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Blogs

What Do They Do With an Old Coast Guard Boat?

The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) has had many ships since it began – the old and the new. CCG is constantly replacing old ships with a newer version as is mentioned below: Newest Canadian Coast Guard ship named for fallen soldier Jun 09, 2014  but what does the CCG do with the old ships? Many are […]

Hijack!

The hijack of a ship on the British Columbia (BC) coast is a rare possibility, but with all the controversy over oil spills and destruction of coastal rain forests, the possibility is still there for terrorists or others to hijack a ship on the BC coast and hold the government for ransom. In the rest […]

Reprint – DFO Shutting Down Coast Guard Radio Stations, but Prince Rupert’s Will Be Expanded

  I wrote an article on January 04, 2012 entitled MCTS To Lose Staff To Save Money. After that date, the department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO or F&O) have changed their plans. They are now closing whole stations instead of a removing a few men! The news article below is well written and explains what […]

You Just Thought Moving Was a Pain!

Let’s face it, nobody likes moving. All the packing, loading, carrying, lifting, unpacking. There’s probably nothing more unpleasant to go through, even when you’re moving to a better place and looking forward to moving in. But try compounding that with the almost insurmountable obstacle of living on an island. Not just any island, but a […]

Life on Nootka Lighthouse c. 1950s

Here is another story from Ms. Juanita (Swanson) DuLong. She was a young girl on most of these stations, but living there, and hearing stories from her parents, she has created   lighthouse memories from the 1950s time. Her older stories are found here, here and here. One more to come she says.  It is said that for […]

Life on Pine Island c. 1950s

Here is another story from Ms. Juanita (Swanson) DuLong. She was a young girl on most of these stations, but living there, and hearing stories from her parents, she has created   lighthouse memories from the 1950s time. Her older stories are found here and here. Her husband Roy scanned some nice photos of Pine Island […]

Let’s Play Russian Roulette with the Spirit Bear

You all know my feelings about the Enbridge Pipeline project (aka Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines) currently being proposed for British Columbia. I am definitely against it. During my years on the BC lighthouses I saw many examples of poorly managed mines and fisheries. Let us stop this one before it gets started and one oil […]

Development of the Canadian Icebreaker

I was writing an article that contained a reference to the CCGS Camsell, a Coast Guard icebreaker, and I got to wondering how many people knew about the history of the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) ice breakers. Thanks to the generosity of the CCG website I have been given permission to reproduce their material here. It is […]

The Vanlene and I

I received the following email the other day promoting an article on a friend’s website:  The freighter Vanlene ran up on the rocks on Austin Island in the Broken Group islands on March 14, 1972. She was carrying 300 Dodge Colt automobiles while enroute to Vancouver BC from Japan. The crew was rescued and taken […]

Groceries and Mail on a Lighthouse

Some of you may wonder why the number of stories about re-supplying the lighthouses exceeds the others on this site by a large margin (lots more coming!). Next to the family and job, the arrival of the mail and groceries was the most important event in the life of the lightkeeping family.  Imagine no telephone, […]