QUEEN OF THE NORTH - Photos & Discussion

[WettCoast]

Another historical view of the QotN when she was known as the Queen of Surrey... This view appears to be taken off of Bowen Island while the vessel was en route to Departure Bay. The photo is from my brother's collection. I believe that the photo was a BCFC publicity shot dating from 1974 or 1975. The colours in this photo have gone a bit 'off', unfortunately.

DOT Collection

[Curtis]

wetcoastkidjst said:

Another historical view of the QotN when she was known as the Queen of Surrey... This view appears to be taken off of Bowen Island while the vessel was en route to Departure Bay. The photo is from my brother's collection. I believe that the photo was a BCFC publicity shot dating from 1974 or 1975. The colours in this photo have gone a bit 'off', unfortunately.

DOT Collection

Very nice photo we have here of the First Queen of Surrey. Will the endless wonderful photos ever end?

[Mike C]

Interesting how the water flows through, underneath the bow lip.

Thanks again Jim, looking spectacular

[WettCoast]

I have some more photos from the DOT collection, all of the first Queen of Surrey.
The first two date from an open house held, I believe, on the Fraser River waterfront in Surrey in the summer of 1974, just before she entered service. The first photo I call 'model meets the ship'. I have shown a photo of this model earlier when it was in a parade in Surrey later in the same year. The model eventually ended up in a Surrey pub named the 'Wheelhouse'.





This last photo is taken at Deas Dock, I assume, sometime after she was pulled from service after the arrival of the C class. This photo was stitched together by hand from three originals by my brother. After scanning I 'cloned and healed' the places where one photo joins the next. You should not have too much trouble figuring out where the joins are.

[Low Light Mike]

Thanks for the Surrey photo's, Jim.

Can you please give us a basic explanation of the bow door and the bow-steel-platform-thingy that is shown in these 1974 photo's, and explain how they were changed/modified/removed for the last version of that fine ship.

ie. What purpose did that steel "mouth retainer" looking thing serve, and why wasn't it needed in later life as QotN ?

Thanks!

[Fenklebaum]

It's my hypothesis that the 'mouth retainer' (I rather like that moniker, by the way; it's liable to stick) primarily functioned to allow the vessel to properly dock bow in at BCF's docks. The narrow width of the Surrey's bow might very well have (initially) allowed her to slip too far into a berth, and possibly damage the terminal ramp. Eh, just my two cents' worth of speculations.

Fenk, two cents short of bus fare

[Low Light Mike]

hergfest said:

I believe it was for the dock aprons at Horseshoe Bay.

.........so does that mean that the deck aprons at Horseshoebay were different back then? I'm assuming that the QothN could dock at any major terminal's berth, after 1980 or so.....or at least after 1990.

I guess that there was a change in deck-apron style at the various terminals, from the 1970's to the 1990's.....

(late edit: I posted this before I read Fenklebaum's response...which sounds logical. That really is a narrow bow, and I can see them needing to manufacture some extra width for the berth's apron to fall onto.)

[WettCoast]

Other than Horseshoe Bay the only place that I am aware of that the QoSurrey1/QotN ever docked bow in at was at Tsawwassen, and that was after 1979. At Tsawwassen berth 5 was, I believe, originally designed to handle the QPR and QotN bow-in. When that berth was rebuilt to handle the Spirits it became necessary to dock the QPR and QotN stern in at Tsawwassen and anywhere else that they ventured.

When the QotN was the Surrey, it was also fitted with a fan at the stern presumably to better fit docks at Departure Bay. Both stern fan and bow 'lip' were removed when the vessel moved north.

Perhaps these were added just to speed up the berthing process. Hopefully someone out there will have definitive information on why these were added.

[WettCoast]

More on the first Queen of Surrey... this time my brother's art work from 1974. From these drawings you can get a better idea of just what the additions at bow and stern looked like. My guess is they wanted this ship to fit route 2 berths in the same way as did the stretched B class vessels also on the run at that time.

[Doug]

wetcoastkidjst said:

I have some more photos from the DOT collection, all of the first Queen of Surrey.
The first two date from an open house held, I believe, on the Fraser River waterfront in Surrey in the summer of 1974, just before she entered service. The first photo I call 'model meets the ship'. I have shown a photo of this model earlier when it was in a parade in Surrey later in the same year. The model eventually ended up in a Surrey pub named the 'Wheelhouse'.





This last photo is taken at Deas Dock, I assume, sometime after she was pulled from service after the arrival of the C class. This photo was stitched together by hand from three originals by my brother. After scanning I 'cloned and healed' the places where one photo joins the next. You should not have too much trouble figuring out where the joins are.

Doesn't the Surrey still have the inner ramp in this photo? I'm curious to know how that worked at the major terminals. I believe it was later replaced with normal doors, if my memory serves me correctly.

[Northern Exploration]

It was modified after the ferry mishap in Europe where the bow doors leaked and the ferry overturned. It still had the inner ramp afterwards. I am not sure if it was watertight though. There was a set of inner doors that were watertight that swung back. The nose lifted when the ferry docked. Then the inner ramp was lowered. I am not sure what stage the inner doors were openned.

[Doug]

I thought the inner doors that swung back (or forward?) completely replaced that awkward ramp. But I don't think the visor was ever changed, with the exception of that one time it was welded shut in 1994.

What I was getting to, however, is that the ramp in the photo must have been useless, as the "lip" looks like it extends farther out than the ramp does when it is down.

[WettCoast]

As first operated in BC the then Queen of Surrey had only a visor and a ramp at the bow. I understand that that ramp acted as a water tight door. Later, around about 1994, a second set of water tight doors were installed inboard of the ramp (following the Eastonia disaster). So, after 1994, the Queen of the North had at its bow, a visor, water tight ramp, and inner water tight doors.

The car deck was also fitted with what are called MacGregor doors which divided the car deck into three sections thereby improving stability if water was to get onto the car deck. It also reduced vehicle capacity. The QotN was once listed as having a vehicle capacity of 157. After the MacGregor doors were installed vehicle capacity was listed as 115.

I gather that MacGregor doors have been installed on the Norad which may explain why BCFS's lists its vehicle capacity as 101 (versus 176 when operated in Europe).

Lastly, when the ship operated route 2 as the Surrey, it was fitted with what Flugel Horn calls the 'mouth retainer'. When she docked at HSB I suspect that the shore ramp was lowered onto the mouth retainer and then the ship's ramp was lowered onto the shore ramp. With only a single lane available unloading/loading must have been slow.

[Low Light Mike]

I think that the Chilliwack operates the same way: with Chilly's own ramp/door being lowered onto the Chilliwack's apron, and then the shore-ramp is lowered onto the Chilly-ramp.

[Fenklebaum]

I finally found the time to scan some of the ferry photos in my collection. Unfortunately, I was but a tyke when I took most of the pictures, so the quality in many of the shots is middling to fair. At any rate, I'll shut up now and just weigh in:




MV Queen of the North at Tsawassen Terminal, April 199(7?)

Fenk, photo-picky

[WettCoast]

Queen of Surrey 1 & Langdale Queen @ Deas Dock - 2 Sept 1976
The first 3 of the 'C' Class had just started service which led to the lay up of both of these vessels.  For the Langdale Queen the lay up was permanent.

© WCK-JST - Kodachrome 76-04-19 by Jim Thorne, on Flickr

[WettCoast]

The photo below is from the DOT negative collection... I came home with most of his collection. It will take me some time to work through these.


Queen of the North - Vancouver Harbour - Open House May 1986 - DOT photo

[Low Light Mike]

Re the Thorne picture of Queen of the North's open-house:

- is the blue-paint that is below the waterline unusual? Isn't it normally a red colour instead?

Also, the blue-paint at the top of the visor really stands out.

re the timing of the photograph, this is likely very soon (matter of days) after the Prince & Princess of Wales took the ship from Nanaimo to Vancouver, to open Expo. On the day that they sailed, they were earlier in Nanaimo, doing a function at the waterfront. My Grade-12 band played for their visit.

[Mirrlees]

flugelhorn said:

Re the Thorne picture of Queen of the North's open-house:

- is the blue-paint that is below the waterline unusual? Isn't it normally a red colour instead?

Also, the blue-paint at the top of the visor really stands out.

re the timing of the photograph, this is likely very soon (matter of days) after the Prince & Princess of Wales took the ship from Nanaimo to Vancouver, to open Expo. On the day that they sailed, they were earlier in Nanaimo, doing a function at the waterfront. My Grade-12 band played for their visit.

That blue bottom paint was a self-polishing co-polymer that actually reduced the time needed for bottom scraping as the ship's movement would keep the barnacles off.

Only problem was, it was very expensive to apply and with 30+ ships they went back to the old red oxide paint.

[WettCoast]

Another Deas Dock photo from the same time as above...


DOT photo

[WettCoast]

The photo shown below has been scanned & stitched from 3 large (6x6 cm) negatives belonging to my brother, the photographer. It shows the then Queen of Surrey I @ Deas Dock in 1975 at refit time.


DOT photo

For a look at the photo in much higher resolution click on the link below:
i90.photobucket.com/albums/k268/wetcoastkidjst/Queen%20of%20the%20North/5c1f4d69.jpg

[WettCoast]

From the Fast Cats of the recent past I am going to take you back to the mid 1970's and more views of our fallen flag ship at Deas Dock. She was then, and remained throughout her life, a true beauty. Thanks again to my brother for capturing these pictures on his large format camera more than 30 years ago.


Queen of Surrey 1 - both photos by DOT


Larger versions of both pics are available on my photo site - see link below...

[Political Incorrectness]

Your brother's passion lives on and those are some very stunning pictures Jim. Especially the former Queen of Surrey sitting at Deas with a reflection on the water. Makes me wish Vancouver's air was as clear as it was back then.

[WettCoast]

Its been a few days since I posted something from the DOT collection...

Queen of Surrey 1 (later Q of the North) @ Swartz Bay - ~ winter 1976-77

Mr. DOT photo

For a larger version click on this shortcut to my Flickr site:
farm9.staticflickr.com/8175/8008228129_f807b3129d_o.jpg

[Dane]

Interesting the Queen of the North/Surrey is bow in on the Island, opposite of every other vessel. Must have been a pain in Horseshoe Bay.