Doug
Voyager
Lurking within...the car deck.
Posts: 2,213
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Post by Doug on Dec 12, 2005 19:41:18 GMT -8
Retreating from the ocean.
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Post by Retrovision on Dec 17, 2005 21:27:33 GMT -8
If not, fully submerged in it.
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Post by Shane on Dec 17, 2005 23:30:44 GMT -8
Where in Alaska? North, West, South? And what location? She was a floating cannery in the 70's in Port Lions, Alaska. The cannery burned down in Port Lions in March 1975. Soon thereafter, the village corporation purchased the 149-foot floating processor, Smokwa. Although sold in 1978, the Smokwa processed crab in the area intermittently between 1975 and 1980.
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Post by Quinsam on Jan 23, 2006 21:23:28 GMT -8
I wonder where she is now, I would like to see her in 'A' fleet, not necessarily BCFerries, but maybe Washington State ferries for it to run with the Rhododendron. Or Blackball line, and then run it Departure Bay to Horseshoe bay to take traffic off it when the route has sailing waits.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jan 24, 2006 7:19:31 GMT -8
Harry, all I can say is "ummmmmmm"......I'd like to hear your logic re reactivating the Smokwa, but I'm not sure if you're up for the conversation.
But if you want to give more details explaining yourself, please go ahead.....but I suspect there's not much there.
(somewhere in the distance, you can hear the theme music to "Twilight Zone").
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Post by Shane on Jan 24, 2006 7:27:38 GMT -8
The Smokwa's probably half sunk and rotted out somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Alaska.
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Post by Micheal on Jan 30, 2006 22:36:33 GMT -8
The Bainbridge in fact did have sisters. One smaller, the Kitsap and one larger the Vashon. The Kitsap sunk in the Gulf of Alaska and the Vashon sunk off of Hollis in Alaska also. I rode the Vashon once as a kid she was a unique old ferry and I was amazed at her wood car deck. Unfortunatly she was pretty rotten at that time and you couldn't go out on her decks so you could only sit in the passenger cabin. The Smokwa didn't have any sisters that I have heard about.
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Post by Mike C on Jan 31, 2006 16:25:20 GMT -8
The curse of Alaska... ... her waters feed on old run-down ferries
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Post by Barnacle on Sept 25, 2006 18:22:53 GMT -8
Boy, that's fact. My late father and I made a field trip up to the Fraser in 1988 to hunt down the old Bainbridge/Jervis Queen. Alas, we were a few months too late. And someone said the Smokwa was the last steam ferry operating on the NA west coast... Unless she went past Labor Day 1969, WSF's San Mateo holds that title.
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Post by Curtis on Sept 25, 2006 19:08:10 GMT -8
She was retired in 1966 so she was the last operating Steam Ferry on the BC West Coast the San Mateo is the last on the Washington West Coast
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Post by Retrovision on Sept 25, 2006 22:56:00 GMT -8
Bainbridge and Quillayute seen in a 1960 Black Ball brochure/map:And details of their service with Black Ball:
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 26, 2006 7:00:40 GMT -8
From the figures on Evergreenfleet.com, I'm surprised at the small car capacity of the Quillayute. I think it was around 30...I thought it would be more, just based on the pics I had seen.
I'd have loved to have sailed on these old vessels, at least once.
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Post by Retrovision on Sept 26, 2006 12:57:54 GMT -8
I'm at a loss for what vessel was used on the Bowen Island route as run by Black Ball. This brochure/map that I have implies that car/trailer service was available on all routes, including to Bowen Island.
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Post by EGfleet on Oct 31, 2006 15:44:08 GMT -8
I thought you all might like to see this, even though it is a sad photo. This is from the Summer 1987 Steamboat Bill magazine. The photo was taken by Frank A. Clapp on 27 February 1987. That's the BCP 30 AKA Jervis Queen AKA Bainbridge heeled over and half sunk. It is in the Winter 1987 Steamboat Bill editon that states that she was broken up on the spot the wreckage being hauled away and burned. Actually, the exact quote is: "During July, 1987 BCP 30 a. BAINBRIGDE b. JERVIS QUEEN was dismanlted in place with the debris taken away on scows for disposal by burning."
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Post by Barnacle on Nov 1, 2006 8:32:50 GMT -8
Figures... my father and I went traipsing all over the Fraser in December of that year to find the old girl.
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Post by EGfleet on Dec 11, 2006 14:19:24 GMT -8
Just acquired this postcard size photo of the "Bainbridge" at Horseshoe Bay circa 1928. It looks much better than the scan shows and I love the guy in the bottom corner, appearing to be hauling his catch! Neat photo! Um, perhaps 19 58 instead of 1928?
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Post by bcfcbccsscollector on Dec 11, 2006 14:22:49 GMT -8
Not sure I understand, did I do a typo?? (See post above)
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Post by EGfleet on Dec 11, 2006 14:36:20 GMT -8
Not sure I understand, did I do a typo?? (See post above) Tricky...tricky...that's why I quoted you! The Bainbridge was a neat little boat...about the bathtub toy look of a ferryboat--square box, round smokestack right up the middle, round portholes on the car deck. It's a pity all three sisters had such sad endings.
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Post by Curtis on Dec 11, 2006 17:16:34 GMT -8
Very Nice Photo of the Bainbridge.
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Post by EGfleet on Feb 22, 2006 21:38:14 GMT -8
First let me apologize for the misinformation I had on my website. It seems that the Smokwa did not burn up. I just came across some documents with the DNR in Alaska regarding Port Lions where she'd been working as a replacement for the cannery that had burned down. She then worked off and on as a floating crab processor between 1975-1980. Buried in an appendix in the document was the fact that the Smokwa was no longer operating in Port Lions but "had been moved to the City of Kodiak." I've sent an inquiry to the City of Kodiak to see what happened to her after that...this would have likely been in the early 1980's. I often wondered about this as I was fairly certain the Smokwa was steel making it kind of hard for her to burn up...my profound apologies for the confusion. I try to be as 100% accurate as I can be and some how I slipped up the fact that the cannery had burned down and the Smokwa had been set up to replace it. When/if the City of Kodiak gets back to me I'll be sure to post the information. Meanwhile I'm off to my website to clean up the mistake.
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Post by Quinsam on Feb 22, 2006 22:49:05 GMT -8
Oh, so, at least she didn't burn up like her cousin, the Jervis Queen. (ex. Bainbridge)
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Post by Fenklebaum on Feb 22, 2006 23:33:50 GMT -8
Quinsam Teen, SS Smokwa was NOT a sister/cousin to the Bainbridge. To say otherwise would be like saying the Quinsam is related to the Bowen Queen.
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Post by QTeen on Feb 23, 2006 13:21:14 GMT -8
I meant, that the Smokwa and Bainbridge were very similar. like today's Quinsam and Quinitsa.
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Post by EGfleet on Feb 23, 2006 15:13:47 GMT -8
Ah ha! Someone got back to me from Kodiak today! Here's the story on the end of the Smokwa: The Smokwa was moved from Port Lions to Kodiak in the early 1980's. The owner was Harold Powell. The vessel was moored in Kodiak just outside the small boat harbor at a dock now occupied by Island Seafoods. My brother worked for Harold on the Smokwa during the summer of 1980.The Smokwa processed fish/ crab in Kodiak for a few years then closed down. The owner died and the boat was a derelict at that point. It eventually got towed back to Port Lions in the late 1980's or early 90's and was moored on the inboard side of their ferry dock. It sat there mothballed for about 2 years, then sunk at the dock. Within about one year, Fred Devine Salvage out of Astoria Oregon was hired to refloat the vessel and dispose of it. After refloating the Smokwa, the vessel "Salvage Chief" towed her to deep water to scuttle her, but on the way she sank on her own and nearly took the Salvage Chief down with her. I do a lot of diving and salvage work in Kodiak. Harold used to hire me to inspect the Smokwa. Her bottom was so bad in the early 1980's you could poke a hole in her with a small hammer. After the vessel sunk in Port Lions, the marine surveyor hired me to determined the cause. I found a one foot diameter hole in the bottom where the hull just collapsed inward, a bad spot previously identified to the old owner. That's the rest of the story as I know it. Lon A. White Deputy Harbormaster City of Kodiak, Alaska I'm sending a special thank you to Mr. White for giving us the end of the story on the old boat.
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Post by Fenklebaum on Feb 23, 2006 20:29:11 GMT -8
Quite a story, I must say. Thank you for your industry in tracking the Smokwa down.
I'm a greedy dummy, but did he mention any extant photos of the old lady before she went down?
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