Robertson II

Andrew Clarke reports that "this vessel was lost at Saturna Island on Minke Reef on July 1, 2007 ." In 2010 this vessel was still listed in the Canada Register of Shipping. Al Hoskins (British Columbia Nautical History Facebook Group 31/10/2024) stated "I was skipper of the Coast Guard boat from Ganges on that incident. On a calm clear summer night her owner/"captain" ran Robertson II aground between 2 rocks in Boot Cove just before high tide and failed to inform anyone.

He tried to back off but her keel was stuck in the mud so had insufficient power. Had he called for help ASAP I'm sure we could have pulled her off with our 900 hp lifeboat, but the first anyone other than those on board knew about the grounding was at daylight about 3 hours later, and eventually a concerned citizen ashore called Coast Guard to ask why there were no resources on scene. We were alerted by Rescue Centre but as our crew was on standby hours (in our various homes) it was another 45 minutes or so before we got there. By then the ship was laying over on her side and her crew of 4 or 5 had abandoned her, with the owner standing by in a small skiff, watching bits of flotsam. After ensuring no-one was hurt I interviewed the owner and soon deduced he had no idea how to minimize further damage to his ship or reduce his fuel leaking overboard, nor did he know what the tide was doing…..

He thought the tide was rising when in fact it was falling for a couple more hours. I called a commercial salvor to attend the wreck, and we plugged his fuel tank vents and shut off the tank outlets, then had to run back to Ganges to load our oil containment boom, absorbents etc then return to Boot Cove to deploy it. By then the ship was completely on her beam ends with a couple of planks in her starboard bilges stove in but the owner seemed to think she would float off on the next high tide…..

He couldn't quite grasp that the next real high tide was going to be about 24 hours after the grounding."