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Silver Fir – Forestry Patrol Vessel and Work Boat
by Chad Giesbrecht 2016
Silver Fir (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )
She’s 34’ 9" in length, 9’ beam, draws 3’8". She was built in 1950 by the British Columbia Forest Service in their yard on the Fraser River. She was designed by Tommy Edwards. She was powered with a 3–71 Jimmy with a Twin Disc transmission. She is carvel planked in fir below the waterline, red cedar above the waterline with galvanized fasteners.
Silver Fir displays the ‘Fire Warden‘ signage is because I have been working with her for the British Columbia Forest Service for the last couple of years, patrolling the Gulf Islands. (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )
She was sold out of service in 1979. She went with the Cherry II to Williston Lake, and while the Cherry II but only spent about 6 months there, while the Silver Fir spent about 6 years. As far as I know, they’re the only two ‘Blimp’–style boats that were also insulated.
Silver Fir swinging at her buoy. (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )
Silver Fir when she first arrived. She was actually in remarkable condition, other than cosmetics. She just needed some love and love is something I’m still catching up with on her. (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )
Silver Fir BCFS funnel livery. (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )
Silver Fir on the ways. She was accidentally snagged by a tow during the night. I could hear the impact from my house. The company allowed me to use their ways at Chemainus so that she could be made right. (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )
Silver Fir with her sister ship the Maple. The Maple is a sister to Silver Fir. They are in the same fleet. However they’re different design, different builder, different dimensions etc. The BCFS built 11 ‘blimp–designs’ (like Silver Fir) in all. We are all a bit curious where Red Cedar (the first one of 11 in the class) wound up. (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )
Silver Fir sometimes carries crews of British Columbia Forest Service staff. Maple (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )
Silver Fir (Photo from the Chad Giesbrecht collection. )
To quote from this article please cite:
Giesbrecht, Chad (2016) Silver Fir – Forestry Patrol Vessel and Yacht. Nauticapedia.ca 2016. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Silver_Fir.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.