MacFarlane, Frederick Randolph

He landed, from Ireland, with his family at Quebec City on 26/06/1898 travelling in the S.S. Californian.

In 1915 he married Norah Margarette Lafortune in British Columbia. After his naval service he was a well known tug and salvage skipper on Pacific Coast. While in command of the Island Queen with the barge Island Gatherer in tow on 13/12/1936 the tow line parted during a storm in Queen Charlotte Sound. The tug ran alongside the barge suffering damage. The crew lined the side with mattresses so that Captain J.R. Paulson on the barge with his family (wife and two children) could leap on board the Island Queen. The barge was later lost in the storm.

He commanded the Island Sovereign, flagship of the Island Tug & Barge fleet.

He served as a Captain in the US Army Transportation Corps (Sea Transportation Service) during the Second World War in the chartered tug Snohomish.

He made a "longest tow" of four 300' tankers to Victoria from Panama.

In 1947-8 he was Master of the ocean-going salvage tug Snohomish on her epic voyage to Buenos Aires Argentina towing a barge filled with fuel and six smaller 74' ex-US Army tugs for delivery to the Argentinian Navy.

In 1954 he towed four 300' oil tankers in line to Victoria from Panama in the Island Navigator, then considered as a World Record. His ashes were scattered at sea.

He was appointed as an Ordinary Seaman RNVR in British Columbia in 1915 and went to England for officer training.

He attended a pre-commissioning course at the Royal Hospital School Greenwich. (CFR) He served in H.M.S. Hermione in 1916.

He was commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant (Temp.) RNVR on 03/07/1916 for World War One service.

He was appointed as a Lieutenant (Temp.) RNVR 03/07/1917, and served as First Lieutenant in HMC ML-28 in 11/1916.

He commanded a Royal Navy minesweeper.

He served in HMC ML-28 in the Dover Patrol. (He was demobilized in 1919.)

Victory (with Frederick Randolph MacFarlane); Wabash - 1910 (with Francis Arthur MacFarlane)