Silverdale Ferry Graveyard
 

Does anyone know the history of the "Silverdale BC Ferry Graveyard"?

why there? why leave these ships to rot? can't be too friendly for the environment can it? why not just scrap them? WTF?

its in Mission and easily seen from the road ... here is a link >>

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=...23.86,,0,10.33

and here are some photos + mention in wiki

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...enofsideny.JPG
(photo from wiki >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_class_ferry)

and a large set here >> http://www.ferrypicsbygraham.fotopic.net/c1305938.html

and from the above page

# Silverdale - Ferry Graveyard # (19 images)
Photographic tribute to the two ferries of both historic significance and value languishing on the bank of the Fraser River at Silverdale near Mission, B.C. The Queen of Sidney, ex-Sidney, was the first of 2 B.C. ferries operated by the provincial government and built in 1960 for the first B.C. Ferry route between Tsawwassen on the mainland and Swartz Bay, near our provincial capital of Victoria, on Vancouver Island. The Queen of Sidney is where the Flag of British Columbia was first raised in 1960 and her twin sister is still with the fleet and running strong at the same age. The steam ferry San Mateo was built in 1922 at San Francisco for Bay Area service and came north to Puget Sound in 1957, making her last trip for Washington State Ferries in 1960 and ending up in Canada in 1994. Today they sit with little public hope for revival, the San Mateo being particularly vulnerable to cycles of the river and exteme weather due to wooden parts of her superstructure and other factors including her age.

Interesting but depressing ! ! ! !

makes you wonder why they don't sink the ferries and provide habitats for corals and other sea creatures. If we want this province to become strong in the new green economy one would think this would be a good step.

They're owned by some dude. I think he lives on the old BC Ferry. There's some youtube videos where they give you a tour.

They might have more details/photos at the West Coast Ferries forum: http://ferriesbc.proboards.com/

Two people own the Sidney, I was on a tour of her in January 2005. They are stripping it and selling off the stuff.

I grew up nearby just in Maple Ridge and have seen those boats there for years and years. First, the old wooden ferry appeared, must have been 15 years ago. It sat upright for a long time. Some friends went on board one night, said it was really scary, and pretty rotten in some places.

I recall driving down the Haney Bypass years later to see a tug boat towing the BC Ferry up the river. It was quite a sight, to see such a large boat so far up the Fraser. I heard a rumour that it was to be converted to a crew boat for coastal logging operations. Though, that appears to not have happened. I wasn't overly surprised to see it a few days later tied up along side the older ferry in Mission.

Sorry to lack any kind of specific dates / reasons.

If one looks at the adjoining landscape, it also looks akin to another littered graveyard. Just a bunch of Junk Collectors, I say.

Here's some further bizarre insight into the Queen of Sidney:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0h0b8wUIlU...ycafeteria.jpg


http://unknownvictoria.blogspot.com/...of-sidney.html

... time and tide wait for no ship ....
 

Ironic to think that the Queen of Sidney, the Queen of Vancouver, and the other of the same scale scale were once the "biggies," the pride of the fleet,
taking over from the MV "Chinook and the MV "Kahloke" (originally the Ashbury Park which ran between Manhattan and Long Island back in the 1920s .......

Now it's the "Queen of Surrey," and the slightly smaller Cowichan and Coquitlam. I wonder what's next................

Haha, that's my photo :)

When the Queen of Sidney was sold from BC Ferries in 2002, she was going to be turned into a high-end floating restaurant. In 2004 (?) the head honcho of the project fell ill and had to drop out, and ever since she's just sat there unused, except for the time when she was filmed in part of a horror/thriller movie. There are currently no plans for the 'Sidney, but as of this morning at 6am (PST) she's still sitting there on the shore. I can post some more photos of her if anyone would like.

Actually, the Spirit class are the largest right now.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._5584399_n.jpg

why hello! and welcome to the forum! sure a few more photos would be AWESOME! :cheers:

thanks for the info too! I wonder what the environmental impact of the ships rotting there is?

The SS San Mateo is pretty much all wood, so the impact wouldn't be too bad, at least on the pollutant side of the picture, unless there's still some fuel in it.

The 'Sidney is made of metal (steel?) so any rust falling into the river wouldn't be very good for the fish in the Fraser River.

Here are some more pics:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2478932_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2711849_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2085491_n.jpg

I'm going to get down there for some more pictures in a few weeks.

Must not be good for the fraser river

Interesting story though

More photos....
 

As promised in my last post, here are some more photos that I took about a month ago... :)

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._5057447_n.jpg
The SS San mateo, the smaller ferry beside the Sidney. As you can see, her roof is starting to collapse.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._5943126_n.jpg

Notice the keep off sign:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._1495611_n.jpg

The access door:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._3351143_n.jpg

The modified BC Flag on the side:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6600160_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._1264102_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._4413516_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2081246_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...6_972037_n.jpg

I spoke to the owner over the phone a few weeks ago, and he told me that the San Mateo is going to be taken apart on the spot in the near future, and the Queen of Sidney is still structurally sound, and it gets maintained regularly, and it's primary purpose is to be used as a movie prop.

:Titanic:

thanks lmtengs!

I think this will be the 1st in a series of interesting stories about the Fraser I will post.

post #2 coming up now ;)

"Fraser River Debris Trap"

Aerial view - http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=s5r...ission%2C%20BC

Article in today's Vancouver Sun
 

..more in the original article.

I'm not impressed with these wrecks. If they wanted to keep some as movie props, well... put them on drydocks or on land please... and don't let them rust on our waterways like that! The BC government must also have some sort of river right-of-way jurisdiction that they could invoke that can force them to move out.