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Shipwrecks of Vancouver Island, British Columbia

    Vancouver Island was discovered in 1778 by Captain James Cook when he sailed into Nootka Sound and and claimed it for Great Britain.(tisk tisk) It lies parallel to the British Columbia mainland and stretches northward for 285 miles from the Strait of Juan de Fuca (bordering Washington State) with a maximum width of 62 miles. According to Wiki "Vancouver Island is the world's 43rd largest island, Canada's 11th largest island, and Canada's second most populous island after the Island of Montreal."

    Her West Coast, commonly known as part of the `Graveyard of the Pacific' which stretches northward along the Pacific Northwest coast from around Tillamook Bay, Oregon, past the treacherous Columbia River Bar and Strait of Juan de Fuca, then up the rocky western coast of Vancouver Island to Cape Scott.

    Unpredictable weather conditions, storms, fog and a very dangerous rocky coastline with shifting sandbars, tidal rips, rocky reefs, have caused hundreds off ships to be lost.

   A few of the hundreds of vessels lost around Vancouver Island include:

    - 1811.06.10 - American ship TONQUIN - 296 ton - blown up at Clayoquot Sound
    - 1849.12.21 - British barque ALBION - 488 ton - stranded on Brotchie Ledge, off Victoria
    - 1855.02.25 - American steamer MAJOR TOMPKINS - 151 ton - stranded and sank in Victoria Harbour
    - 1858.09.07 - American side-wheel steamer SEA BIRD - 450 ton - fire then beached on Discovery Island
    - 1874.11.23 - Canadian sealing schooner SURPRISE - 40 ton - stranded on reef off Sooke
    - 1880.01.14 - American barque GENERAL COBB - 648 ton - stranded in Clayoquot Sound
    - 1880.07.14 - American ship THRASHER - 1,512 ton - stranded on reef off Nanaimo
    - 1885.07.28 - Canadian side-wheel steamer ENTERPRISE - 380 ton - collision in Oak Bay
    - 1891.11.22 - American steamer SAN PEDRO - 3,119 ton - stranded on Brotchie Ledge, off Victoria
    - 1892.11.19 - American ship ERICSSON - 1,645 ton - stranded in Barkley Sound
    - 1896.02.03 - Australian ship NINEVEH - 1,174 ton - stranded in Clayoquot Sound
    - 1897.07.27 - British ship BECHERDASS AMBIADASS - 1,376 ton - stranded in Barkley Sound
    - 1904.01.08 - American steamer CLALLAM - 657 ton - lost in storm between Port Townsend, WA. and Victoria
    - 1905.12.25 - British ship PASS OF MELFORT - 2,346 ton - stranded in gale in Barkley Sound
    - 1906.01.22 - American steamer VALENCIA - 1,987 ton - stranded near Pachena Point - lost 136 persons
    - 1910.01.27 - American schooner SUSIE M. PLUMMER - 921 ton - stranded near Cape Scott - all hands lost
    - 1911.03.24 - Canadian steamer SECHELT - 105 ton - sank with all hands off Race Rocks near Sooke
    - 1914.07.05 - Amercian cargo-barge GERARD C. TOBEY - 1,459 ton - stranded near Campbell River
    - 1915.11.25 - Chilian ship CARELMAPU - 1,447 ton - stranded in Clayoquot Sound
    - 1920.12.23 - American steamer DORA - 320 ton - stranded near Port Hardy
    - 1923.02.15 - British freighter TUSCAN PRINCESS - 5,275 ton - stranded in Barkley Sound
    - 1930.02.27 - Canadian HMCS THIEPVAL - 357 ton - stranded in Barkley Sound
    - 1932.12.06 - Canadian vessel BISCAYNE - 2,160 ton - sank in Barkley Sound
    - 1937.08.08 - Greek steamer NEREUS - 6,694 ton - stranded in Barkley Sound
    - 1943.04.01 - Russian steamer UZBEKISTAN - 3,039 ton - stranded in Barkley Sound
    - 1943.01.16 - Canadian steamer NORTHOLM - 447 ton - sank near Cape Scott
    - 1971.10.21 - Canadian log-barge RIVTOW NORSEMAN - 7,843 ton - stranded near Cape Scott
    - 1972.03.14 - Panamanian freighter VANLENE- 10,500 ton - lost in Barkley Sound
    - 1972.01.09 - Liberian freighter DONA ANITA - 7,629 ton - lost off Vancouver Island with all 42 on board
    - 1991.08.10 - Canadian freighter G. B. CHURCH - 530 ton - scuttled as artificial reef near Sidney
    - 1995.09.16 - Canadian destroyer HMCS MACKENZIE - 2,900 ton - scuttled as artificial reef near Sidney
    - 1996.06.22 - Canadian destroyer HMCS COLUMBIA - 2,900 ton - scuttled as artificial reef near Campbell River
    - 1997.06.14 - Canadian destroyer HMCS SASKATCHEWAN - 2,900 ton - scuttled as artificial reef near Nanaimo

      References:
Canadian Sessional Papers - Marine Branch - Annual List of Wrecks (1870? to 1936?)
Transport Canada - Transportation Safety Board Statement of Shipping Casualties (1896+)
Lloyd's Register of Shipping, Casualty Returns (1890 to 1976)
Customs Canada - Port of Registry Records - Victoria, BC. (1881 to 1908?)
Underwaterwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia
`Known Wrecks Since 1800 - Vancouver Island' (poster, 1966)
`Shipwrecks of British Columbia' by Fred Rogers (1973)
`141 Dives" (in Washington & BC.) by Betty Pratt-Johnson (1976)
`British Columbia Shipwrecks' by T. W. Paterson (1976)
`More Shipwrecks of British Columbia' by Fred Rogers (1992)

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