The Vancouver Branch of the World Ship Society (otherwise known as The World Ship Society of British Columbia) welcomes any World Ship Society member, as well as visitors, to its monthly meetings. If you think you might be interested in finding out what we do, please attend one of our monthly meetings as our guest. All visitors are warmly welcomed.
Upcoming Programs and Activities
JANUARY 2010 — Wednesday January 13th, 2010 — Two presentaions are slated for this evening's entertainment. The first is a slide show in digital format by Ellen Ramsay, entitled "London's Inland Waterways: Regent's Canal and the Thames". This will be followed by another slide presentation by Mike Brown concentrating on the longshore activity in Port Metro Vancouver..
FEBRUARY 2010 — meeting cancelled due to Olympics activities - due to the unusual amount of security being undertaken around the waterfront during the 2010 Winter Olympics, a decision was made to cancel this month's meeting - many members indicated that they are not willing to drive in the City during this period, and others are fleeing the City altogether
MARCH 2010 — Wednesday March 10th, 2010 — Ray Warren is preparing a slide show entitled "Warbuilt Standard Ships in Peacetime - Part 2". It will cover the American built standard C(cargo) and T(tanker) types and illustrate some of the interesting and unusual conversions they underwent for peacetime uses. Some of the smaller sub classes of tankers and warbuilt tugs will be included.
APRIL 2010 — Wednesday April 14th, 2009 — T.B.A.
Recent Meeting Notes
JANUARY 2010 — Wednesday January 13th, 2010. Ray Warren, President of the World Ship Society, Vancouver Branch launched the 2010 public program with a welcome to members and a log of seaworthy events. Of local interest was the news that the CSCL Hamburg, a 4,250 TEU (twenty foot equivalent units) container ship built in 2001 belonging to the Seaspan Corporation’s 42 container ship fleet ran aground in the Gulf of Aquaba, Egypt on December 31, 2009 while en route to Singapore. According to news sources there were no personal injuries and no oil spills and the insurer is expected to cover the repair costs. The company is coordinating the recovery of the vessel with the Egyptian authorities. WSS member Ray Parkinson then gave members a brief political history of the National Maritime Museum project from the 1980s. He explained that the A-frame St. Roch building is Federal Government property and classified as a museum dealing with cultural artifacts and thus is secure as an independent site, however it was never feasible to build a Maritime Museum of the Pacific at this location because the dock is too shallow to accommodate visiting tall ships. Coal Harbour had therefore been proposed as an alternative site at the time when the Trade and Convention Center was being discussed but the plans failed to materialize. The National Maritime Center for the Pacific and the Arctic on the North Shore therefore emerged with the City of North Vancouver working on the plans for five to ten years to be funded by the three levels of government. The current work in North Vancouver is in tact for 50 years funded by high-rise and condo development. Unfortunately this week however the provincial government announced that it has rescinded any further funding for the project due to budget changes. The city of North Vancouver is confident nonetheless that it can go ahead with some changes of its own. Ray Parkinson concluded that this was all part of the process of launching such a project and while it is a protracted process it reflects the usual ebb and flow of politics.Joan Thornley, the Society’s Recording Secretary, gave an account of the first executive meeting for 2010. She informed members that most of the directors’ discussion focused on the forthcoming program for 2010 and 2011 and that the society looks in good shape for the public talks. She asked if any members have ideas for speakers or suggestions for topics that they bring them to the attention of an executive member. The executive will be meeting on a regular basis now whereas in past years they have met more informally.The January program commenced with a presentation by Ellen Ramsay entitled, “London’s Historic Inland Waterways: The Regent’s Canal and the Thames.” The talk was divided into two parts. The first part dealing with the Regent’s Canal, looked at the golden age of canals from the 1770s to the 1830s. The narrowboats (the correct name for canal boats) that traversed England’s national system of canals predated the national rail system and quickly replaced the horse and cart for carrying heavy loads. The narrowboats were able to carry ten times more than a horse could pull — up to a weight of 30 tons of coal — were just 6 feet 10 inches wide, 30 feet long with a headroom of 6 feet. The boats were often designed to the exact maximum that the canal and locks would allow in order to maximize the profit. John Nash who designed the Regent’s canal originally intended it to run through Regent’s Park, but the final plans had the canal run around the Outer Circle Road on the north side of the park.
The canal was completed in 1820 and the fill from the canal was used to build the picturesque Primrose Hill just north of the Prince Albert Road. In 1929 the Regent’s Canal merged with the Grand Union Canal from the Midlands allowing for a 136 mile run with 166 locks. Post-war reindustrialization and the advent of trains and highways contributed to the decline in the canals and today the inner city section of the Regent’s canal is primarily used by leisure and tourist boats such as Jason’s Canal Boat Trips (est. 1951). Pedestrian and cycling commuters use the towpaths.‡
The second part of the talk illustrated the recent attempt by the city of London to use the Thames Waterway for commuter traffic. In 1999 Sean Collins and Alan Woods began a transit service with one boat under license from London Transport. The business, known as Thames Clipper, has expanded to 12 catamarans and has been bought by the Anschutz Entertainment Group operating from Millbank to Royal Arsenal Woolwich. The catamarans hold up to 220 seats, are 38 metres long and 9.3 metres wide with a beam of 9.6 metres and can operate up to 28 knots with rapid acceleration from a 965 horsepower “quickshift transmission” twin propeller engine. The fleet is not yet fully integrated into the public transport system but transit cardholders receive a 33% reduction in price. Ellen Ramsay used digitalized images in her talk to illustrate the sights along both waterways. Questions followed with members enquiring about the boating on the inland waterways in more detail.
DECEMBER 2009 — Wednesday December 9th, 2009 — Our December meeting opened with the Branch's Annual General Meeting. All officers’ reports were read and adopted. The out-going President, Syd Heal reiterated the need for a succession strategy for younger members to take office. The Treasurer and Membership Secretary, Glenn Smith, reported on the healthy maintenance of the membership (180 subscriptions to the Ship’s Log) and explained the very slight fall in revenue due to the decline in sales of postcards, books, raffle tickets and contributions towards refreshments at meetings. A full slate of officers, including two new members, was voted in with Ray Warren now the new President, Syd Heal the new Vice-President, Glenn Smith continuing as Secretary-Treasurer, Cecil Woods as Editor of the Ship’s Log, Joan Thornley as Recording Secretary and Neil England and Ellen Ramsay as Members at Large. Seasonal refreshments organized by June Etchell and music by Glenn Smith followed the Annual General Meeting
The monthly program commenced with a selection of slides provided by Andy Kilk from San Francisco Bay area of all varieties of ships at international ports presented by Bill Etchell. James Conwell then gave an overview of the port of San Francisco explaining the complexity of the port structure which is really nine conjoined bays including South and Central San Francisco, Richardson, San Pablo and Suisun, the latter two being connected by Carquinez Strait. While the area of the Bay is large at 400 square miles, the navigable portion of the bay is relatively small with an average depth of 15 feet. This depth is due in part to the hydraulic (placer) gold mining in the late 1800s. Jim described the ship building significance in the historic Bay area and then pointed out that now the Bay area is used for cruise ships and some container ships at the Oakland Container Terminal. Jim gave members three pamphlets published by the Naval and Maritime Museum and the Sausalito Historical Society that celebrate the port’s past and draw attention to the eight maritime museums in the Bay area.
Robert Etchell gave the third presentation with photographs taken with his new digital camera on his trip to Newcastle Island in Nanaimo Harbour. Robert showed the historic Newcastle Island Pavilion now run by the Snuneymuxw First Nations’ People – a pavilion that has been used for dances and weddings over the decades and is an historic building in its own right. Robert also showed photographs of working boats and other vessels off Tyee Point and Marks Bay between Newcastle and Protection Islands. Next he showed an extensive collection of excellent photos of the QUEEN OF PRINCE RUPERT commemorating the ferry’s 43rd and final year of sailing. The ferry had been built in 1966 by the Victoria Machinery Depot Co and served the Inside Passage until its decommissioning on April 20, 2009.
The final presentation of the evening was a display and presentation by Ray Parkinson of some small books from his huge collection of historical memorabilia. This year he brought items from the 1950s of the early minstrel shows and illustrated the links to the blacking tradition of the Lancashire coalfield. He also explained how this part of his collection had brought him into friendship with John and June Pender and Harold Steves of Steveston.
The evening’s presentations and entertainment were brought promptly to an end at 9:45 with the museum staff coming in to put away the chairs — despite the fact that there were still two presentations to be shown. In all the evening had been a success and many thanks go to the people who contributed to its success. [EH 12.2009]
Ed. Notes: Those presenters who were unable to give their presentations due to time constraints, will become the basis for the January 2010 program. Our thanks to Ellen Ramsay for the detailed write-up of each of our programs since November 2009.
NOVEMBER 2009 — Wednesday November 11th, 2009 — Our November meeting opened with a reminder from the President Syd Heal that the December meeting will begin with the AGM and that since the organization has an aging profile he expects younger people to take over more of the responsibilities of the organization. If this does not happen there may have to be changes to the organizational structure of the branch and to the monthly meetings.
The November speaker was Mr. Cary Dicerni of Subsea Solutions Alliance, an underwater ship maintenance company specializing in significant repairs to ships while they are still in the water rather than in the dry dock to reduce the loss of production time. All-Sea Enterprises group (est. 1978), the Vancouver branch of Subsea Solutions Alliance (est. 2002), and its sister organizations around the world are able to mobilize to any part of the world in 24 to 48 hours. The group currently has standing contracts with Rolls Royce and Wartsila Propulsion and fulfills warranty repairs for other companies.
All-Sea Enterprises offers four main innovative underwater service repairs: Stern seal replacement and repair, permanent shell plating replacement and repair; machinery replacement and repair; and underwater inspection and maintenance. The company uses a variety of airlift bags to do dry repair to propellers and inserts Transhabs (air balloon environments) to repair the aft propeller shaft seals. The company custom fits the Transhab around the shaft and a trained technician descends into the secure air environment to conduct repairs just as if the ship was in the dry dock. Attention is paid to safety at all times and all environmental controls are observed.
Mr. Dicerni stressed that ship maintenance is very important to the performance and cost of running ships and All-Sea is able calibrate the propellers with the engine, and eliminate cavitations and harmonics on older ships. Members and guests of the WSS received the speaker with great interest and there were many questions both during and after the presentation. Don Brown, June Etchell, Syd Heal, Anthon Dekkers, David Chamberlain, Robert Etchell and others in attendance raised pertinent points for discussion and Mr. Dicerni answered each question with attention to detail. [report by Ellen L. Ramsay]
OCTOBER 2009 — Wednesday October 14th, 2009 — Just about everything that could go wrong, did go wrong! We lost the power cord to the projector. So we borrowed another projector—only that one wasn’t working well. With no other choice, Syd Heal went ahead with his talk about his latest publication “Canadian Capers” (which is detailed on Page 30). Syd gave us a very interesting in-depth history of the author, Svein Stokke, and his maritime activities over the years, including his involvement with the Washington Marine Group of companies. Near the end of his talk, we did manage to get some of the images shown, but hopefully we can re-run the slide presentation part of the talk on another night.
SEPTEMBER 2009 — Wednesday September 9th, 2009 — The September meeting at the Vancouver Maritime Museum featured an illustrated slide show presented by Ray Warren. The subject was the wartime standard ships taken after the war at Vancouver. For those of us able to remember when the wharves and docks around the harbour here often full with American-built Liberties and Victories, Canadian-built Forts and Parks and British Empire types, it was a journey into nostalgia. In those days ships looked like ships with funnels amidships and a gracefulness that today's ships have difficulty in emulating. Today's ships too often look like barges with an exhausts so far aft that they look like they are ready to fall off over their broad transom sterns. Thanks Ray for an interesting presentation‡ [SCH]
