The Nauticapedia

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Modern Steam Yachts

Vital Spark (Photo from MacFarlane collection.)

Some yachtsmen have managed to capture the experience of marine steam power by installing small modern engines or even ancient antiques. Most use propane for fuel but a few burn wood or other fuels. The Vital Spark was owned by Don Thompson of Victoria BC (he was the Master of the Thermopylae Club). The best place to see these magnificent yachts is at summer boat festivals and shows - where the owners are often pleased to put them on display.

Small steam yacht gathers a crowd at Cowichan Bay BC. (Photo from MacFarlane collection.)

A beautiful small steam engine. (Photo from MacFarlane collection.)

Admiring fans. (Photo from MacFarlane collection.)

Site News: March 24, 2025

ANOTHER MILESTONE REACHED

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 95,326 vessel histories (with 16,457 images and 14,217 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,600 entries (with 4,003 images).

My thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of the vessel histories in the vessel 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 continues to contribute 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.

Thanks to John Spivey who is in his 4th year of fact checking all of the entries in the vessel database, one-by-one.

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