MV Grace Darling (1919)

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MV Grace Darling (1919)
History
Canada
Operator: Canadian Pacific Railway
Acquired: 1919
General characteristics

MV Grace Darling was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was an early internal combustion-driven boat run by the Canadian Pacific Railway company in 1919 and was used to move building stone from the granite quarry on the lake shore south of Vernon, British Columbia. [1] Grace Darling was Vernon Granite's first power boat and was purchased from Mrs. Oswald Pease from Ewing's Landing in 1919. She was one of the first internal combustion engine-powered boats on the lake and greatly facilitated the transport of stone barges from the quarry. [2] Grace Darling was replaced by SS Tum Tum and a second MV Grace Darling after retirement.

Okanagan Lake lake in British Columbia, Canada

Okanagan Lake is a large, deep lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. The lake is 135 km (84 mi) long, between 4 and 5 km wide, and has a surface area of 348 km2.

British Columbia Province of Canada

British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. With an estimated population of 5.016 million as of 2018, it is Canada's third-most populous province.

Canada Country in North America

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

See also

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Okanagan Landing Shipyard in British Columbia, Canada

Okanagan Landing was an unincorporated settlement and steamboat port at the north end of Okanagan Lake in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. Located southwest of the city of Vernon, it was the terminus station for the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway and served as the port and shipyard for steamboats operating to the south, as well as a transfer barge slip.

SS <i>Okanagan</i>

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SS Tum Tum was a Steamship used to move building stone from the granite quarry on the lake shore south of Vernon, BC. She had a total of 8 horsepower. Some speculate she was the Skookum alias Tut Tut with a slight name change as they were similar in number of horsepower.

MV Aricia was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was built in 1912 by J. Y. Campbell and was also known as the Kelowna-Westbank ferry, because she served the communities of Kelowna and Westbank, British Columbia.

SS Clovelly was a steam ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was commissioned by Captain L. A. Hayman and built by DeFoe in Vancouver, British Columbia in the fall of 1907. She was named after Clovelly, a small village on the Bristol Channel in England. She was launched by Captain J. B. Weeks and began a service of two trips a week hauling lumber, feed, and fruit between the communities of Westbank, Bear Creek, and Kelowna. She was the fourth ferry on the lake. Shortly after her launch, it was discovered that her vertical boiler leaked, so a water tube boiler was built by A. Brunette of the Leckie Hardware Company of Kelowna. She was inspected and passed by J. H. Thompson, Dominion Government Steamboat Inspector for the Province. In 1911, Clovelly was sold to E. Hankinson. Complaints about poor service reached the government and Hankinson lost the charter. Clovelly went to J. Y. Campbell, who operated her from 1912 to 1916 and also built MV Aricia in 1912.

MV Grace Darling was a boat that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was the last boat used for the granite quarry in Vernon, British Columbia, after an earlier boat also named MV Grace Darling, as well as SS Tum Tum. Grace Darling was a custom-built Turner boat ordered from Vancouver, British Columbia in 1923. She was 20 feet (6.1 m) in length and was small, but durable, outlasting the quarry operation by four years. She was powered by a single-cylinder Easthope engine built for towing. The Canadian Pacific Railway company delivered her to Okanagan Landing by flat car and she was named after the earlier Grace Darling, which had then been retired. The new Grace Darling became known as a first-rate rough-water vessel and lasted for over 40 years, until she broke up on the rocks at Inkster's Bay during a storm in the late 1960s.

MV Lequime was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. The most well-known of the long line of ferries on the lake, Lequime was built in 1947 and was later called Fintry Queen. Plans for the construction of Lequime began on May 1, 1946 and she was built in a fashion similar to the earlier MV Pendozi. Later, a paddle wheel was added to the stern during a renovation. Lequime carried cars and freight between the communities of Kelowna and Westbank with two other boats, MV Lloyd-Jones and Pendozi. However, the three struggled to carry the increasing load, especially after the construction of the Okanagan Lake Bridge in 1958. After retirement, Lequime was used as a restaurant and for Okanagan Lake cruises.

MV Lloyd-Jones was a steel ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She carried cars and freight between the communities of Kelowna and West Kelowna with two other boats, MV Lequime and MV Pendozi. However, they struggled to carry the load, especially after the opening of the Okanagan Lake Bridge in 1958. Lloyd-Jones was launched in July 1950. She had a capacity of 35 cars and was the last of a large fleet of ferries on Okanagan Lake.

MV Kelowna-Westbank was a diesel-powered ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada beginning in 1927. Although private ferry service had long been established on the lake, Kelowna-Westbank became the first provincial government-operated ferry upon her launch on February 21, 1927.

MV Skookum, not to be confused with the 1906 ferry MV Skookum, was a ferry that linked the communities of Naramata and Summerland on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.

MV Trepanier was a ferry that operated between the communities of Naramata and Summerland on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Trepanier was added to the Okanagan Lake Boat Company's fleet in 1912. The company's owner, Peter Roe, operated her and the earlier MV Skookum with his brothers, Fred and Gerald. Trepanier was purchased by Captain J. A. Noyes and his brother, I. R. Noyes, and used for pleasure trips until November 1913, when the larger MV Skookum, built in 1912 and not to be confused with the Skookum mentioned earlier, collided with the Canadian Pacific Railway company-operated SS Castlegar and sank. Although Trepanier was smaller than Skookum, she was used as a replacement and began regular ferry service soon after the crash.

SS Maude-Moore was a wood-burning screw steamer that provided a ferry service between the communities of Summerland, Naramata, and Penticton on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.

MV Mallard, later Kaleden, was a ferry that linked the communities of Summerland and Naramata on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada from 1908 to 1910, and later served Skaha Lake and Kaleden, British Columbia, under the name Kaleden.

SS Jubilee was the second steamship on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada, owned and operated by Captain Thomas Shorts. She was built by Shorts and carpenter John Hamilton in 1887 while they were waiting for a new boiler to come in for their first steamship, SS Mary Victoria Greenhow, which needed new machinery. When it arrived, they decided to put the new boiler in the new 30 feet (9.1 m) by 8 feet (2.4 m) Jubilee instead and they put Mary Victoria Greenhow's engine in Jubilee as well. She was launched at the Okanagan Landing shipyard at 3:30 p.m. on September 22, 1887. Jubilee took about two weeks per round trip on the lake. A gold strike on Granite Creek in the Similkameen River in 1889 created business for Jubilee and Shorts built a barge to help her. However, the strike didn't last long and the barge was beached. Jubilee was also short-lived, as she froze in ice at Okanagan Landing during a cold spell in the winter of 1889–1890. She sank and in the spring, her machinery was put in Shorts' new barge, City of Vernon. The engine was reinstalled in several more ships, and the retired engine was used in a shingle mill for cutting firewood at Trinity Valley starting in 1906. Finally, Mr. and Mrs. G. H. Worth of Vernon, British Columbia, who had owned and used it for many years, donated it to the Vernon Museum and Archives in November 1957.

SS Mary Victoria Greenhow (MVG) was the first steamboat on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was built by Captain Thomas Shorts and Thomas Greenhow and although she was not perfect, she was the harbinger of a long and significant line of steamships in the Okanagan.

MV <i>Pendozi</i>

MV Pendozi was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. The provincial government commissioned her in 1939 and she was the first steel ferry built for the run connecting the communities of Kelowna and Westbank. She was 147 feet (45 m) by 42 feet (13 m) and weighed 237.5 tons. She was powered by two 150 horsepower Vivian engines and had two life boats and two life rafts, as well as four propellers, two at each end of the ship. Pendozi could carry 30 cars. Kelowna residents suggested her name after Rev. Father Charles Marie Pandosy, O.M.I., who established Okanagan Mission, British Columbia in 1859. A street in Kelowna was also named Pendozi after him and the misspelling was never changed and even applied to the new ship because it reflected the proper pronunciation of his name. In the line of Kelowna-Westbank ferries, Pendozi came after MV Kelowna-Westbank and was later joined by MV Lloyd-Jones and MV Lequime. When the Okanagan Lake Bridge opened in 1958, the three struggled to carry the load and were eventually retired. Pendozi was returned to rest in Westbank in 1965.

SS Wanderer was the second, unofficial ferry to serve Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.

References

  1. Hatfield, Harley R. (1992). "Commercial Boats of the Okanagan". Okanagan history. Fifty-sixth report of the Okanagan Historical Society. pp. 20–33. Retrieved 2 Aug 2015.
  2. Falconer, David G. (1977). "Hewers of Granite". Forty-first annual report of the Okanagan Historical Society. p. 63. Retrieved 6 August 2015.