Cardena (I)

This vessel could do 14kts surface condensing built by and boilers built by Babcock & Wilcox Ltd., Renfrew Scotland. There is a nice model of his vessel at the Vancouver Maritime Museum. On March 14, 1946 this vessel ran agound at Port Clements in the QCIs. On November 4, 1950 this vessel was stranded at Estevan Point BC and later salvaged. In March 1952, the Cardena grounded on mud flats under Lions Gate Bridge and, in early 1953, struck a rock in Patrick Channel, near Sullivan Bay in the Broughton Archipelago. Then, in the fall of 1953, again under Lions Gate Bridge, the Union ship collided head-on in heavy fog with the CPR liner Princess Elizabeth, leaving a 20-foot gash in the Cardena’s bow. Following the collision, the two conjoined vessels managed to maneuver into the sheltered waters of English Bay, away from the busy shipping lanes beneath the bridge. All of the passengers had donned life jackets, but they remained aboard for the four hours it took to separate the ships by cutting torch." On December 20, 1946 this vessel went aground near Balmoral Cannery, at the mouth of the Skeena River. This vessel was hauled off after three days by the Salvage Princess and Cape Scott." In 1961 this vessel was broken up by Capital Iron & Metals Co. Ltd., Victoria BC Canada. Her hull was towed to Powell River and ballasted with gravel this vessel served as a floating breakwater. Then this vessel was towed to Kelsey Bay for the breakwater there.