SS Master

• Year Built: 1922
• Flag: Canada
• LOA: 85’
• Beam: 19’5”
• Draft: 9’ 2”
• Engine: Triple Expansion Steam Engine
• Builder: Arthur Moscrop
• Gross Tonnage: 225 tonnes
• Home Port: Steveston, BC

One of only a few remaining steam-powered tugboats, the SS Master was built in 1922 at Beach Avenue Shipyard in False Creek. Designed and built by renowned tugboat builder Arthur Moscrop, the SS Master still operates with her original WW1 surplus steam engine. Throughout her life, the SS Master worked the waters of the Pacific Northwest towing logs and barges throughout the region. Retired and left for scrap in 1962, the SS Master was purchased for $500 and has since undergone extensive restorations.

Providence

• Year Built: 1903
• Flag: Canadian
• LOA: 80’
• Beam: 18’
• Draft: 7’ 1”
• Builder: Nielson & Son, Denmark
• Gross Tonnage: 36.39 tonnes
• Home Port: Steveston, BC

Providence was built in 1903 as a North Sea anchor seiner by Nielson & Son of Frederikshavn, Denmark. In 1939, after several decades of active work fishing in the North Sea, she was chartered to the Danish Navy. From 1939 until 1976, Providence, struck from the civil registry and given the naval call sign Y340, served in the Danish Navy, German Navy and Danish Home Guard. In 1978, she was bought by Peter-Thor Watson and sailed to BC where she has lived and worked ever since. In early 2017, Providence was sold to Simon Fawkes and Danny Robertson who plan to work her in sail cargo and as a charter in the Salish Sea and along the West Coast. She is well equipped with a full galley (kitchen), 2 heads (bathrooms), a large salon, a large wheelhouse and overnight berths for up to 15 guests and crew.

Pacific Yellowfin

• Year Built: 1942/43
• Flag: Canadian
• LOA: 113’
• Beam: 27’
• Draft: 11’ 1’
• Engine: Atlas Imperial diesel
• Builder: H.C. Hanson
• Gross Tonnage: 443 tonnes
• Home Port: Richmond, BC

Built in 1943 as a U.S. military vessel, the Pacific Yellowfin traversed the globe, eluded detection, and stored her mysteries. Initially built as a sturdy passenger and freight vessel, she protected the North American coastline, including Alaska’s stunning Aleutian Islands. Once decommissioned, she went on to play a part in many government research voyages, where she was lightheartedly re-named the Yellowfin. After accommodating millionaires, mischief-makers and rapscallions, she makes an inspiring and wonderfully adventure-worthy vessel now she travels as an exclusive private charter yacht, owned by charismatic storyteller, Captain Colin Griffinson.

Gikumi

• Year Built: 1954
• Flag: Canadian
• LOA: 60’
• Beam: 17’
• Draft: 6’ 2”
• Engine: Caterpillar Diesel 3406C
• Designer: Robert Allan Sr.
• Builder: Bisset & Gilstein, North Vancouver
• Gross Tonnage: 42 tonnes
• Home Port: Richmond, BC

From her launch on Labour Day 1954 to the early eighties Gikumi worked delivering freight and towed logs and scows out of her home port of Telegraph Cove. She even did some ship docking and worked as a pilot boat over her long career. When the mill closed in Telegraph cove Gikumi became BC first whale watching vessel and remained in Telegraph Cove providing tours to the spectacular Broughton Archipelago until 2017.

The renowned Naval Architect Robert Allan Sr. designed this famous west coast work boat to service the Broughton Lumber and Trading Company saw mill in Telegraph Harbour. She was built by Bisset and Gilstein boatyard in North Vancouver. The name “Gikumi” means “Chief” in the tongue of the Namgis First Nation (Alert Bay) in the dialect know as Kwakwala.

Midnight Sun

• Year Built: 1938
• Flag: Canadian
• LOA: 80’
• Beam: 22’
• Draft: 12’
• Engine: Caterpillar Diesel D353
• Home Port: Vancouver, BC

Midnight Sun was built in 1938 for Nootka Packing Company at North Van Ship Repair Ltd. which later became part of Burrard Dry-dock. She was built as a table seiner and packed herring and pilchards in the early days. In the early fishing years, the vessel had a crew of eight. Due to advances in technology, this was later reduced to six, consisting of skipper, engineer, cook and three deck-hand. In the late 1940’s she operated as a herring and salmon seiner. She has fished from the Bering Sea (Alaska) to the US West Coast.

In May of 2001, the Midnight Sun under went an extensive conversion/refit. The work commenced at French Creek on Vancouver Island, BC. Midnight Sun was eventually moved to Steveston, BC, outside of Vancouver to complete the conversion/refit. A complete shop was constructed for the project. With the work force of local tradesmen, the project continued through to 2005. Brad Scott of French Creek served as Project Manager supervising hundreds of different trades performing tens of thousands of different tasks.

Delta Lifeboat

• Year Built: 1944
• Flag: Canada
• LOA: 52’
• Beam: 12’ 8”
• Draft: 5’
• Engine: Detroit G.M.
• Engine (hp): 157
• Builder: U.S. Navy
• Gross Tonnage: 30 tonnes
• Home Port: Ladner, BC

The Delta Lifeboat was built in Pearl Harbour in 1944. She operates out of Ladner under the flag of the Canadian Lifeboat Institution (CLI) and the City of Delta. The CLI is a volunteer Search and Rescue organization whose main objective is to patrol during certain fisheries and other events and to prevent accidents at sea. We are a search and rescue partner working together with professionals and other volunteers to save lives at sea.

The CLI dedicates much of its service conducting safety patrols especially during herring and salmon fisheries to ensure assistance is always close at hand. The all-volunteer crew continue to provide search and rescue services in the Gulf of Georgia and Fraser Estuary. As of today over 890 marine incidents have been handled by the Delta Lifeboat.

Double Eagle

• Year Built: 1948
• Flag: Canadian
• LOA: 60’
• Beam: 17,8’
• Home Port: Vancouver

Double Eagle was designed by J. Barnes Lusby and was the last of the custom yachts built by the M. M. Davis & Son yard on Solomon Island, Chesapeake Bay. She was commissioned by George Marshall Jones Jr., a prominent member of Massachusetts society and a direct descendant of John Alden of the Mayflower. Following completion, she was launched as Jupiter and she can be found listed in many New England maritime publications and in the book “Last Generation” a history of the Chesapeake Bay shipbuilding family Davis and Sons by Geoffrey Footner. Jones and his extended family cruised the yacht for nearly 30 years. After that she changed hands a few times, making her way down to Texas and through the Panama Canal and finally up to San Diego, California. It was there that we found her and brought her up to her new home port of Vancouver, British Columbia.

MV Burnaby

• Year Built: 1925
• Flag: Canadian
• LOA: 34’
• Beam: 9’ 1”
• Draft: 5’ 1”
• Engine: 30hp, 3 Cylinder Easthope
• Home Port: Steveston, BC

Built as a patrol boat with utility tug capabilities for the administration of the Port of Vancouver, the MV Burnaby is approaching her 100th year. The tug represents a class of small tugs that were developed in British Columbia to meet the needs of the logging industry. The Burnaby also spent a good part of her mid-life as a camp boat in the Simoon Sound area for a logging company.

From her plumb bow stem, through the long narrow hull, to her fan tail stern, the MV Burnaby represents the small wooden tugs that proliferated on the BC coast in the first half of the 20th century. In Vancouver harbour, they were well suited to assisting the smaller ships to dock or moving small timbered barges around, while in the up coast logging camps they towed booms, float camps, and A-frames. This boat would also have taken crews to small ports where they could catch the steamer back to Vancouver.

Silver Ann

• Year Built: 1969
• Flag: Canadian
• LOA: 37’
• Beam: 9’ 6”
• Draft: 3’ 6”
• Engine: Ford I-6 Series 240 gas engine
• Builder: Sadajiro Asari
• Gross Tonnage: 8.84 tonnes
• Home Port: Steveston, BC

Built in 1969 the Silver Ann was one of the last wooden gillnetters to be fabricated in Steveston on the banks of the Fraser River. It was built at the Richmond Boat Builders building located now at Britannia Shipyards National Historic Site. This wooden gillnetter was commissioned by George Osaka and named the Silver Ann to commemorate his silver wedding anniversary. It was built by Sadajiro Asari who built boats on Sea Island. He was one of more than 20 Japanese boat builders in township of Richmond during the early development of the fishing industry. Each fishing cannery had its own boat builders on site.

George Osaka fished with the Silver Ann for fifteen years from 1969 to 1984 until his retirement when he sold it to David Hoffman. In November 2001, the Silver Ann was acquired by the City of Richmond to undergo a complete restoration in the Richmond Boat Builders.

Jimmy Ng

• Year Built: 2004
• Flag: Canada
• LOA: 28’
• Home Port: Steveston, BC

This boat is named after fallen RCMP officer Jimmy Ng, who volunteered with the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCMSAR) in his hometown of Richmond. With a top speed of 39 knots, RCMSAR volunteers crew this vessel when responding to distress situations in the Fraser River and the Strait of Georgia. Members go through extensive training before they qualify as Search and Rescue (SAR) crew. In addition, the volunteer organization contributes hundreds of hours annually in support of boating safety in the community. RCMSAR Richmond Station 10 leverages two dedicated response vessels (DRV) that are considered Fast Response Craft (FRC). Both are Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIB) designed to taken on the environment, keep our volunteers safe, and bring those in trouble home.

B.R. Hastings

• Year Built: 2005
• Flag: Canada
• LOA: 32’
• Draft: 3’
• Home Port: Steveston, BC

This boat is named after long time Royal Canadian Marine Search (RCMSAR) and Rescue Richmond Search and Rescue volunteer Barry Hastings. With a top speed of 39 knots, RCMSAR volunteers crew this vessel when responding to distress situations in the Fraser River and the Strait of Georgia. RCMSAR Richmond Station 10 leverages two dedicated response vessels (DRV) that are considered Fast Response Craft (FRC). Both are Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIB) designed to taken on the environment, keep our volunteers safe, and bring those in trouble home.