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Tugboat Hope Tragedy
by John MacFarlane 2017
The Tugboat Hope (Photo from the Doug MacFarlane collection. )
In 1881 she was built in Seattle WA USA. 72.2’ x 16.2’ x 8.5’ Wooden hull. 78gt 48rt She was pwoered by a 47hp high pressure steam engine (1881) built by the Seattle Foundry Co., Seattle WA USA.
The Tugboat Hope Ashore 1909 in Dodd Narrows BC (Photo courtesy MMBC. )
In 1881 she was owned by USA interests operating out of Port Townsend WA USA. In 1893 she was owned by Willam Taylor, Victoria BC (64/64 shares). In 1895–1912 she was owned by Sayward Mill and Timber Co. Ltd., Victoria BC. In 1913–1926 she was owned by Vancouver Island Towing Co. Ltd., Victoria BC.
In 1884 she was registered at Victoria BC and operated by Captain Thomas Bentley as a passenger vessel. On 17/02/1891 she was stranded on Portland Island BC but later salvaged.
She sank on October 7, 1925 while working with the tug Salvage King on the salvage of the Dutch freighter Eemdyk off Bentinck Island near Race Rocks. The tug was manoeuvring near the ship when in a strong ebb tide she was swept against the salvage tug. The tug was ferrying 28 longshoremen workers to the site to lighter off the cargo of the freighter so she could be salvaged. She careened off the tug and was swept under a wire hawser stretched from the salvage tug to the shore. Her masts and funnel were carried away and she was capsized. Seven of the longshoremen were lost.
To quote from this article please cite:
MacFarlane, John M. (2017) Tugboat Hope Tragedy. Nauticapedia.ca 2017. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Hope.php
Site News: November 20, 2024
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,591 vessel histories (with 16,203 images and 13,900 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).
Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 40,000 processed so far this year.
The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).
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.
Also my special thanks to my volunteer content accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who continues (almost every day for the last couple of years) to proof read thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 14,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.