKUqUMZfqoePxOPUR0onHbpvmTQ4giXLCiEX7m_PwI4rWXDGcc

[hullnumbers]

Trailer Princess fate is sealed. She is going to be scrapped and recycled.

www.timescolonist.com/local-news/sunken-barge-near-campbell-river-to-be-removed-scrapped-5860632

The vessel has also been captured on Google Earth in Duncan Bay.