128-year-old shipwreck on Vancouver Island charred by fire

National Post

8 hours ago

A shipwreck that has been part of Vancouver Island's history for more than a century is a charred skeleton after a fire this month.
Article content
Photographer Geoff Johnson said he went to look after hearing of the fire at the wreck that has been sitting on Big Beach in Ucluelet for almost 130 years.
Article content
'It was really dramatic,' recalled Johnson in an interview, adding that the wooden wreckage seemed to be 'more corpse-like now than it was before.'
Article content
Article content
Ucluelet fire chief Rick Geddes said crews attended the fire in the early morning of June 10, and that the cause of the blaze is being investigated.
Article content
Article content
The shipwreck suffered 'significant damage' from the fire, although it's still very much intact, Geddes said.
Article content
'It's not uncommon for us to get called to beach fires that have been abandoned overnight,' said Geddes, 'But it was somewhat uncommon for us to attend and have an issue with actual wreckage of this ship that's been on the beach for 100 plus years.'
Article content
The history of the vessel, where it sailed from, and how it was stranded, has been lost.
Article content
An information plaque set up next to the wreck says it's believe the ship was swept ashore by storms in 1896.
Article content
The plaque says the ship was probably built somewhere on the northwest coast of the Americas in the mid- to late 1800s, based on its Douglas fir timber, wooden pegs and iron 'drift-pin' fastenings.
Article content
There's no name, no destination and no hint if it was intentionally grounded and disassembled to build houses, or if it was a victim of a storm, Johnson said about the history of the vessel, which is just a block from his home.
Article content
Article content
'So, that's part of the interesting story, is that anybody you know can make up what they think the story that shipwreck was about, and it makes it a little bit more of a romantic thing to sit there and look at and think about.'
Article content
Article content
Johnson said he's grown to love the beachside artifact and it was 'gut-wrenching' to see in burned.
Article content
He would use it as a seat to take sunset photos, and sitting there felt like hanging out with a 'friend who had just been in a bad accident,' he said.