CP's Princess of Vancouver - photos & discussion

[Ferryman]

1986 would be a fair guess. It was definitely made after 1985, and before 1990. Perhaps this was used as a promotional item during Expo, yet nothing on it even mentions Expo on it...

[Retrovision]

ferryman said:

1986 would be a fair guess. It was definitely made after 1985, and before 1990. Perhaps this was used as a promotional item during Expo, yet nothing on it even mentions Expo on it...

I've got a similar fleet list that actually has a PacifiCat on it and has a similar way of noting what I'm assuming is both the month and year, so I'd assume what you have is from 1986, especially considering what books have noted was the Princess of Vancouver's short time with the fleet. When I find it and get to my folks' place where an actual scanner is (other scans I do use my camera+tripod and mini studio / converted wall unit bar) I'll post it.

Thanks for the scan, Chris. It's really interesting to see an ex-CPR Princess on the BCF fleet list.

I too am wondering if that's possibly the largest fleet to date, especially when you count all the oldies from the Salt Spring Queen to the Nicola and "Albert Savoie" to the now contracted route Dogwood Princess II

[Deleted]

Wow! Thanks Chris for sharing that fleet profile. I now remember that I saw that once when I was traveling on one of the routes in the 80's. I remember thinking the two boats that I really wanted to ride at the time was the Queen of the Islands and the Princess of Vancouver. I never did get to ride the Queen of the Islands but did get two rides on the Vancouver Island Princess (Princess of Vancouver) out of Seattle. I find it interesting that the Garibaldi II is listed on that sheet. I guess she was still considered offically part of the fleet then. Thanks again.

[Nick]

I found this on the SHM Marine Int. site. It looks like they are attaching some kind of closed bow. I'm not sure exactly what for, but here's the link.

www.shmmarine.com/html/index2.html

[Deleted]

Cool. Good find connick. I always have wanted to see pics of them taking the bow off of the Sechelt Queen or the Princess of Vancouver. Almost just a good to see it being put back on. That was after she left the Comox route and was getting ready to start running between Seattle - Victoria with the "Maggie". I notice she still has Princess of Vacouver painted on her and maybe the only picture we have seen with the BCF lettering on the side. That's more proof that she was with BCF for a time.

[Scott]

Excellent find coxnnick! I had seen that page (or at least some of those pictures) before, but then had never been able to find it again for some reason, so I didn't know if I was dreaming or not:) Definitely in the Expo colors so I guess she was part of the fleet for at least one "season".

[WettCoast]

I have a copy of the fleet list that is almost identical to the list posted above except that it is dated October 1985. The P of Vancouver is on the list. It is also clear from the website linked above that she did get the BCF 'Expo' paint scheme; at least she wore it for a year or so. Now the challenge is to find a photo showing all of her in those colours.

Bonus, the drawing below was done by my brother for an article in Jane's Merchant Shipping Review, 1983. It shows the P of Vancouver in profile as modified for use by the BC Highways ministry for use on the Comox to Powell River route.


DOT drawing © 1983

[Retrovision]

These are great new developments, both the photos of the re-application of the bow and that wonderful - as always - drawing by DOT. Thanks for your efforts, guys.

After doing some searching of my own, I was able to uncover these photographs; though in CP service, I've yet to see some of these angles, etc....

Thanks to www.photoship.co.uk


And a great rare stern shot...


Thanks to www.mccord-museum.qc.ca


Thanks to bm-railfan.smugmug.com

Pier B-C, now Canada Place, Vancouver - SeaBus Terminal at right


Nanaimo, Gabriola Island ferry berth in foreground

[Low Light Mike]

re the Reply #39 series of pictures, posted by Retro:

I was curious to see what the port-side car-door looked like. This is shown in the 1st and last picture.....looks pretty small, but that was the car-deck door.

Interesting that Pic #2 doesn't have this door, so this picture would have been taken before the upper car-deck modification.

[FNS]

flugelhorn said:

re the Reply #39 series of pictures, posted by Retro:

I was curious to see what the port-side car-door looked like. This is shown in the 1st and last picture.....looks pretty small, but that was the car-deck door.

Interesting that Pic #2 doesn't have this door, so this picture would have been taken before the upper car-deck modification.

The port side Main Deck door was installed in 1987 when the POV, renamed MV VANCOUVER ISLAND PRINCESS, began service on the Seattle-Victoria run. She used Pier 69, a side loading dock, for about two years. In 1989, she started using Pier 48 and this door was no longer used as she landed at the stern there as well as Ogden Point, Victoria. All cars would then turn around at the bow, a "U" shaped traffic pattern on her Main Deck (just as she did for CPR on the Vancouver-Nanaimo run).

[Low Light Mike]

2 more things about the PoV:

1) I think I posted earlier saying that the upper-car deck only had 1 side door, and on the port-side.
My memory has improved, and there were actually side-doors on both sides of the ship's upper car-deck, during her CP Vancouver-Nanaimo service, during the era that I rode her (1970's).

2) The last photo in Retro's recent batch shows the PoV docking stern-to in Nanaimo. I like that, because that was the picture that I had in my mind's-eye, when we started discussing this ship again recently.
So to have an actual picture posted which matches what I had in my mind is a pretty neat thing.

PoV, what a great old ship.

[hergfest]

Here are some shots of the CP Pier on the Vancouver side in Jan 1977. The cruise ship Canberra is in the background of one of the pics, she was why my Dad was up there taking pics.
gary-hergert.fotopic.net/p46134882.html
gary-hergert.fotopic.net/p46134885.html
gary-hergert.fotopic.net/p46134886.html

[Mill Bay]

hergfest said:

Here are some shots of the CP Pier on the Vancouver side in Jan 1977.

Wow, Hergfest, those pictures are incredible!

[hergfest]

A lot of his pics are kinda blurry, but those came out good. The slides survived very well also, they had been sitting in a slide wheel. I scanned it straight from the slide.

[Northern Exploration]

Is the pic flopped? Isn't that Burnaby Mountain on the far left of the pic when it should be on the far right? Or am I just turned around? And Herg do you happen to know what building he was in? Perhaps the Guiness Building?

Yeah the more I think about it the ferries pulled into the area to the west of the old cruise ship pier. Between about Thurlow and Bute.

[Low Light Mike]

hergfest said:

Here are some shots of the CP Pier on the Vancouver side in Jan 1977. The cruise ship Canberra is in the background of one of the pics, she was why my Dad was up there taking pics.

.....5 years later, the Canberra would be used as a troop & hospital ship during the June-1982 Falkland Islands war.

Here's a website re her war service, including a video of her under attack from Argie jets.
www.comcen.com.au/~raiment/
(the video is under the "bombs & helicopters" link on the left side-bar)
---------------

And thanks for the 3 awesome pics, Gary. I like the first one, with Canberra, PoV, Doris and what looks like Trailer-Princess.

[Scott]

What kind of upper car deck did she have?

[Low Light Mike]

pnwtraveler said:

Is the pic flopped? Isn't that Burnaby Mountain on the far left of the pic when it should be on the far right? Or am I just turned around? And Herg do you happen to know what building he was in? Perhaps the Guiness Building?

Yeah the more I think about it the ferries pulled into the area to the west of the old cruise ship pier. Between about Thurlow and Bute.

Here's the same pic, reversed. I think this is correct:


.....now it makes more sense....

[Low Light Mike]

admin said:

What kind of upper car deck did she have?

- it was just the mid-ship portion of the main passenger deck.

- maybe 3 lanes on each side, separated by the centre console.

- It was like an oval, where you entered from one corner, drove around the oval (if you were the first on), and ended up doing a full oval, ending up where you came on (with enough room for other cars to do the same thing). The last cars on would likely be the first off, and wouldn't do the full oval.

- if that's confusing, just think of a track & field running track, the standard 400 metre oval track. Think say 3 lanes, and the centre-console is a skinny infield.

- the oval was length-wise in the ship.

- and maybe the oval was more like a rectangle, but you get the idea.....

[hergfest]

I might have flipped the slide, although I was trying to be careful about that. I don't know where exactly the photo was taken, besides in Vancouver. I'll ask my Dad.

[Northern Exploration]

Yeah that's it now. Easy to do because sometimes the slide developer/processor makes a mistake too. My parents have one that is marked front wrong because the words in a sign in the picture are all backwards.

[Northern Exploration]

I showed this pic to my dad. He said he thought that the cruise ship was the Oriana not the Canberra. So I checked and not sure but he may be right. They were sister ships and the front of the boats looked the same. However, the Canberra had twin funnels at the rear of the ship. The Oriana had those two different sized funnels mid ship. I remember seeing one of them at the docks. We used to regularly drive down to the docks to see whatever ship was in. I remember seeing a Russian freighter and seeing the world's largest ship at the time which was designed to carry grain not oil surprizingly.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Canberra
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Oriana_%281959%29

[FNS]

I'll give you a short walking tour of the PRINCESS OF VANCOUVER as much as I can remember from my trip from Nanaimo to Vancouver in 1974:

The Main Deck was designed for use by both road and rail vehicles. Rail tracks were embedded in the decking. Well designed and was drivable by cars. The stern was flat ended for use by both road and rail transfer spans. She was a stern loader at both ends of the run between Vancouver and Nanaimo. There were at least two stairway towers leading guests to the Lower Passenger Deck.

The Lower Passenger Deck was originally all for passengers. That was until about the late 1960s or early 1970s. Space for cars replaced lounge space and side hatches were installed. This was the only deck where cars entered and exited on the side. The forward end of this deck had the main forward observatory. The only views you had were mountain tops over the high bulwark of the bow. The sides were unobstructed, though. There was a covered prom at each side of the observatory, but the bow was roped off (due to anchor and mooring equipment) and there were stairways at the forward leading up to the Sun Deck. Walking aft now, we pass through the forward foyer. Then, we enter the vehicles' lounge (I think you know what I mean! ;D). Yes, this space had a circular traffic pattern. There was an uptake amidships. Continuing aft, watching our steps for oil droppings as we go along (no one wants to see oil stains on the ship's carpetry), we pass through and enter the aft foyer. We now enter the eatery section of the ship. Like what was done on the PRINCESS MARGUERITE in the early 1970s when she received her second car deck in place of deluxe staterooms, her dining room was divided. A small formal diner was on the starboard side and a cafeteria took up the rest of the space. The galley space was aft. Tour of the Lower Passenger Deck is now complete.

We now go up to the Sun Deck. Walking from aft, there was an added lounge built to help offset the loss of space when automobiles took their spots below. Then, there were long lounges amidships. The forward end had staterooms for either passengers or crew (or both). A spacious promenade circumnavigated around the structures on this deck.

The whistle heard on this trip was a single tone one tuned roughly a "middle-C".

It was a great trip and passing under the Lions Gate Bridge was a real treat.

Wished this continued.

A side note of POV's CPR fleet mate: When the MAGGIE arrived here in Seattle each evening in her last years with CPR, it took forever to unload cars. The vehicle platform at Pier 64 was an elevator. One car at a time boarded the elevator from the upper car deck and was lowered to the dock level. Good for US Customs agents, though, as they had more time to deal with automobile folks! She had a stowable ramp between the main and upper car decks, but I don't know how it was used, though. I watched this action on a July Fouth in 1973 or 1974 when I watched the fireworks from the Lenora Street overpass (these started just when the MAGGIE arrived that evening).

[Deleted]

Ok guys since we are on the subject about the Princess of Vancouver I think it's time to break out my old brochure I had on her. This was in her CPR days. I hope you are able to read it. It has some timetables, fare info, info on Alaska with the Princess Patricia and of course photos of the Princess of Vancouver. Enjoy.
tinyurl.com/2l3hty

[Low Light Mike]

qpr said:

Ok guys since we are on the subject about the Princess of Vancouver I think it's time to break out my old brochure I had on her.

Many thanks for that, sir. Much appreciated.

It's interesting that in the summer with 3 daily sailings each way, she was almost a 24-hour service ship.