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The Tug Hartville
by Leigh Cossey 2018
The Hartville on the Beach (Photo from the Leigh Cossey collection.)
The Nauticapedia states that "The Hartville was built in 1944 by Russel Bros. Ltd. at Owen Sound ON. In 1946 she was renamed as Portovan; then as Straits (1948); then as Davis Straits (1950); then Navvy Jack (1958). She was 11.28m x 3.26m x 1.13m (37.0' x 10.7' x 3.7') with a steel hull 12.23gt 8.32rt. She was employed as a Harbour Tug at Cornwallis NS. At the end of her career she was employed on Kinbasket Lake (near Golden BC). ".
In 1944 she was a Ville–class tug for the Royal Canadian Navy. In 1946–1953 she was owned by Straits Towing & Salvage Co. Ltd., Victoria BC. In 1953–1958 she was owned by Straits Towing Ltd., Vancouver BC. In 1958–1960 she was owned by Deeks–McBride Ltd., Vancouver BC. In 1960–1967 she was owned by Simpson Brothers Logging Ltd., Stave Falls BC. In 1977 she was sold to Edward Carter, Britannia Beach, BC. In 1978–2007 she was owned by Robert B. Kerr, Squamish, BC.
This summer I located the Hartville at Kinbasket Lake near Golden BC and went to see her and take pictures. She has been laying abandoned for 11 years now. According to Russ Simpson, a son of one of the Simpson Brothers, while she was owned by Deeks–McBride she was overrun by the barge she was towing through the 2nd Narrows in Burrard Inlet, Vancouver and and was sunk with loss of life. When raised no one would work on her and Johnson Bros. bought her. I am still looking for newspaper articles for confirmation of this story.
The Hartville on the Beach (Photo from the Leigh Cossey collection.)
The Hartville on the Beach (Photo from the Leigh Cossey collection.)
At some time she had been re–powered with a Caterpillar engine. This engine threw a rod while on a trip on Stave Lake and was she was re–powered with a Volvo Penta which being an aluminum block was much lighter and boom chain was added for ballast. (Photo from the Leigh Cossey collection.)
To quote from this article please cite:
Cossey, Leigh (2018) The Tug Hartville. Nauticapedia.ca 2018. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Hartville.php
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.