Site Navigation:
Searchable Databases
Articles Archive
Pacific Nautical Heritage...
- Gallery of Light and Buoy Images
- Gallery of Mariners
- Gallery of Ship Images
- Gallery of Ship Wrecks
- Gallery of Monuments and Statues
- Gallery of Nautical Images
- Gallery of Freshwater Images
- Gallery of New Books
Canadian Naval Topics…
- Nautical History Videos
- UNTD
- British Columbia Heritage
- Arctic and Northern Nautical Heritage
- Western Canada Boat and Ship Builders
- Gallery of Arctic Images
- Reflections on Nautical Heritage
- British Columbia Heritage
Site Search:
Looking for more? Search for Articles on the Nauticapedia Site.
The Tug Boat C.G.S. Petrel
by John MacFarlane 2018
The Petrel (Photo from Nauticapedia collection. )
In 1906 she was built by the Victoria Machinery Depot Ltd. at Victoria BC. 86.4’ x 17’ x 12.3’ steel hulled 134gt 58rt She was powered by 23rhp compound 2’cylinder steam engine built by the Victoria Machinery Depot Ltd.
The Petrel with a spoil barge. (Photo courtesy of the MMBC. )
In 1906–1933 she was owned by The Minister of Public Works, Ottawa ON. In 1934 she was owned by Herman Thorsen, Vancouver BC. In 1939–1943 she was owned by Canadian Tugboat Co. Ltd., Vancouver BC. In 1946–1952 she was sold to Coastal Tugboat Co. Ltd., Vancouver BC.
The Petrel in Victoria Harbour. (Photo courtesy of the MMBC. )
In 1906 she was in service as the tug attached to dredge Ajax. In c1907 she foundered in Ladysmith Harbour but was later refloated.
Detail of the stern of the Petrel while on the shipyard ways. (Photo courtesy of the MMBC. )
On December 28th, 1952 she left Vancouver for the booming ground at Gowlland Harbour with threatening weather. She sailed up the Georgia Strait and approached Cape Mudge around midnight in a southeast gale with flood tide from the north. The sea overwhelmed the tug and on December 29th, 1952 and she foundered and sank in turbulent waters off Cape Mudge Quadra Island BC. (Seven lives were lost.)
To quote from this article please cite:
MacFarlane, John M. (2018) The Tug Boat C.G.S. Petrel. Nauticapedia.ca 2018. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Petrel.php
Site News: January 14, 2025
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,957 vessel histories (with 16,337 images and 13,935 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).
The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3998 images).
My thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of the vessel histories in the vessel database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.
Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he continues to contribute 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.
Thanks to John Spivey who is beginning his 4th year of fact checking all of the entries in the vessel database.