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The Admiral Blake (A maritime origin mystery solved)

by John MacFarlane 2022

MMS.105

H.M.S. MMS.105 before her handover by the builders to the Royal Navy at Meteghan NS (Photo from the Delbé collection.)

I have been investigating the origins of the British Columbia vessel Mina C. All I knew was that she had once been called the Admiral Blake described as "a former Royal Navy Second World War minesweeper". Early investigation showed me that there was no Royal Navy vessel by that name – as situation which made the mystery even more interesting. Every line of inquiry seemed to go cold very quickly.

A chance contact with Delbé Comeau, a retired mariner living in Meteghan River NS filled in some important details. Meteghan River which is a village about three miles north of Meteghan. This is where the A. F. Theriault shipyard is located. M. Comeau states that "When they were built they were not given names and when they were delivered to the navy they had letters and numbers only. I am enclosing a photo showing several of them at the Meteghan wharf just prior to delivery to the navy which shows these identification numbers on the hulls." I know now that Delbé Comeau was the second cousin of a Johnny Deveau, who had owned the Clare Shipbuilding Company Ltd. They had a contract to build small wooden minesweepers to the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

She was built in 1944 at the Clare Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. She was 133.5’ x 26.2’ x 13.1’ (40.69m x 7.99m x 3.99m) with a wooden hull 311.6gt 160.62rt. She was powered by 500hp diesel engine by Superior Engine Works.

In 1944 she was owned by the Royal Navy as HMS MMS.1051. At the end of the war she was apparently sold out of service and renamed (presumably in 1946) as the Admiral Blake. She was apparently converted to a fishing vessel at that time. I still cannot confirm this information or the dates. In 1947 she was sold to Scandanavian owners.

Huvik

The Huvik while in the Norwegian Register. (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

In 1947 she was owned as Huvik by AS Huvik (Einar Johansen), Sandefjord Norway.In 1947 she was owned as Timann by Hans Roald, Alesund Norway. In 1952 she was owned as Mina C. by West Coast Tug & Barge Ltd., Vancouver BC. In 1953–1962 she was owned by John R. Cooney, Vancouver BC. In 1962–1966 she was owned by A. J. Prendergast (Songhees Fishing Co Ltd), Burnaby/Vancouver BC. In 1966 she was owned by Cape Douglas Fishing Co. Ltd., Burnaby BC. In 1966 she was owned by Fort Ross Fishing & Packing Co. Ltd., Vancouver BC. In 1968 she was owned by Vagabond Charters Ltd, Vancouver BC. In 1969–1978 she was owned by John G. Campbell, Vancouver BC. In 1978–2008 she was owned by Brian A. Johnston, Vancouver BC.

In 1978 she sank near the Albion Ferry dock. Tim Agg (British Columbia Nautical History Facebook Group 05/11/2017) reports that "In 1964 I spent two very memorable voyages on her, and I have strong memories of them. She did carry explosives – on one of my two trips, we loaded dynamite at the CIL plant on James Island, and unloaded it at Jedway. The return included loading frozen whale meat and sacks of whale meal at Coal Harbour, discharged at Steveston; that was enough to convince me that whaling should be ended. We also did grocery runs to floating logging camps. At the time, she was owned by folks who were trying, ultimately without success, to compete with Northlands." Tim Colton lists the original pendant number of the Admiral Blake as MMS 1051. Colton stated (only partially correctly) that "Clare Shipbuilders was formed in 1940, but almost immediately sold to Clarke Steamship Co.. It was located on the site previously occupied by Meteghan Shipbuilding, which was across Highway 10 from where the A. F. Theriault yard is today." Brendan Coyle reports that "she was sunk near the old Albion Ferry Dock in the Fraser River".

There are still gaps in the vessel story but we mostly now know the facts.


To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John (2022) The Admiral Blake (A maritime origin mystery solved). Nauticapedia.ca 2021. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Admiral_Blake.php

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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.

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