SS Cardena
Encyclopedia
For more than 35 years, from 1923 to 1958, the Union Steamship Cardena sailed the British Columbia Coast
, carrying passengers, groceries, dry goods, industrial cargo, mail and sundry other supplies to the 200 or so mining, logging and fishing communities that once dotted the province’s coastline during the early years of the 20th century. On her return voyage, at the peak of the summer fishing season, the Cardena routinely carried thousands of cases of canned salmon to the railheads at Prince Rupert and Vancouver
for shipment across Canada and around the world. And so it went for the better part of half a century; a regular and reliable marine service (with only infrequent interruptions) that made the Cardena a coastal institution, remembered with affection and regard by the countless men, women and children who inhabited those tiny outports in a bygone era.
was incorporated in Vancouver, BC in November 1889 by John Darling, a director of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand
, and nine local businessmen. An initial capital base of £40,000 allowed for the purchase of three tugboats and seven barges, the foundation of the Union Company fleet. Between 1891 and 1911, the Company went on to build ten additional vessels, all but two from shipyards in Scotland and Ireland. During this period and beyond, the Company barely survived a number of misfortunes and ill-fated ventures, to eventually emerge as the principal steamship link to the growing resource industries of the central and north coast of the province.
While the period from 1911 to 1920 was for the Company a time of consolidation of its routes and services after a decade of expansion, marine trade was slowed by the outbreak of war in 1914. Economic recovery did not begin until the United States entered the war in 1917, giving a much-needed boost to the coastal lumber industry. But by the fall of 1922, the booming coastal salmon industry’s increasing need for dependable marine transport for its product had convinced the Union Company that an additional ship was required for the northern cannery run. Accordingly, the Scots firm of Napier and Miller
Old Kilpatrick
shipyard on the River Clyde
was engaged to build a large, modern vessel capable of meeting this burgeoning demand.
, which in turn was named after García López de Cárdenas
, an early Spanish explorer of the New World
.
Following her launch on March 22, 1923, and after completed sea trials, the Cardena departed for Vancouver on May 3 under the command of Captain Alfred E. Dickson. The ship arrived in Vancouver on June 11, and headed out on her maiden voyage
north a mere nine days later. The Company’s anxious directors were soon relieved to hear from captain and crew alike that their newest addition to the Union fleet, the first of its kind in 12 years, was a complete success in every way. The ship’s ease of handling in rough seas was particularly suited to the often perilous crossings of Queen Charlotte Sound
, while the maneuverability afforded by her twin screws made the Cardena ideal for the delicate piloting required to navigate the treacherous shoals and shifting sandbars guarding the approaches to the Skeena River canneries.
passenger and cargo steamship, fitted with direct-acting
, triple-expansion engines with an indicated rating of 2000 hp. Ship’s length was 226’ with a 37’ beam. She drew 18’ of water and had a gross weight of 1,559 tons. The Cardena cruised at 13 knots, just below her maximum speed. She was licensed to carry 250 passengers in 132 cabin berths and on 60 deck settees. Cargo capacity was 350 tons. When fully loaded, the ship was capable of transporting 11,000 cases of canned salmon, in addition to 30 tons of boxed fish in refrigerated storage.
The net effect of these combined attributes was one of the most graceful liners ever to sail the BC coast, and a fine sea-boat as well. With her black hull, white superstructure
and twin, out-rigged freight booms, the Cardena provided reliable, weekly service to the north coast salmon canneries along the Nass
and Skeena Rivers. To the grateful inhabitants of these far-flung settlements, the familiar blasts from the ship’s red and black funnel (one long, two short, one long) inevitably heralded the Cardena’s approach as she steamed her way up the long green channels of the Inside Passage
towards her next port-of-call. This scheduled arrival, often late at night, in thick fog or foul weather, was cause for the camp or cannery workers to assemble along the company dock to greet the ship and await the mail, or perhaps to buy chocolate or a magazine from the purser’s
on-board news stand. Over the 70-year period that the Union Steamship Co. of BC operated its fleet of 53 vessels (1889–1959), it was no exaggeration to claim that the Union service was the life-line of the coast.
in Seymour Narrows
, a treacherous, three-mile tidal surge lying in Discovery Passage
between Vancouver Island
and Quadra Island
. Ripple Rock, an undersea double pinnacle that sank more than 100 vessels (and cost as many lives) over the years, was obliterated by a man-made explosion on April 5, 1958.
But when, in the early morning mist of that August day in 1927, the Cardena came upon the Prince Rupert stuck fast, Ripple Rock was a scant two fathoms below the surface. The Cardenas skipper, Andy Johnstone, immediately ordered his ship in close to the stricken vessel, where it became apparent that the Prince Rupert was in imminent danger of foundering, or of being forced by the tide against the steep cliffs that overhung the Narrows. Captain Johnstone next ordered that a steel tow line be cast to the Rupert’s stern. With this in place, the Cardena swung alongside the other ship and made fast.
Then, slowly and with great seamanship and care, the smaller Union vessel nudged the Prince Rupert off Ripple Rock and began to tow her towards Deep Cove, a mile distant. There, the Cardena took on board as many of the Rupert’s passengers as she could carry before continuing on her way to Vancouver. The remainder were later transferred to the CPR vessel SS Princess Beatrice, which was also in the vicinity at the time. The Union Company eschewed any and all salvage claims for the rescue, preferring to bask in the good will that this gesture garnered from its competitors and the public alike.
and other electronic aids to navigation, coastal captains relied upon detailed notations in the ship’s log to guide their way. These precisely recorded observations of wind, time, tide, bearing and position enabled the captain to follow the correct course on all subsequent passages, so long as the ship’s speed remained the same. To supplement this procedure in conditions of limited visibility, the ship’s whistle was utilized as a rudimentary form of sonar
. By recording the time it took for the whistle blast to echo back to the ship from the surrounding terrain, an accurate estimate of the distance from shore could be arrived at.
However, notwithstanding the undisputed skill of Union skippers over long service to the Company, the maritime history of the fog-bound BC coastline is also replete with tales of frequent collisions, groundings, scrapings and founderings, and the S.S. Cardena was no exception to this unfortunate record.
The ship’s first two mishaps at sea occurred in the fall and winter of 1929, when she twice ran aground near the mouth of the Skeena River. Two years later, the ship sliced a fish packer in half at Namu
dock when her telegraph cable broke. Then, in early 1942, during wartime blackout conditions, the Cardena was rammed by the tugboat La Pointe. Two unoccupied staterooms were destroyed in the collision but no serious injuries or loss of life occurred as a result.
Six years later, in the summer of 1948, the Cardena ran aground again, this time on a reef near False Bay on Lasqueti Island
. All passengers were evacuated but the crew remained on board. Salvage tugs were eventually able to free the ship from the reef and, even though her hull was holed in two places, the Cardena was escorted to Vancouver under her own steam. The ship’s next two mishaps actually occurred on the same day in the fall of 1950. First, when she grounded in the sand off Savary Island
dock, and shortly afterwards, when she drifted onto the shore while attempting a landing at Surge Narrows in a running tide.
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.
The Cardena’s last recorded incident occurred on November 30, 1956, when she struck a rock shortly after leaving Port Hardy for the trip north to Bella Coola
. The few passengers on board were evacuated to waiting boats and the ship was freed, undamaged, by tugs the next morning.
To place the foregoing record in perspective, it should be noted that in the latter 45 years of the Union Company’s coastal service, not one passenger life was lost to a marine mishap. This admirable safety record included the years when it was not unusual for the Company’s fleet to travel upwards of 25,000 miles in a single month.
in the fall of 1949; The supplanting of the Company’s profitable Howe Sound
and Sunshine Coast day excursions by the automobile and car-ferries; The loss of north coast passenger business to improved airline schedules; The questionable business decisions that flowed from a reorganization of the Company in 1954, and again in 1956; A bitter eight-week strike by the Seafarers International Union in the summer of 1955, which cost the Company the loss of the season, and the settlement of which imposed radical changes to many of its former operating procedures and conditions.
Lastly, the Union Company’s failure to obtain a crucial increase in the federal coastal shipping subsidy meant that its annual operating losses were now unsupportable. This dire predicament led to the Company’s subsequent decision to suspend all subsidized passenger service at the end of 1957, and to its eventual sale to the Northland Navigation Company 13 months later.
As a result of the suspension of passenger service, the Cardena, along with the SS Catala
, was laid up in early 1958 and her dining saloon was converted to a cafeteria. The Catala was returned to service in April, but the Cardena languished alone and dormant for the next three years, before being sold for scrap to Capital Iron and Metals of Victoria, BC in February 1961. There she was stripped to her hull, which was then towed to Powell River
on the Sunshine Coast to form part of a harbour breakwater. The hulk was later towed to Kelsey Bay
, on the north-east coast of Vancouver Island, where it can be seen today, still providing a maritime service as one of the remains of six vessels that comprise the local breakwater.
Coda: A recent approach to several provincial museums to reclaim, restore and exhibit the Cardena’s intact bow-piece met with no takers.
British Columbia Coast
The British Columbia Coast or BC Coast is Canada's western continental coastline on the Pacific Ocean. The usage is synonymous with the term West Coast of Canada....
, carrying passengers, groceries, dry goods, industrial cargo, mail and sundry other supplies to the 200 or so mining, logging and fishing communities that once dotted the province’s coastline during the early years of the 20th century. On her return voyage, at the peak of the summer fishing season, the Cardena routinely carried thousands of cases of canned salmon to the railheads at Prince Rupert and Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
for shipment across Canada and around the world. And so it went for the better part of half a century; a regular and reliable marine service (with only infrequent interruptions) that made the Cardena a coastal institution, remembered with affection and regard by the countless men, women and children who inhabited those tiny outports in a bygone era.
The Union Steamship Co. of BC
The Union Steamship Company of British ColumbiaUnion Steamship Company of British Columbia
The Union Steamship Company of British Columbia was a pioneer firm on coastal British Columbia. It started in 1889, from the beginnings of local service on Burrard Inlet near Vancouver, and expanded to the entire British Columbia coast...
was incorporated in Vancouver, BC in November 1889 by John Darling, a director of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand
Union Company
The Union Company, Union Steam Ship Company , or Union Line was started in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1875, when it was floated by James Mills, who had been clerk to Johnny Jones and his Harbour Steam Company....
, and nine local businessmen. An initial capital base of £40,000 allowed for the purchase of three tugboats and seven barges, the foundation of the Union Company fleet. Between 1891 and 1911, the Company went on to build ten additional vessels, all but two from shipyards in Scotland and Ireland. During this period and beyond, the Company barely survived a number of misfortunes and ill-fated ventures, to eventually emerge as the principal steamship link to the growing resource industries of the central and north coast of the province.
While the period from 1911 to 1920 was for the Company a time of consolidation of its routes and services after a decade of expansion, marine trade was slowed by the outbreak of war in 1914. Economic recovery did not begin until the United States entered the war in 1917, giving a much-needed boost to the coastal lumber industry. But by the fall of 1922, the booming coastal salmon industry’s increasing need for dependable marine transport for its product had convinced the Union Company that an additional ship was required for the northern cannery run. Accordingly, the Scots firm of Napier and Miller
Napier and Miller
Napier and Miller are Scottish shipbuilders at Old Kilpatrick, Glasgow, Scotland.The company built two large, double-ended steam passenger ferries for the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company Limited in Sydney, Australia, launched in 1927 and 1928. They were named "Dee Why" and "Curl Curl" and...
Old Kilpatrick
Old Kilpatrick
Old Kilpatrick is a village in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland.The village is on the north bank of the River Clyde immediately to the north of the Forth and Clyde Canal, three miles from Clydebank on the road to Dumbarton. The Great Western Road runs through Old Kilpatrick, and the next village to...
shipyard on the River Clyde
River Clyde
The River Clyde is a major river in Scotland. It is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire....
was engaged to build a large, modern vessel capable of meeting this burgeoning demand.
History
The Cardena was modeled on the S.S. Venture, an older Union ship that had proven her worth over many seasons on the same northern run. To the Venture’s design was added 50’ in length, five feet in beam, a refrigeration compartment, 42 inside cabins, four outside cabins on the boat deck, plus a dining saloon that seated 68. The ship took its name from Cardena Bay on the south shore of Kennedy Island, at the mouth of the Skeena RiverSkeena River
The Skeena River is the second longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada . The Skeena is an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan - whose names mean "inside the Skeena River" and "people of the Skeena River" respectively, and also during the...
, which in turn was named after García López de Cárdenas
García López de Cárdenas
García López de Cárdenas, , is credited with the first European discovery of the Grand Canyon.- Life :Cárdenas was born in Llerena, Spain, son to Alonso de Cárdenas y doña Elvira de Figueroa and Maria García Osorio. He was the comendador of Caravaca.López de Cárdenas was conquistador attached to...
, an early Spanish explorer of the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
.
Following her launch on March 22, 1923, and after completed sea trials, the Cardena departed for Vancouver on May 3 under the command of Captain Alfred E. Dickson. The ship arrived in Vancouver on June 11, and headed out on her maiden voyage
Maiden voyage
The maiden voyage of a ship, aircraft or other craft is the first journey made by the craft after shakedown. A number of traditions and superstitions are associated with it....
north a mere nine days later. The Company’s anxious directors were soon relieved to hear from captain and crew alike that their newest addition to the Union fleet, the first of its kind in 12 years, was a complete success in every way. The ship’s ease of handling in rough seas was particularly suited to the often perilous crossings of Queen Charlotte Sound
Queen Charlotte Sound
Queen Charlotte Sound is the name of two channels:*Queen Charlotte Sound , located in British Columbia*Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand, located in the Marlborough Sounds...
, while the maneuverability afforded by her twin screws made the Cardena ideal for the delicate piloting required to navigate the treacherous shoals and shifting sandbars guarding the approaches to the Skeena River canneries.
The Ship
The S.S. Cardena was an all-steel, twin-screw, double bottomDouble bottom
A double bottom is a ship hull design and construction method where the bottom of the ship has two complete layers of watertight hull surface: one outer layer forming the normal hull of the ship, and a second inner hull which is somewhat higher in the ship, perhaps a few feet, which forms a...
passenger and cargo steamship, fitted with direct-acting
Marine steam engine
A marine steam engine is a reciprocating steam engine that is used to power a ship or boat. Steam turbines and diesel engines largely replaced reciprocating steam engines in marine applications during the 20th century, so this article describes the more common types of marine steam engine in use...
, triple-expansion engines with an indicated rating of 2000 hp. Ship’s length was 226’ with a 37’ beam. She drew 18’ of water and had a gross weight of 1,559 tons. The Cardena cruised at 13 knots, just below her maximum speed. She was licensed to carry 250 passengers in 132 cabin berths and on 60 deck settees. Cargo capacity was 350 tons. When fully loaded, the ship was capable of transporting 11,000 cases of canned salmon, in addition to 30 tons of boxed fish in refrigerated storage.
The net effect of these combined attributes was one of the most graceful liners ever to sail the BC coast, and a fine sea-boat as well. With her black hull, white superstructure
Superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...
and twin, out-rigged freight booms, the Cardena provided reliable, weekly service to the north coast salmon canneries along the Nass
Nass
Nass may refer to:in Canada*Nass River in northern British Columbia* People of the Nass, the Nisga'a people of northern British Columbia* Nass, the Nisga'a languageas an acronym* National Asylum Support Service, in the UK...
and Skeena Rivers. To the grateful inhabitants of these far-flung settlements, the familiar blasts from the ship’s red and black funnel (one long, two short, one long) inevitably heralded the Cardena’s approach as she steamed her way up the long green channels of the Inside Passage
Inside Passage
The Inside Passage is a coastal route for oceangoing vessels along a network of passages which weave through the islands on the Pacific coast of North America. The route extends from southeastern Alaska, in the United States, through western British Columbia, in Canada, to northwestern Washington...
towards her next port-of-call. This scheduled arrival, often late at night, in thick fog or foul weather, was cause for the camp or cannery workers to assemble along the company dock to greet the ship and await the mail, or perhaps to buy chocolate or a magazine from the purser’s
Purser
The purser joined the warrant officer ranks of the Royal Navy in the early fourteenth century and existed as a Naval rank until 1852. The development of the warrant officer system began in 1040 when five English ports began furnishing warships to King Edward the Confessor in exchange for certain...
on-board news stand. Over the 70-year period that the Union Steamship Co. of BC operated its fleet of 53 vessels (1889–1959), it was no exaggeration to claim that the Union service was the life-line of the coast.
Ripple Rock
As if in anticipation of the indignities of her later groundings and collisions, the Cardena’s well-earned moment of glory came in the summer of 1927, when she freed the CNR liner SS Prince Rupert from the clutches of Ripple RockRipple Rock
Ripple Rock was an underwater, twin-peaked mountain in the Seymour Narrows of the Discovery Passage in British Columbia, Canada, a part of the marine trade route from Vancouver and coastal points north. The nearest town was Campbell River...
in Seymour Narrows
Seymour Narrows
Seymour Narrows is a section of the Discovery Passage in British Columbia known for strong tidal currents. Discovery Passage lies between Vancouver Island at Menzies Bay, British Columbia and Quadra Island except at its northern end where the eastern shoreline is Sonora Island...
, a treacherous, three-mile tidal surge lying in Discovery Passage
Discovery Passage
Discovery Passage is a channel that forms part of the Inside Passage between Vancouver Island and the Discovery Islands which lie off the British Columbia coast north of the Georgia Strait. It was named by Captain Vancouver for his ship, the HMS Discovery...
between Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
and Quadra Island
Quadra Island
Quadra Island is an island off the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, part of the Discovery Islands. It is separated from Vancouver Island by Discovery Passage, and from Cortes Island by Sutil Channel...
. Ripple Rock, an undersea double pinnacle that sank more than 100 vessels (and cost as many lives) over the years, was obliterated by a man-made explosion on April 5, 1958.
But when, in the early morning mist of that August day in 1927, the Cardena came upon the Prince Rupert stuck fast, Ripple Rock was a scant two fathoms below the surface. The Cardenas skipper, Andy Johnstone, immediately ordered his ship in close to the stricken vessel, where it became apparent that the Prince Rupert was in imminent danger of foundering, or of being forced by the tide against the steep cliffs that overhung the Narrows. Captain Johnstone next ordered that a steel tow line be cast to the Rupert’s stern. With this in place, the Cardena swung alongside the other ship and made fast.
Then, slowly and with great seamanship and care, the smaller Union vessel nudged the Prince Rupert off Ripple Rock and began to tow her towards Deep Cove, a mile distant. There, the Cardena took on board as many of the Rupert’s passengers as she could carry before continuing on her way to Vancouver. The remainder were later transferred to the CPR vessel SS Princess Beatrice, which was also in the vicinity at the time. The Union Company eschewed any and all salvage claims for the rescue, preferring to bask in the good will that this gesture garnered from its competitors and the public alike.
Marine Mishaps
The early history of steam navigation on the BC coast is one of impressive feats of seamanship accomplished by seasoned captains who expertly guided their small, sturdy ships through narrow, reef-strewn channels in all manner of wind, tide and weather. In the days before the advent of radarRadar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
and other electronic aids to navigation, coastal captains relied upon detailed notations in the ship’s log to guide their way. These precisely recorded observations of wind, time, tide, bearing and position enabled the captain to follow the correct course on all subsequent passages, so long as the ship’s speed remained the same. To supplement this procedure in conditions of limited visibility, the ship’s whistle was utilized as a rudimentary form of sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
. By recording the time it took for the whistle blast to echo back to the ship from the surrounding terrain, an accurate estimate of the distance from shore could be arrived at.
However, notwithstanding the undisputed skill of Union skippers over long service to the Company, the maritime history of the fog-bound BC coastline is also replete with tales of frequent collisions, groundings, scrapings and founderings, and the S.S. Cardena was no exception to this unfortunate record.
The ship’s first two mishaps at sea occurred in the fall and winter of 1929, when she twice ran aground near the mouth of the Skeena River. Two years later, the ship sliced a fish packer in half at Namu
Namu, British Columbia
Namu is a small fishing port, former cannery town and First Nations community on the coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is located about southwest of Bella Coola or SSE of Bella Bella, on the mainland shore of the Inside Passage ferry route directly opposite Hunter Island, and just south of...
dock when her telegraph cable broke. Then, in early 1942, during wartime blackout conditions, the Cardena was rammed by the tugboat La Pointe. Two unoccupied staterooms were destroyed in the collision but no serious injuries or loss of life occurred as a result.
Six years later, in the summer of 1948, the Cardena ran aground again, this time on a reef near False Bay on Lasqueti Island
Lasqueti Island
Lasqueti Island is an island off the east coast of Vancouver Island in the Strait of Georgia, Powell River Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. A passenger-only ferry connects the island to the community of French Creek, near Parksville...
. All passengers were evacuated but the crew remained on board. Salvage tugs were eventually able to free the ship from the reef and, even though her hull was holed in two places, the Cardena was escorted to Vancouver under her own steam. The ship’s next two mishaps actually occurred on the same day in the fall of 1950. First, when she grounded in the sand off Savary Island
Savary Island
Savary Island is an island in British Columbia, Canada. Located in the northern part of the Strait of Georgia, it is northwest of Vancouver. It is approximately 0.8-1.5 km wide and long. It has a permanent population of 100...
dock, and shortly afterwards, when she drifted onto the shore while attempting a landing at Surge Narrows in a running tide.
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
Broughton Archipelago
The Broughton Archipelago is a group of islands on the northeastern flank of the Queen Charlotte Strait on the coast of British Columbia, Canada. The largest islands in the group, which includes numerous smaller islets, are Broughton Island, North Broughton Island, Eden Island, Bonwick Island and...
. 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.
The Cardena’s last recorded incident occurred on November 30, 1956, when she struck a rock shortly after leaving Port Hardy for the trip north to Bella Coola
Bella Coola, British Columbia
Bella Coola is a community of approximately 600 at the western extremity of the Bella Coola Valley. Bella Coola usually refers to the entire valley, encompassing the settlements of Bella Coola proper , Lower Bella Coola, Hagensborg, Saloompt, Nusatsum, Firvale and Stuie...
. The few passengers on board were evacuated to waiting boats and the ship was freed, undamaged, by tugs the next morning.
To place the foregoing record in perspective, it should be noted that in the latter 45 years of the Union Company’s coastal service, not one passenger life was lost to a marine mishap. This admirable safety record included the years when it was not unusual for the Company’s fleet to travel upwards of 25,000 miles in a single month.
Endings
The end came for the Cardena in 1958, just as the end was looming for the Union Steamship Co. itself. Although the Company was ultimately a casualty of the many post-war changes in the province’s transportation industry, there were several factors that may have hastened its eventual demise: The expensive conversion of three surplus navy corvettes into highly unsuitable passenger/freight vessels; The loss of the S.S. Chelohsin after grounding off Siwash RockSiwash Rock
Siwash Rock is a famous rock outcropping in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada's Stanley Park. A legend among the Indigenous Squamish surrounds the of the rock...
in the fall of 1949; The supplanting of the Company’s profitable Howe Sound
Howe Sound
Howe Sound is a roughly triangular sound, actually a network of fjords situated immediately northwest of Vancouver.-Geography:Howe Sound's mouth at the Strait of Georgia is situated between West Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast. The sound is triangular shaped, open on its southeast towards the...
and Sunshine Coast day excursions by the automobile and car-ferries; The loss of north coast passenger business to improved airline schedules; The questionable business decisions that flowed from a reorganization of the Company in 1954, and again in 1956; A bitter eight-week strike by the Seafarers International Union in the summer of 1955, which cost the Company the loss of the season, and the settlement of which imposed radical changes to many of its former operating procedures and conditions.
Lastly, the Union Company’s failure to obtain a crucial increase in the federal coastal shipping subsidy meant that its annual operating losses were now unsupportable. This dire predicament led to the Company’s subsequent decision to suspend all subsidized passenger service at the end of 1957, and to its eventual sale to the Northland Navigation Company 13 months later.
As a result of the suspension of passenger service, the Cardena, along with the SS Catala
SS Catala
The SS Catala was a Canadian coastal passenger and cargo steamship built for service with the Union Steamship Company of British Columbia.-Union Steamship career:Catala was built at Glasgow, Scotland in 1925...
, was laid up in early 1958 and her dining saloon was converted to a cafeteria. The Catala was returned to service in April, but the Cardena languished alone and dormant for the next three years, before being sold for scrap to Capital Iron and Metals of Victoria, BC in February 1961. There she was stripped to her hull, which was then towed to Powell River
Powell River, British Columbia
Powell River is a city on the northern Sunshine Coast of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Most of its population lives near the eastern shores of Malaspina Strait, that part of the larger Georgia Strait between Texada Island and the Mainland...
on the Sunshine Coast to form part of a harbour breakwater. The hulk was later towed to Kelsey Bay
Kelsey Bay, British Columbia
Kelsey Bay is a small coastal settlement located in the Sayward Valley on northern Vancouver Island in British Columbia about 1 mi from the community of Sayward. The wharf at Kelsey Bay was previously the southern terminus for the B.C. Ferries Inside Passage route until 1978, when Highway 19 was...
, on the north-east coast of Vancouver Island, where it can be seen today, still providing a maritime service as one of the remains of six vessels that comprise the local breakwater.
Coda: A recent approach to several provincial museums to reclaim, restore and exhibit the Cardena’s intact bow-piece met with no takers.