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Douglas Arthur MacFarlane

by John MacFarlane 2019

Douglas MacFarlane

Douglas Arthur MacFarlane (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

Doug (as he liked to be called) was born January 14th, 1927 in Victoria BC. In 1942 he moved with his parents to Sooke BC having dropped out of school after the 9th grade. He had been gaining sea time experience ever since he was a small boy with his father Francis Arthur MacFarlane in family-owned tugboats so it seemed natural that he would go to work as a marine engineer.

Douglas joined the Swiftsure II sailing out of Port Renfrew towing for Hemmingsen–Cameron as a Second Engineer Captain J.G. McPhee. He recalled that this was a natural fit for him and he really enjoyed the work towing booms. They moved to Vancouver under charter to Armour Salvage towing the big ex–sailing ship barge Alumna carrying lumber from Chemainus. They also carried some big ship’s boilers for Liberty Ship construction and made two trips to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands war zone where some them were still in Japanese occupation. They also chartered out to Gulf of Georgia towing to Aristozabel Island.

Leaving his father he spent one season fishing from the Victoria troller Ebb–Tide off Banks Island. Like several of his older cousins, also tugboaters, this foray into commercial fishing was later viewed as a highlight in his life experience. The Ebb–Tide was converted into a yarding tug with the addition of a Buda diesel engine when they had an opportunity to do some towing.

Douglas came ashore and spent time loading lumber at Munn’s mill and later loading lumber onto railway cars at Saseenos. He recalled this to be hard heavy work. He left that to do some logging. In 1950 he went to work for J.H. Todd and Sons operating their pile driver on the Sooke fish traps. He moved on to be the night watchman, staying there until 1956. He worked on the pile driving at the trap. Once that work was completed he got a job as Second Watchman and then as Head Watchman, a position he held for 5 years. In the winter season he worked for Karl Heinzman booming logs in Sooke Harbour. This was experience that set him up for a career in tugs in Sooke Harbour.

In 1952 he started spending time with his father panning for gold at the mouth of the Sombrio River. They had a gold claim there and no one else was around in those days – Arthur apparently spent months at a time living in a small cabin on the river bank.

In the early 1950s he purchased a hull (it had been a navy small craft purchased from Crown Assets and Disposal Corporation) and turned it into a workboat. It had a 2–cylinder GM diesel engine and he did some yarding for different mills in the region. He recalled that it was a ‘dandy little boat’ which he kept even after 1965 as a standby vessel.

Yarding logs and barges in Sooke Harbour presented Douglas with the opportunity to go into business for himself. He was a tug skipper towing logs in and around Sooke Harbour BC 1955–1995. When the Lamford Forest Products mill there went bankrupt his towing business was forced to close with no other customers in the harbour. The closure left him with financial losses due to monies owed by the mill that went upaid so he sold his little fleet of tugs.

He was a handy man around the waterfront. In 1967 s two storey fish camp owned by Nelson Brothers Fisheries Ltd. fell off a barge and sank in water 100 metres off shore. Captain Douglas MacFarlane took out his tug Demac II and salvaged the structure. He towed it slowly and gently to shore and into shallow water in Becher Bay BC. At low tide it was repaired and pulled onto dry land. It was reloaded onto a barge and resumed its voyage to Port Renfrew BC.

In retirement he was, for many years, a retired resident on the old family property at Milne’s Landing near Sooke BC. He spent time collecting antiques and firearms and investigating nautical history. He was an avid gardener and family man. One of his greatest joys was in the time he spent volunteering for the Sooke Museum.

Douglas died at Sooke BC on February 11th, 2019.


To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John (2019) Douglas Arthur MacFarlane. Nauticapedia.ca 2019. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/MacFarlane_Douglas.php

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