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Captain Frederick Randolph MacFarlane

Captain Frederick R. MacFarlane

Fred was born on 24/01/1887. He emigrated to Canada, landing, from Ireland, with his family at Quebec City on 26/06/1898 travelling in the S.S. Californian. They eventually settled in Cobble Hill BC where he operated the tug Victory with his bother Arthur. In 1915 he married Norah Margarette Lafortune in British Columbia.

He enlisted in the RNCVR in British Columbia in 1915 and went to England for officer training. He attended a pre-commissioning course at the Royal Naval CollegeGreenwich and in H.M.S. Hermione in 1916. He was commissioned and transferred to the RNVR as a SLT (Temp.) RNVR on 03/07/1916 for World War One service. He was promoted to Lieutenant (Temp.) RNVR 03/07/1917, and served as First Lieutenant in HM ML-28 in 11/1916. He commanded a Royal Navy minesweeper, HM ML-28 in the Dover Patrol. He was demobilized in 1919.

Afterwards he was a well known tug and salvage skipper on Pacific Coast. While in command of the Island Queen with the barge Island Gatherer in tow on 13/12/1936 the tow line parted during a storm in Queen Charlotte Sound. The tug ran alongside the barge suffering damage. The crew lined the side with mattresses so that Captain J.R. Paulson on the barge with his family (wife and two children) could leap on board the Island Queen. The barge was later lost in the storm.

He commanded the tug Island Sovereign, flagship of the Island Tug & Barge fleet. He served as a Captain in the US Army Transportation Corps (Sea Transportation Service) during the Second World War in the chartered tug Snohomish.

He made a “longest tow” of four 300’ tankers to Victoria from Panama. In 1947-48 he was Master of the ocean-going salvage tug Snohomish on her epic voyage to Buenos Aires Argentina towing a barge filled with fuel and six smaller 74’ ex-US Army tugs for delivery to the Argentine Navy. In 1954 he towed four 300’ oil tankers in line to Victoria from Panama in the Island Navigator, then considered as a World Record.

He died at Victoria BC on 08/07/1965 and his ashes were scattered at sea.

" In 1915 I married the girl of my choice, which incidentally I have never regretted. She was 19 at the time and I was very much in love with her. Some months later I joined the Imperial Navy and sailed for England to take a course at the Royal naval College, Greenwich, before getting my commission. During my three years Overseas I fretted a good deal for my young wife and berated myself for leaving her. This had the tendency to make me take a dislike to the country, the war and all concerned. All my associates were English naval officers and as time went on, and being young, I have no doubt but what I adopted some of their ideas and ways. Individually I liked the Englishman and get along very well with them although at times we did not see eye to eye. In those days they were top dog and naturally had an inflated opinion of themselves. On more than one occasion I walked into a hornet's nest when it has been my misfortune to be present and have to listen to a tirade against the Irish. This always touched me off and brought forth a scathing reference to some of England's selfish and shameful behaviour in the past. I would advise them to wake up and read the political history of Ireland and learn of the oppression and cruelty suffered by that country at the hands of English statesmaen for hundreds of years.

In 1921 while Fred was the skipper of the Bonilla (owned by the Lummi Bay Packing Co. of Bellingham WA) he towed scows of supplies to the company's cannery located inside the bar on the Nitinat River. He towed Davis Rafts out of the head of Nitinat Lake, across the Bar out to sawmills and cargoes of salmon on the return trip. He also towed a piledriver to wharf repair jobs up and down the coast.

Island Queen

Island Sovereign

He commanded the tug Island Sovereign, flagship of the Island Tug and Barge fleet. While in command of the Island Queen with the barge Island Gatherer in tow on 13/12/1936 the tow line parted during a storm in Queen Charlotte Sound. There were passengers in the barge and Fred was determined to save them. He made two attempts approaching the barge in dangerously pitching seas. He instructed the passengers by radio–telephone (new technology in those days) to be ready to jump. The tug ran alongside the barge suffering damage when it collided with the barge in the huge waves. He made a second approach dangerously under the counter of the barge ready to receive jumpers from the barge. His crew stretched canvas and mattresses along the deck during which time the tug was damaged in a series of collisions. The crew lined the side so that the passengers (Captain J.R. Poulson with his wife and two crewmen) could leap on board the Island Queen. Mrs. Poulsen was sick with fever but made the jump into darkness on faith. The barge was later lost in the storm. Afterwards Fred had little to say. "Things like that always seem to happen when it it's dark," he said. "I wouldn't have wanted to come back if I hadn't been able to bring back all the hands with me."

Salvage King

In January 1937 Fred was the skipper of the Salvage King when the Japanese freighter Kinshu Maru went aground in a storm on Matthews Point in Active Pass. The freighter had left Vancouver with a cargo of lumber when her engines failed as she was entering Active Pass and ran aground. The weather was freezing and sea ice was forming on the tug from the drifting spray. A line was put aboard the freighter and she was pulled off and proceeded to Vancouver under her own power.

He served as a Captain in the US Army Transportation Corps (Sea Transportation Service) during the Second World War in the chartered tug Snohomish.

Snohomish

In October 1941 was towing the barge Standard Oil No. 95 in heavy fog. At the time the barge was one of the largest of its kind in the world. A few weeks earlier the barge had hit Ripple Rock in Seymour Narrows suffering considerable damage and causing a major oil spill. In the age before radar and depth sounders navigation in fog was a tricky affir. The Snohomish ran aground on Skipjack Island and then was rammed from astern by the barge which was in tow. The barge punched a whole in the side of the tug. The crew of the Snohomish escaped but the tug sank until only her funnel was showing above the water. The crew of twenty transferred to the barge anchored off Saturna Island. They made the tug fast to the barge which prevented her from slipping off the reef into deeper water. The Pacific Salvage Company effected the recovery operation and the tug was repaied at Yarrows Ltd.

The 10,000 ton Western Canada Steamships freighter Lake Sicamous lost a propellor in January 1947 in a storm off the Panama Canal Zone. She drifted for eight days before being picked up and towed 1,800 miles by American tugs to San Pedro California. The Snohomish towed her the rest of the 3,000 miles up the coast through January storms with the freighter carrying a full cargo. The storms were so great that at times the tow was prevent from making progress by the high winds.

He made a “longest tow” of four 300’ tankers to Victoria from Panama. In 1947-8 he was Master of the ocean-going salvage tug Snohomish on her epic voyage to Buenos Aires Argentina towing a barge filled with fuel and six smaller 74’ ex-US Army tugs for delivery to the Argentine Navy. In 1954 he towed four 300’ oil tankers in line to Victoria from Panama in the Island Navigator, then considered as a World Record.

Later Years

After the Snohomish he acted as Port Captain and a towing consultant to Island Tug & Barge. When The Marine Superintendent Norman Trner proposed a herculean tow of four 3,000 ton oil tankers (to be converted to self-dumping log barges) from Panama to Victoria he accompanied the tugs Sudbury and Island Sovereign. Other experts were skeptical that the tow could be completed safely. He died at Victoria BC on 08/07/1965 and his ashes were scattered at sea.

Vessels Owned:

  • Victory - (with Francis Arthur MacFarlane);
  • Wabash -1910 (with Francis Arthur MacFarlane)

Vessels Served

References :

  • – MacPherson, Captain D.B. From the Fo'c'sle Head: He Never Knew Fear (In the Quarterly Newsletter of the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, Victoria BC. Fall 1984).
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To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John M. (2012) Captain Frederick Randolph MacFarlane (Master Mariner). Nauticapedia.ca 2012. http://nauticapedia.ca/Articles/MacFarlane_Fred1.php

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