Interesting boats

Make sure you see it all next time Marin. It's a snapshot of what life used to be in the heyday of canneries. Very similar to the Old Town at the Victoria Museum if you have been there.
The demise of the cannery came with the offshore factory ships.

Canary...

RT Firefly said:

Canary...

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LOL ... must think while typing

And while tweeting I expect...

RT Firefly said:

And while tweeting I expect...

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Actually, while drinking beer and flipping between the Montreal Canadians game and the SF 49ers one.

RT Firefly said:

Canary...

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Yes, and they're pretty much all gone from this coast now, RT. It used to be that you'd see a canary in just about every bay from here to SE Alaska. Once they invented the machine called the "Iron Chink" the canary business really took off. (No, I didn't make that name up and yes, it probably is racist name since I'm assuming it was meant to mean a machine that did the work of the Chinese guys who originally cleaned the salmon by hand on the gut line).

So canaries and logging were the two main industries all up the coast.

It became problematical when people, particularly the wives of the canary managers, began keeping canaries as pets. Their cheerful chirping was a pleasant sound in the rainy gray weather of the coast. But pretty soon it became confusing when you heard someone talking about a "canary." Did they mean the manager's wife's pet bird, or did they mean the big roaring, clanking, steaming, smelly thing on pilings that was turning salmon into dinners?

Eventually, after a series of remarkable accidents due to the misinterpretation of the word "canary," it was decided something had to be done. Since the canaries that were turning fish into dinners did so by stuffing the cooked fish into cans, someone thought, "Why not change the name of the canary to cannery, after the cans they use?" The name of the bird would remain the same.

So they did, and literally overnight all the canaries up the coast became canneries.

I think Steveston has been sneaking up on me for some time. I moored my OB cruiser at Captian's Cove Marina in the 70s and bought and re-powered a 27'double end troller. Traveling the river up to Pitt Lake was always fun on the Bryant OB.
And I remember you (Marin) talking about buying fish at Steveston. I don't know for sure but I think the troller I re-powered was built in Stevston by a well known family (Japanese I think).
It seems my going to Steveston has been long in coming so thanks Marin and West especially for the heads up on Steveston.

About canneries there is (or at least was) a wonderful cannery very near Port Edwards and Prince Rupert. A very good restoration to see. Perhaps Murray can confirm if it is still there.

Eric, when your facing the water in the Village go LEFT as that is where the Shipyard and worker housing is (about 8 blocks), the Cannery is a minor part of it and has an entry fee whereas the shipyard is free.

manyboats said:

About canneries there is (or at least was) a wonderful cannery very near Port Edwards and Prince Rupert. A very good restoration to see. Perhaps Murray can confirm if it is still there.

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Home | North Pacific Cannery National Historic SiteNorth Pacific Cannery National Historic Site

I photographed at the North Pacific Cannery once with a 4x5 field camera and it was raining so hard I had to wring out the focusing cloth between shots...that day inspired me to use a small rain poncho over the focusing cloth, with the lens protected by the neck of the poncho. Now I can go all day during the fall monsoons

MurrayM said:

Home | North Pacific Cannery National Historic SiteNorth Pacific Cannery National Historic Site

I photographed at the North Pacific Cannery once with a 4x5 field camera and it was raining so hard I had to wring out the focusing cloth between shots...that day inspired me to use a small rain poncho over the focusing cloth, with the lens protected by the neck of the poncho. Now I can go all day during the fall monsoons

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Not sure I would want to take that on, being a BIF shooter. Toyo?


Cape James

West said:

Not sure I would want to take that on, being a BIF shooter. Toyo?

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BIF...Birds in flight?

Wista. It's actually one of the original Zone VI camera kits, ordered from a magazine advertisement back in the 80's. Never saw one in real life until I opened the box

Cape James - Dang Purdy!!!!!!!!

MurrayM said:

BIF...Birds in flight?

Wista. It's actually one of the original Zone VI camera kits, ordered from a magazine advertisement back in the 80's. Never saw one in real life until I opened the box

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Yes.
Nice, what wood finish?

If you go to the cannery museum in Port Edward, take look at Hazel, the little gill netter in there. In 1974, we bought her from a 98 year old Icelander fisherman who still lived on her in the harbour, for $100.

We towed her around from her berth to Seal Cove. We had to strip her, ran her on the shore so she would sit on her side, then cleaned her out with a steam jenny. Prince Rupert has 20' tides. We stripped her poles and spent some time getting her old Universal Super Four running (once we nearly blew ourselves up with a truly remarkable wall of flame fuelled by all the gasoline in the bilge. We were saved by the last-minute thought to include a full fire extinguisher out of one of the planes while we cranked her with a new battery. She had 90 gallons of gasoline in 2 - 45 gallon drums. That taught us why there was a strange screen, not a filter and why one should not remove it from the carburetor throat).

Our real purpose (how we got money out of the boss for Hazel) was we flew float planes out of Seal Cove for a small airline. There was no boat on the dock. We argued that Hazel would make a good crash boat! We took her poles off so she would go under an airplane wing. Only thing was, being rather new to wooden boats, after we had been cruising the harbour for a few weeks, we realized that under all the rocks piled in her bilge, her planks were rotten. That was logical as she hadn't moved for years as the old gentleman sort of congealed inside her...anyway, she was donated to the fledgling cannery museum, she was restored to her former fishing-configuration glory, her rotten bottom was cut off and she sits on her "waterline" in the museum, hopefully preserved forever.

WOW ....

What a story.
In the distant past I had an old troller too.
So glad the Port Edwards cannery is still there.

West said:

The demise of the cannery came with the offshore factory ships.

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I don't think that's true. Canneries on the BC coast peaked in 1917, when there were 94 operating, supplied by over 5,000 gillnetters.

Then the world changed, mechanization and transportation became big issues, little guys could not compete. Canneries moved to the rail-heads at Prince Rupert and Vancouver. We destroyed the resource; blocking rivers (hell's gate slide just one) and wrecking spawning grounds, coupled with mismanagement of the fishery itself.

By the time deep-sea fishing vessels showed up in the 1970's, the industry was already in steep decline......

Tad Roberts said:

I don't think that's true. Canneries on the BC coast peaked in 1917, when there were 94 operating, supplied by over 5,000 gillnetters.

Then the world changed, mechanization and transportation became big issues, little guys could not compete. Canneries moved to the rail-heads at Prince Rupert and Vancouver. We destroyed the resource; blocking rivers (hell's gate slide just one) and wrecking spawning grounds, coupled with mismanagement of the fishery itself.

By the time deep-sea fishing vessels showed up in the 1970's, the industry was already in steep decline......

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You may be right, that statement was made based on my recollection of what was written on one of the Historic timeline plaques throughout the Heritage Museum grounds.

West said:

Yes.
Nice, what wood finish?

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Yowzza! Nice BIF shot Dude!!

I don't remember what wood it's made of. The newer fancy-pants ones are made of cherry.

Xsbank said:

...as the old gentleman sort of congealed inside her...

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A great story with an unforgetable line.

Thanks!

MurrayM said:

I don't remember what wood it's made of. The newer fancy-pants ones are made of cherry.

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Not sure if the numbers correspond to the camera model, but this may be of interest ... or not

http://www.wista.co.jp/e_wista/e_show/e_camera/e_camera.htm

Xsbank said:

If you go to the cannery museum in Port Edward, take look at Hazel, the little gill netter in there.

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Xsbank--- Remind me where Port Edward is. I know where Seal Cove is, of course. Been in and our of there many times. But not sure about Port Edward. Sounds like a good excuse for a road trip across the border. Thanks.

Not sure what this is, but it's beautiful looking. Obviously not a boat for planing, but she sure is flat out back.

West said:

Not sure if the numbers correspond to the camera model, but this may be of interest ... or not

http://www.wista.co.jp/e_wista/e_show/e_camera/e_camera.htm

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Thanks a bunch for the link! Nice to know it was made by hand in small Japanese villages as opposed to churned out by some computer controlled spirit suffocating machine.

Pretty sure it's a 45DX and is indeed a fancy-pants cherrywood camera...at least it's not one of those ostentatious, over the top, fancy-dancy-pants rosewood or ebony Wista's.

Marin said:

Xsbank--- Remind me where Port Edward is. I know where Seal Cove is, of course. Been in and our of there many times. But not sure about Port Edward. Sounds like a good excuse for a road trip across the border. Thanks.

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Well it's a long way across the border. Port Edward is a few miles south of Prince Rupert. When you pass the Ridley Island terminal entering PR, Port Ed is behind it, on Porpoise Harbour where the old pulp mill is. The canneries were all along Inverness Channel, which leads south from Port Ed to the Skeena.

Take the ferry from Port Hardy or drive via Prince George and Terrace.

Greetings,
Mr. hh. Friendly Cove II is listed as being built by Provincial Boat and Marine in Kensington (I assume BC.) Yup, shes' purdy...
http://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur/4/vrqs-srib/eng/vessel-registrations/details/826778

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. hh. Friendly Cove II is listed as being built by Provincial Boat and Marine in Kensington (I assume BC.) Yup, shes' purdy...
Details for registered vessel FRIENDLY COVE II (O.N. 826778)

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PEI....that's no BC boat

Provincial Boat and Marine – Manufacturers of 42' and 45' Fiberglass Fishing and Pleasure Boats in Eastern Canada

Tad Roberts said:

Take the ferry from Port Hardy or drive via Prince George and Terrace.

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Thanks. We've done the Vancouver-Cache Creek-Prince George-Terrace run several times. Looks like a good excuse to do it again.

Greetings,
Mr. TR. Apologies. My Canadian geographic knowledge is somewhat lacking but since the vessel was registered in Victoria BC. I assumed it to be BC built.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. TR. Apologies. My Canadian geographic knowledge is somewhat lacking but since the vessel was registered in Victoria BC. I assumed it to be BC built.

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NP RT.....it's an odd regional thing. BC used to build a lot of fiberglass, we don't any more. The Maritimes do fiberglass very well, as does Maine south of the border. Now all new build in BC is aluminum....market forces at work....it's almost impossible to find a fiberglass guy here.....

What's wrong with (ahem) aluminum?

Thanks for that description of the Port Edward location.

I spent a couple of weeks at the old Sunnyside Cannery at Port Edward sometime in the '60s. Very cool.