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The Tug Sooke Prince

by John MacFarlane and Chad Giesbrecht 2016

Sooke Prince in Sharcott Towing Ltd. livery (Photo from the Les Sharcott collection. )

In 1974 she was built in Victoria BC by United Engineering Works Ltd. She was 9.63m x 4.21m x 1.28m steel hulled 9.44gt 6.42rt powered by a 340bhp diesel engine.

Sooke Prince in Rapid Towing Co. Ltd. livery (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )

In 1974–1986 she was owned by Sooke Towing (1972) Ltd. (Robbie Robinson), Victoria BC. In 1987–1993 she was owned by Douglas A. MacFarlane, Sooke BC. In 1994–2001 she was owned by 433727 B.C. Ltd., Oona river BC. In 2003–2004 she was owned by Sharcott Towing Ltd., Nanaimo BC. In 2011–2014 she was owned by Cable Bay Marine Towing Ltd., Nanaimo BC. In 2015–2016 she was owned by Rapid Towing Co. Ltd., Nanaimo BC.

Sooke Prince in Rapid Towing Co. Ltd. livery (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )

In her early days she towed out of Sooke harbour in support of Lamford Mill. Then she moved up to operate in Prince Rupert BC. Since 2003 she has been based in Nanaimo BC.

Sooke Prince in Rapid Towing Co. Ltd. livery (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )

Note the lovely sheer line. She has a 12–71 engine for power pushing past a 45" steering nozzle.

To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John M. and Chad Giesbrecht (2016) The Tug Sooke Prince. Nauticapedia.ca 2016. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Sooke_Prince.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.

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