Site Navigation:

Site Search:

Looking for more? Search for Articles on the Nauticapedia Site.

Vancouver's Fleet of
Former US Navy APc Vessels

by George Duddy 2014 (Updated 2016 for APc–39)

After the Second World War several Vancouver individuals and companies purchased former US naval vessels for use in the coastal transportation, tug boat and fishing industries. The vessels featured in this article are of the APc-1 Class. They were 103-foot wooden-hulled small coastal transports constructed in American yards for the US Navy and for the British under the Lend-Lease Program. Sixty-nine were commissioned into the US Navy for service during World War II. Sixty of these vessels were employed in the Pacific Theatre and the remaining nine were assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. Great Britain returned many of its Lend-Lease vessels to the US Navy following the war.

APc-15

USS APc-15 on trials 6th October 1942
(US Archives Photo No. 19-N-38017)
On Dec 26 1943 She earned a Battle Star fighting off enemy aircraft - Her Commanding Officer Lt.(jg) Kemper Goffigon, III, USNR was awarded the Navy Cross

The intended employment and specifications of the vessels including their names and numbering, building and commissioning dates and final dispositions are described in the Shipscribe "US Navy Auxiliary Ships APc-1 Class". Each vessel commissioned into the US Navy was unnamed but given a numerical designation incorporating its sequence number e.g. USS APc-15.

Several of the APc vessels received battle stars for combat while crew members earned medals for valour. For the Vancouver fleet the author is aware of and cites two worthy examples. A battle star was earned by USS APc-15 for her air defence against an attacking force of 20-25 Japanese zeros and dive bombers off New Britain in the Southwest Pacific. A Wikipedia article documents the actions of USS APc-25 in 1943 in rescuing survivors from the sinking of attack transport USS John Penn. Later that same month the article relates she was attacked by enemy aircraft and is thought to have shot down a Japanese zero fighter plane. The USS APc-22 and the USS APc-26 also earned battle stars.

Details of the exploits of the men and ships of the APc class in the South Pacific are described in David D. Bruhn's well researched book "MacArthur and Halsey's Pacific Island Hoppers, The Forgotten Fleet of World War II". A description of the book and other information about the vessels including a complete listing of the awards earned by their crews and the battle stars awarded to the ships can be found on his website. Also included are APc ship plans in TIFF electronic format that were procured by this article's author from the US National Archives. A copy of the file was sent to the Maritime Museum of British Columbia in Victoria.

Following the war, the US Navy disposed of the small coastal transports. Eleven of these were eventually registered in Vancouver as Canadian vessels. For quick reference, a table of key data linking vessel registration numbers to the various names used and relevant dates of their working lives is provided below:

Registration Number 178052
Name 1 1943 USS APc-32
Name 2 1947 Sekani
Name 3 1950 Wilmae Straits
Name 4 1963 Enterprise (XII)
Fate 1970 Foundered & Sank in Storm, Crew of 8 Perished
Location North of Sydney NS, Atlantic Ocean
 
Registration Number 179053
Name 1 1943 USS APc-26
Name 2 1947 George M. Lindsay
Name 3 1962 La Belle (II)
Name 4 1963 Calm C
Name 5 1964 Calm Sea
Fate 1973 Flooded & Sank in Hurricane, Captain Perished
Location North of Bermuda, Atlantic Ocean
 
Registration Number 179077
Name 1 1943 USS APc-15
Name 2 1947 Gulf Trader
Name 3 1948 La Belle (I)
Name 4 1963 Black Trader
Fate 1998 Thought to have Capsized & Sank
Location Fraser River Slough, BC
 
Registration Number 179478
Name 1 1943 USS APc-39
Name 2 1948 Nahmint
Fate 1995 Sank
Location Gunderson Slough, BC
 
Registration Number 192059
Name 1 1944 USS APc-111
Name 2 1947 Coastal Trader (US)
Name 3 1949 Sea QueenIII
Name 4 1961 La Fleur
Name 5 1962 T-W Sea Queen
Fate 1972 Burned and Sank, Total Loss
Location Queen Charlotte Sound, BC
 
Registration Number 192067
Name 1 1943 USS APc-25
Name 2 1947 Coastal Trader II (US)
Name 3 1949 Cape Scott
Name 4 2009 Cape Cross (US)
Fate 2010 Stranded on Reef& Flooded, Refloated
Location Now on Beach near Seward Alaska
 
Registration Number 192495
Name 1 1943 USS APc-50 ?
Name 2 1950 Northern Girl
Name 3 1971 Loughborough Princess
Fate 2008 Registration Suspended
Location Thought to have gone to the Philippines
 
Registration Number 192870
Name 1 1943 USS APc-96
Name 2 1950 Sea Prince
Name 3 1960 Le Prince (1)
Name 4 1962 T-W Sea Prince
Name 5 1967 Sea Prince
Fate 1984 Burned, & Sank, Total Loss, one crew perished
Location Near Hornby Island, BC
 
Registration Number 193770
Name 1 1943 USS APc-3
Name 2 1951 P.B. Anderson
Name 3 1963 T-W Zelley
Fate 1966 Sank, Total Loss
Location Off Cox Point, West Coast of VI, BC
 
Registration Number 193771
Name 1 1943 USS APc-7 ?
Name 2 1951 Sea Lark II
Name 3 1956 M.J. Scanlon
Fate 1965 Sold: Registration transferred to Bahamas
Location Details Unknown, towed to Seattle 1968
 
Registration Number 193790
Name 1 1943 USS APc-22
Name 2 1949 Stormbird (US)
Name 3 1951 La Dene (I)
Name 4 1962 Anna D (US)
Fate 1963 Foundered
Location False Pass, Alaska, USA

The hulk of a twelfth vessel presently lying in Deas Island Slough near Vancouver previously thought to have been the old rum runner Audrey B. has also been identified by the author as being of the APc class. To date, it has not been possible to identify the specific one as it is thought she was never registered in Canada or the United States. The hulk is presently scheduled for demolition.

La Belle

La Belle (ex APc-15) during her working life as a tug Vancouver Tug Boat Co.
(City of Vancouver Archives, AM782-6, Negative 540)

Links to the Nauticapedia vessel data base in Canadian registration order from US Navy designations are provided in the table.The data base entries have been extensively updated as part of the preparation of this article. The entries provide technical, ownership and anecdotal data for each vessel including photographs. The anecdotal data focusing on rare events and the ultimate fates of the vessels tends to be negative, sometimes relating extremely tragic events. It overshadows to some extent what is not reported but is inferred, their long important commercial service. This service resulted in thousands of sections of logs being towed to mills, millions of pounds of fish being caught and transported to shore plants and untold numbers of barge loads of wood chips and hog fuel safely tied up at coastal pulp and paper mills. As well the vessels furnished mines, marine communities and fish camps with supplies and the necessities that allowed them to exist in remote locations.

The APc vessels with their stout wooden hulls and powerful diesel engines were extremely versatile. When equipped with large towing winches they made good tugs and their large cargo holds also made them suitable for freighting purposes. With a speed of about 10 knots they were particularly suitable for fish packing where catches had to be quickly transported to processing facilities - indeed some operators such as the Dolmage Group were able to use some of their fleet seasonally for both towing and fish packing. Importantly, they became available at “give away” prices at the end of the war when companies were looking for fleet replacements, expansions and upgrading from steam to diesel power. The conversion and overhaul of the vessels purchased gave local shipyards valuable work and helped them to fill the void left after cessation of war building activities.

Most of the APc vessels started their civilian lives or were involved with the tow boat industry. There were three however that were never involved: APc-39 became Nahmint, APc-25 became Cape Scott (Canadian) and APc-50? became Northern Girl.

Nahmint APc-39

Nahmint (ex APc-39) at BC Packers Celtic Shipyard (City of Richmond Archives, Photograph #1999 6 1385)

Although original registry documents do not indicate that the Nahmint registered by BC Packers in 1948 was APc-39, there can be little doubt based on Shipscribe and NavSource data that this must be the former US Navy vessel. The Shipscribe documents indicate she was sold in 1948 to Rupert Fish Co. Ltd. This company was a known subsidiary of BC Packers. As well, building dates, builder and engine type are in conformance with the registry records. Unlike any other vessels of this class Nahmint spend her early days with the whaling industry as a catcher boat. According to Dale Vinnedge's book “Pacific Northwest's Whaling Coast”, she was BC Packers contribution to the Western Whaling Corporation, a consortium formed by BC Packers, Nelson Brothers Fisheries and WF Gibson & Sons. The book indicates she was a former US minesweeper but this may be in error. The builder Anderson and Christofani did build six Accentor class ships but these hull types were shorter than Nahmint and had a different make of engine. Further, they were built in 1941 and 1942 whereas APc-39 was built in 1943. After Japanese interests joined the original consortium and the organization became the Western Canadian Whaling Company (and more modern steel steam-driven whale catchers were mobilized), Nahmint was used both as fish packer and herring seiner in the BC Packers fleet. She was converted into a herring seiner in the early 1970s. Unlike many of her sisters, she did not travel to Canada's east coast when reduction herring fishing on the west coast was closed. Her career with BC Packers extended until 1991 when she was reportedly sold to Kak Fishing Ltd Vancouver. She sank in Gunderson Slough, BC in 1995.

Cape Scott

Cape Scott (ex APc-25) a packer at sea, UBC Library Digital Collection Image BC 1532/541/1 (with Permission from Fisherman Publishing Society)

The dean of the Vancouver APc fleet surely must be the fish packer Cape Scott (ex APc-25). Prior to being brought to Canada she worked in the fishing industry in the United States under the US registered name of Coastal Trader II. She spent her entire Canadian service from 1949 until 2008 working for the Canadian Fishing Company under her originally registered Canadian name of Cape Scott. Before being registered as a Canadian vessel she was stripped down to her hull, her superstructures and rigging replaced and her engine overhauled at the Sperling Shipyard. In 2008 after nearly sixty years of Canadian service she was sold and returned to US registration and renamed as the fish packer Cape Cross. Her second US career, in contrast to her Canadian one, was unfortunately short. She struck a reef in Main Bay in western Prince William Sound in Alaska on July 26, 2010 and was swamped with the rising tide as she lay on her side. Her moments of agony are captured in a photograph for an August 19, 2010 entry on the website Deckboss. She was subsequently refloated and towed to Seward Alaska where she now rests on a nearby beach. Her name has been taken by a newer vessel and her registration number is no longer active in the USCG registry system.

The references attached to the Wikipedia article previously cited regarding the war service of USS APc-25 provides links to two fine colour photographs of the Cape Scott taken from the Canadian Fishing Company dock in Vancouver. The first shows her bow area while the second her stern.

Another vessel with nearly as long a service on the coast as the Cape Scott and one that never saw service as a tug was the freighting vessel Northern Girl. She was originally acquired by fishermen Jure Vukic and John Mijacika and registered in 1952. She was one of five vessels originally built by Lynch Shipyards in San Diego. Her APc number is not identified in the registration documents but she can only be one of two vessels, either APc-47 or APc-50, as the others are accounted for. She is probably APc-50 as this vessel was delivered to a Seattle firm after the war while APc-47 was delivered to Cdr. Arthur A. Anderson in Sacramento.

Little is known about her early Vancouver life. She is thought to have been employed as a fish packer. Vukic was lost overboard from a fish boat in 1959 and Mijacika died of a heart attack at sea the same year. Based on the following photograph, she seems to have undergone similar modification to her superstructure as the Cape Scott and other vessels.

Northern Girl

View of the Northern Girl, UBC Library Digital Collection Image BC 1532/904/1
(with Permission from Fisherman Publishing Society)

It appears the vessel was operated by the widows and families of these owners until 1965 when she was acquired by Loggers Freight Service Ltd from an estate sale. Don Harrison and his partner Harry Hansen operated this firm until 1970. The author has recently been in contact with Don. This is a recollection of the vessels freighting career he previous provided to the Westcoast Fishermans' website.

We started business leasing Harold Clay's Arrowak Freighter. She finally got so loaded on freight days we were forced to start looking for a bigger vessel. As you are more than likely aware 2 fishermen owned the Northern Girl however one of them went over the side and drowned and within a very short time the other fella died. The Girl was then part of an estate and we bought her. We hauled all of the explosives into Tasu Sound on the Charlottes for the iron mine. Also lots of freight to camps. At the time Harry Terry of Northland Nav. dropped freight at Allison Harbour rather than go into Seymour Inlet. We told Nalos and the other camps we would drop their stuff on their floats so we were the first freight outfit to do this. We struggled and competed with Sparky and Bill New, Coast Ferries and it turned out neither of us was making money so the end came when we sold the Girl to Coast Ferries. They ran her for a while but she backed onto a rock somewhere and screwed up the tail end. Bill New tied her to the dock under the Knight St Bridge and finally sold her to an outfit in the Philippines.

Under Coastal Towing Co. Ltd (Coast Ferries) ownership after 8 July 1970, the vessel's name was changed to Loughborough Princess on 12 February 1971. According to advice provided by Bill New a principal of the company, extensive modifications were made to the upper works of the vessel to accommodate their freighting operations. The bulwarks were cut down and the pilot house was moved to the rear of the vessel to facilitate use of fork-lifts on an enlarged deck. They also made two engine changes, the first from the original General Motors power to a turbo-charged Rolls Royce and in 1978 a change was made back to a General Motors 12 cylinder unit. This engine was removed when they sold the vessel in 1989.

Bill New heard that the new owners were making plans "to sail" the vessel to the Philippines. He had no idea if this had ever happened.

Loughborough Princess

Loughborough Princess (ex APc-50?) Shows modifications made by Coastal Towing
(City of Richmond Archives, Photograph #1999 6 1151)

In accordance with registry records the final owner of the vessel is Valee-Viking Ventures, R.R.1, Rosedale B.C. A search of the Transport Canada vessel data base indicates that the vessel's registration was suspended on 10 March 2008.

Unlike the stable life enjoyed by Cape Scott, the other vessels of the fleet suffered frequent name and ownership changes. Most of their early Vancouver lives up until the early 1960s were served as tugs. After this point more powerful compact steel vessels with bridge engine controls began to replace the wooden vessels with their direct reversing engines.

Purchases of APc vessels for the tug fleet began in 1947 when three vessels were acquired from the United States Maritime Commission (MC) by private Vancouver purchasers. These included Harold Jones of Vancouver Tug, George M. Lindsay of Vancouver Barge Transportation Company, and a joint venture headed by Hiram L. Coville. Before long the vessels acquired corporate ownerships respectively under the flags of Vancouver Tug Boat Company, Vancouver Barge Transportation Company, and Straits Towing Company with names La Belle (ex APc-15), George M. Lindsay (ex APC-26) and Wilmae Straits (ex APc-32). La Belle was originally registered as Gulf Trader while Wilmae Straits was registered as Sekani.

In the early 1950s, the Dolmage group of companies which specialized in log towing acquired three unregistered and one registered vessel of the APc class for their fleet from US interests. Three of the vessels were named in the Dolmage naming traditions as the Sea Queen III (ex APc-111), Sea Prince (ex APc-96) and Sea Lark II (ex APc-7?). The other vessel P.B.Anderson (ex APc-3) was named in honour of Swedish born Peter Bodward Anderson, a well known and respected logging company owner. The vessels original topsides were removed and replaced with new deckhouses and the engines were overhauled, the first two at Sperling Shipyard and the last two at Burrard Shipyard and Engineering Works.

The specific APc number for the Sea Lark II is not known at the present time but she is believed to be either APc-7, APc-8 or APc-9 These vessels were part of a group of four 1942 Herresoff Manufacturing Co. of Rhode Island built vessels that were delivered to Foss Launch and Tug Co. in Seattle Washington in 1948 by the MC - the other vessel of this group was APc-3 which became the P.B.Anderson.

P.B.Anderson

Dolmage Tug P.B.Anderson (ex APc-3) beside Canadian National Steamships SS Prince George (Vancouver Harbour, Vancouver Public Library Image 81590)

The final purchase of an APc vessel for the tug boat fleet was that of US registered Stormbird (ex APc-22) by Vancouver Tug. The vessel was converted to a tug at Vancouver Shipyards and registered as La Dene in 1951.

LaDene

La Dene (ex APc-22) at Welcome Pass BC
(City of Vancouver Archives, AM782-6, Negative 585)

From the late 1940s until the early 1960s the vessels were heavily employed delivering log booms and rafts, chip and hog fuel barges, and general merchandise barges along the coast.

At the beginning of 1960 the situation in the tug boat industry began to change. During a period from 1960 to 1963 the tug boat companies disposed of their entire fleet of APc vessels as they replaced their wooden vessels with modern, more powerful steel ones. Generous ship building subsidy programs available at the time no doubt hastened the replacement program. At the beginning of 1960 the George M. Lindsay was still with the Vancouver Barge Transport Co., the Wilmae Straits with Straits Towing. The former Dolmage vessels P.B.Anderson and S.C.Scanlon (renamed in honour of forestry tycoon and founder of the Powell River Company and its first vice-president) had been sold to Kingcome Navigation after a take-over of Dolmage by Vancouver Tug in 1956. All the other vessels including two former Dolmage vessels, were with Vancouver Tug. All Vancouver Tug vessels now bore the company signature French format names: La Belle, La Fleur, Le Prince and La Dene. The lives of these tugs was about to change.

In 1960 La Belle along with five smaller sisters were sold to Capital Iron in Victoria. In accordance with an article by John MacFarlane the engine of each vessel was removed and they were put up for sale for use as live-aboard or similar type vessels. La Belle was acquired in 1963 by a William Smith and re-registered with her original official number in Victoria under the name Black Trader as a non-powered vessel (barge). After several ownerships she eventually was moved to the Fraser River delta where she spent her final days as a live-aboard vessel. Vancouver Tug in 1962 used the then vacant name La Belle to rename the George M. Lindsay which was acquired as a result of their take-over of Vancouver Barge Transport Co. In the remainder of the article, the former vessel is referred to as La Belle (I) and the latter one as the La Belle (II) to distinguish them from each other and from a later steel-hulled vessel Vancouver Tug vessel La Belle (III) that also used this name.

Discovery Passage

Black Trader (ex APc-15) in retirement as a live-aboard, Bridgeport Floats Fraser River 1974 (City of Richmond Archives, Photograph #1999 6 245)

Two the former tugs were transferred to foreign ownership. The La Dene was returned to US ownership in 1963 and in 1968 S.C. Scanlon, after being employed in servicing Shell's offshore BC exploratory drilling program from 1964-1968 (from June 1964 under Bahamian registry) was last seen under tow to Seattle. The remaining five vessels found new employment joining Cape Scott in the fishing industry.

Three of the vessels, all former Dolmage tugs, joined the fish packer fleet of Tulloch Western Fisheries in 1961 as leased or owned vessels all with names beginning with the prefix "T-W". These included T-W Sea Queen III (formerly La Fleur), T-W Sea Prince (formerly Le Prince) and the T-W Zelley (formerly P.B.Anderson). The Zelley was named for Tulloch Western head captain Bill Zelley. Lawrence Foort in his engaging auto biography "Child of the Storm" gives interesting insight about his free-ranging childhood growing up in a tiny community on Quadra Island and his energetic and fun loving youth including his early maritime experiences working on these and other vessels. He also describes how the fishing industry along the coast was supported by fleets of fish packers.

All of these vessels worked out their final days as fish packers firstly with Tulloch Western and subsequently with other western Canadian fishing companies. They all suffered similar sinking fates: Zelley at Cox Point off the west coast of Vancouver Island on January 26, 1966, total loss; Sea Queen in Queen Charlotte Sound on June 6, 1972, total loss after fire; and Sea Prince off Hornby Island after fire and explosion on January 19, 1984, crew member Eugene Williams died in the conflagration.

The other two tugs Wilmae Straits and La Belle (II) were sold, respectively renamed Calm C (later Calm Sea) and Enterprise and converted to herring seiners. After working on the west coast until the stocks were over-exploited and fishing was closed, they joined an invasion of the BC industrial seiner fleet and the reduction industry to Canada's east coast where stocks of herring were still available. There these two vessels met their fates in the Atlantic Ocean.

Robert Karliner, well known BC highliner seine boat skipper, in his second auto biographical work "The Turning Point - Herring Reduction and Roe Fishery West and East Coast of Canada" describes his four year participation in the east coast reduction industry in considerable detail with many photographs and illustrations. He was encouraged and financially helped by Anglo British Columbia Packing Company (ABC) to move to the east in 1967 where they were establishing a reduction plant at Caraquet on the Bay of Chaleur in New Brunswick. He personally took three large west coast constructed seine boats through the Panama Canal to participate in this industry. He provides many interesting details of his experiences in fishing in eastern Canada. One was the hostility of the local fishermen to the invasion of the BC boats which resulted in the open and deliberate burning of ABC's dock at Caraquet. Another was the difficulty of fishing in icing conditions in the winter along the southern coast of Newfoundland. In summer months when the Bay of Chaleur was free of ice vessels delivered their catches to ABC's reduction plant at Caraquet. However, in winter the vessels diverted their operations to Newfoundland and delivered their catches to BC Packers plants at either lsle Aux Morts or Harbour Breton.

In 1969 with ABC's encouragement, Karliner agreed to take over ownership of the Enterprise and have her fitted out and sailed from Vancouver to join the east coast herring fleet. He and his wife, as principals, and three other partners were the shareholders in Chauler Bay Fisheries which was formed to purchase the vessel. A mortgage on the vessel was held by the H. Bell-Irving group who were the controlling shareholder of ABC.

The Entersprise

From Robert Karliner's "The Turning Point"
(with grateful permission from his sister Evelyn Kraesk)

The participation of the vessel is agonizingly related in Karliner's book as both short and tragic. She finally arrived on the fishing grounds about November 1969. In April 1970 she ended her life and the lives of her eight crew in a major marine disaster. A partial quote from a memorial document included in Karliner's book succinctly states what occurred:

"... The Enterprise sank on the night of April 19, 1970 during a spring storm. The entire crew of eight souls was lost at sea, five bodies were recovered but three were never found"

But that was only one part of the story. The 10,000 ton Canadian National Railway ferry S.S.Patrick Morris, when answering the mayday call, also sank. The memorial documents includes this statement for that vessel and the heroic actions of her crew:

"...Thirty foot waves crashed through her stern door and overwhelmed her. Most of the crew of the Patrick Morris were able to escape with their lives but the master and three engine room officers went down with the ship."

The participation of Calm Sea in the fishery is not as well documented as the Enterprise. It is not known when she joined the east coast fishery but from the Karliner book it is clear she fished off the south coast of Newfoundland during February 1971. He has provided several photographs of her in his book.

Arctic Harvester

From Robert Karliner's "The Turning Point"
(with grateful permission from his sister Evelyn Kraesk)

Like the Enterprise she also was lost at sea in a storm, this time a hurricane. As reported in a Vancouver Sun article of January 22, 1973 she was lost north of Bermuda while returning to Vancouver. Breakdown of a pump after a serious leak developed forced the crew to abandon ship and to take to their skiff. Four of the five crewmen including principal shareholder Don Doving were rescued . For undetermined reasons, perhaps fatigue or a heart attack, Captain John McQuarrie fell from a boarding ladder while climbing aboard the rescuing vessel the freighter American Ranger. His body was recovered by crew members who jumped into the sea but he could not be revived.

Unknown APc

The Mystery Hulk of Deas Island Slough - An APc but of unknown number
(Photo from George Duddy Collection)

The Vancouver fleet of diesel wooden APc vessels form part of Canada's maritime heritage. Although classified as "Coastal" vessels they did "business in the great waters" from Newfoundland to New Guinea and the Great Barrier Reef to the Gulf of Alaska. Like many of our World War II human veterans, they most often performed the many unheralded mundane but vital tasks that lead to a successful victory. Afterwards they worked hard to restore and expand the economy we enjoy today. They and other war surplus vessels were an unwitting gift from the United States to Canada providing replacement vessels to industries that had been starved from new construction during the war years. Owners, crewmen, shipyard workers and customers as well as the over-all economy benefitted from their deployment. Designed for short time wartime service they outlived many of the young sailors who first took them to sea. The great oceans however extracted their toll - on average, one soul lost for each vessel employed.

References and Acknowledgments:

Most of the books, websites, archival sources and articles used for reference purposes are mentioned directly in the article. The article could not have been written without reference to the Shipscribe.com website, Register of Ships of the US Navy Auxiliary Vessels with its detailed listing of APc Vessels, their construction and deployment timing within the US Navy and their final dispositions after the war. Other references include the NavSource website; David D. Bruhn's website; Canada List of Ships volumes; the Nauticapedia vessel data base; "World War II US Navy Vessels in Private Hands" by Greg H Williams and vessel registration documents held at Library and Archives of Canada (LAC) Burnaby facility. The Nauticapedia vessel data base has been updated as part of the preparation of this article.

David Bruhn's previously mentioned book provides insightful information as to the early lives of the vessels during World War II as US Navy vessels. The author highly recommends this book for those interested in ships, action in the South and Southwest Pacific during World War II, and the history of the Pacific islands. The following well illustrated books were often referred to and are recommended for further reading by the author. They portray the day to day life experienced by persons working in the industries serviced by the APc fleet and the evolution of these industries during their time: "Full Line, Full Away - A Towboat Master's Story" by James E."Ted" Wilson and S.C. Heal, "Child of the Storm - The Adventures of a West Coast Kid" by Lawrence Foort and "The Turning Point - Herring Reduction and Roe Fishery West and East Coast of Canada" by Robert Karliner. Other works consulted include archived copies of Harbour and Shipping Magazine and "The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest" edited by Gordon R. Newell.

Information about the Deas Island hulk was gathered with assistance from Doug Massey, Peter Capadoucia, boater Steve Veerman and former Delta Archives employee Catharine McPherson. Thanks to Bob Koskela for finding the photo of Loughborough Princess.

The author also thanks writers Syd Heal and Lawrence Foort, retired tug boat skipper Kerri Beaulieu and shipping company owners Don Harrison and Bill New for their personal insights and information; and Evelyn Krasek, Robert Karliner's sister, for her permission to use photographs from Robert's epic book on the herring fishing industry. Thanks too to the Nauticapedia team, my partner Helen O'Neill and to David Bruhn in helping with research and final review and publication.


To quote from this article please cite:

Duddy, George (2014) Vancouver's Fleet of Former US Navy APc Vessels Nauticapedia.ca 2014. http://nauticapedia.ca/Articles/Former_APc_DuddyR7.php

Nauticapedia

Site News: December 21, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,824 vessel histories (with 16,274 images and 13,929 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 45,000 processed so far this year (2024).

The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).

Thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of vessel histories in the database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.

Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.

My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

© 2002-2023