| The Transportation Safety Board of Canada reports that "On 18/09/1997 While the vessel was moored at the Chevron Dock in Ucluelet, British Columbia, a fire started in the accommodation of the Western Viking when an electrical cable, inside a false deckhead, shorted out and burned. The fire was reported by a local resident at approximately 2245 and the Ucluelet Volunteer Fire Department arrived on the scene within about 25 minutes. Despite their best efforts, and those of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the fishing vessel's accommodation was severely damaged. The skipper, Keith Grant, who had been sleeping in his cabin on the upper deck, was overcome by smoke and died in the fire." "The Western Viking is a wooden fishing vessel with a wood and aluminium house forward of amidships. The hull is divided into four compartments: forepeak, engine-room, fish hold, and lazarette. The fish hold is sub-divided into four tanked holds and is refrigerated. The lower deck of the house is wooden and has a cabin with accommodation for seven crew members forward, a washroom on the starboard side, and a galley/messroom aft. The upper deck of the house is aluminium with the wheel-house occupying the forward half and the skipper's cabin and washroom the after half. There are outside ladders from the after deck to the cabin top and an inside vertical ladder from the port side of the wheel-house down to the forward end of the lower cabin. The main engine and two generators are diesel engines. Both the main engine and the forward generator have power take-offs to drive hydraulic pumps to run the hydraulic refrigeration compressor motors." Teak Spiller reports (British Columbia Nautical History Facebook Group 10/09/2018) that "This boat fell over on the ways. My brother and I rebuilt her about 16 years ago." |
