| In 1914 this vessel was in the general towing trade. In 1920 this vesselspecialized in towing railway car barges between Prince Rupert and Swanson Bay where there was a pulp mill. In December 1920 this vesselassisted in raising the Grand Trunk Pacific steamship Prince Rupert at Swanson Bay. While owned by Greer this vessel was used to tow logs and limestone scows to the Pacific Mills paper rmill for six months each year until 1924. While working out of Ocean Falls this vesselwent aground a number of times particularly while working into hand logger camps. In 1938 this vesselwent aground on a reef at the entrance to Safety Cove BC. This vessel was pumped out and re-floated on the rising tide. In 1972 this vessel became the mother ship to a floating log salvage camp and the following year became a live-aboard. In 1984 this vessel was fitted with a jacuzzi tub on her afterdeck. Al Hoskins (British Columbia Nautical History Facebook Group 05/01/2022) stated "I worked on the Queen for a bit around 1969.... A really heavy 88 foot wood tug with a big direct-reversible Cooper Bessemer 5 cylinder engine that ran at a top speed of 550 rpm, this vessel was so quiet that while underway the loudest thing in the wheelhouse was the clock!
It was a bit of an adventure yarding a log tow together, because of course to change propellor direction and speed you used the telegraph handle in the wheelhouse to send a signal down to the corresponding telegraph in the engine room, where the engineer had actual control of things. He would acknowledge the signals using his own telegraph handles and then shut down the engine, start it up in the opposite direction, and adjust the fuel rack to get the requested speed. All this moving of handles and levers was attended by a system of loud bells and jingles in both telegraphs, interspersed by brief periods of silence while the engine was stopped. Then there would be a tremendous FOOFAH!! – KACHUFFA - KACHUFFA from the air start system, and the engine and propellor would hopefully be running in the right direction. Of course in the grease pit the engineer was busy as a one-armed paper hanger making all this happen, sometimes emitting a string of violent blue curses which wafted up through the skylights and could be heard and seen for miles around.
Up in the wheelhouse the skipper (Herb Steele) grunted away with maneuvering the boat by spinning the huge 8 spoke steering wheel; 44 turns hard-over to hard-over, often muttering a kind of prayer that went "turn you bitch, TURN"
Meanwhile, down on the log booms and on deck the mate and deckhands would keep a wary eye and ear on those proceedings, ready to run away to some bigger logs or other semi-safe spot in case things went sideways on the tug.
But I seem to recall we only had one such incident in Beaver Cove where the engine was a little slow starting in reverse, so the Queen made a hard landing alongside and kind of bounced off the side stick before I managed to throw a tow hook into a boom chain and flip some wraps around the side bitts to stop her up before her bow smashed into the tail stick on the next boom. .... Good times! " |
