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The Original Uchuck

by John MacFarlane 2019

The Uchuck (ON 154652) at anchor with an excellent view of her tender. (Photo by Cyril Tweedale.)

Cyril Tweedale, took photographs and saved them in family albums which were recently sent to me. They each tell short stories of the British Columbia coast.

In 1928 she was built in Vancouver BC as the Uchuck, later re–named in 1941 as the Surfco and then in 1945 as Columbia. 38.3’ x 11.0’ x 5.6’ steel–hulled 117gt 11rt. In 1938 she was rebuilt to 47.6’ x 11.3’ x 5.6’ 24gt 16rt. In 1940 she was rebuilt to 50.1’ x 11.4’ x 5.6’ 22gt 15rt.

In 1928 she was owned by The Packers Steamship Co. Ltd., Vancouver BC. In 1935 she was owned by British Columbia Packers Ltd., Vancouver BC. In 1936 she was owned by Richard Dorritt, Port Alberni BC. In 1941 she was owned by Surf Inlet Consolidated Mines Ltd. (NPL), Vancouver BC. In 1943–1945 she was owned by Ethelbert D. Stone, Vancouver BC. In 1945–1954 she was owned by Canadian Pacific Railway, Montreal QC. In 1958 she was owned by Ivan Horie, Castlegar BC.

To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John (2019) The Original Uchuck. Nauticapedia.ca 2019. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Uchuck.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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