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The Wreck of the Barge SMT–5000
by John MacFarlane 2022
The Barge SMT–5000 Hard Aground (Photo from the Simon Hill collection.)
Simon Hill, Editor of Western Mariner magazine sent me an interesting picture taken from seaward of the barge SMT–5000 hard aground on Sunset Beach in Vancouver Harbour. Not all wrecks happen out of public view so I reckon it deserved to be added to the west coast shipwreck stories.
The SMT–5000 was built in 1968 at Portland Oregon by Zidell Explorations Inc. She is 84.12m x 18.29m x 5.18m steel–hulled 4307gt 1806nt. In 1968 she was owned by USA interests. In 2021–2022 she was owned by Sentry Marine Towing Ltd., Nanaimo BC.
This barge was driven ashore in a fierce gale on November 15, 2021. Subsequent repeated efforts to tow the barge off the beach were unsuccessful.
Vancouver Pile Driving Ltd (VanPile) reports on their company website (2022) that They have been contracted "to complete the removal of the SMT–5000 barge from English Bay beach. The barge is structurally unsound, cannot be re–floated and will be deconstructed on site. Preparation for the deconstruction is complex and involves consultation with multiple stakeholders and subject matter experts. Planning is underway in 2022 and includes safety, security, habitat and environmental protections and assessments."
To quote from this article please cite:
MacFarlane, John (2022) The Wreck of the Barge SMT–5000. Nauticapedia.ca 2021. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/SMT-5000_Wreck.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.