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The Fast Speedboat Speedaway

by John MacFarlane & Kristin Butler 2019

The Speedaway (Photo from the Kristin Butler collection.)

Contributor Kristin Butler found old family pictures which she is sharing. The come from an album once owned by Amos Becker who apparently owned the fast speedboat Speedaway

The Speedaway (Photo from the Kristin Butler collection.)

The Speedaway (Photo from the Kristin Butler collection.)

Built in 1944 in Vancouver BC the Speedaway was renamed in 1948 as Speedaway I and later in 1956 as Bob–Don. Relatively small at 21.0’ x 5.9’ x 3.1’ with a wooden hull 2gt/1rt.

The Speedaway (Photo from the Kristin Butler collection.)

In 1944–1945 she was owned by Amos Beckman, Vancouver BC. In 1946–1948 she was owned by Beckman Tugboats Ltd., Marpole BC. In 1948–1956 she was owned by James Towler & Mrs. Marguerite Towers, Vancouver BC. In 1956–1963 she was owned by Richmond Tug Boat Co. Ltd., Richmond BC. In 1964 she was owned by Delta Towing Co. Ltd., Brackendale BC. In 1966–1967 she was owned by Squamish Tug Boat Co. Ltd., Brackendale BC.

The Speedaway (Photo from the Kristin Butler collection.)

Rita Roberts Beckman in a small launch. (Photo from the Kristin Butler collection.)

Kristin Butler says "This is my great aunt Rita Roberts Beckman who was married to the tugboat owner Amos Beckman during the 1940s."

Vancouver tugboat owner Amos Beckman in a small launch. (Photo from the Kristin Butler collection.)

To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John and Kristin Butler (2019) The Fast Speedboat Speedaway. Nauticapedia.ca 2019. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Speedaway.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.

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