Site Navigation:
Searchable Databases
Articles Archive
Pacific Nautical Heritage...
- Gallery of Light and Buoy Images
- Gallery of Mariners
- Gallery of Ship Images
- Gallery of Ship Wrecks
- Gallery of Monuments and Statues
- Gallery of Nautical Images
- Gallery of Freshwater Images
- Gallery of New Books
Canadian Naval Topics…
- Nautical History Videos
- UNTD
- British Columbia Heritage
- Arctic and Northern Nautical Heritage
- Western Canada Boat and Ship Builders
- Gallery of Arctic Images
- Reflections on Nautical Heritage
- British Columbia Heritage
Site Search:
Looking for more? Search for Articles on the Nauticapedia Site.
Northern Light V: – Interesting Derelict
by John MacFarlane 2017
Northern Light V (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection. )
In 1945 she was built by Commercial Iron Works at Portland OR USA. 158’ x 33’ x 13’ Steel 634.35gt 384.73rt She was powered by 2–900bhp diesel–electric engines
She started life as a a USN Net Tender, then as the Samarkandh, then as the Northern Light (IX), and lastly as the Northern Light V in 1989.
Northern Light V (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection. )
In 1945 she was owned by the US Navy as a submarine net tender in boom defences. She was ‘cocooned’ in the mothball fleet until sold as surplus. She was purchased by Columbian owners as the Samarkandh a coastwise freighter. In 1989–2004 she was owned by Samuel M. Hancock, Comox BC.
Northern Light V (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection. )
As the Samarkandh she entered Canadian waters under a crew of Columbian nationals declaring force majeure to enable her stop and repair her engines. One propulsion motor was damaged – possibly sabotaged. She was arrested and seized by the RCMP and the Canadian Navy in a remote Vancouver Island inlet and her cargo (containing drugs) was unloaded. She was then moved to Esquimalt BC where later the RCMP moved her to the old Coast Guard Base on Harbour road in Victoria Harbour. Crown Assets and Disposal sold her to Frank Gale & Partner. He intended to use her as a supply vessel to the offshore dragger fleet (which obviously never happened). She was towed to Cowichan Bay where she lay for some time and later she was a prominent sight around Hornby and Denman Islands moving anchorage when she became too unpopular with local residents.
Jeff Stubbington (British Columbia Nautical History Facebook Group 28/05/2019) stated "She was towed to Ladysmith and broken up at Saltair Marine." She is said to have been scrapped there in 2003.
Northern Light V (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection. )
To quote from this article please cite:
MacFarlane, John M. (2017) Northern Light V: – Interesting derelict. Nauticapedia.ca 2017. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Northern Light.php
Site News: November 2, 2024
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,538 vessel histories (with 16,140 images and 13,887 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3989 images). Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 35,000 processed so far this year.
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) 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.