Former Chemainus Shopkeeper Made Maritime History
NEWS ITEM: Shades of John Claus Voss! Now attempting to complete an unassisted, non-stop circumnavigation of the globe is 76-year-old Jeanne Socrates who cleared Victoria, B.C. Harbour, Oct. 3, 2018 in her 38-foot sailboat. Incredibly, she already has “3 1/2 solo sails around the world” under her belt and has twice before attempted to achieve her current goal. The English mother and grandmother is raising money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in England, which gives search-and-rescue training and provides equipment…. ******************************************************************************************** Half-way round the world in a 38-foot-long dugout canoe! It was done, you know, more than a century ago, by a 40-year-old man almost as small as his boat—five-foot, two-inch John Claus Voss. To this day, his voyage is considered to be “one of the most remarkable feats in the history of seamanship”. It all started with...
Read MoreElizabeth Sea saved distressed boaters not once but twice
Berens Island, just off Esquimalt’s Work Point, and about midway in Victoria’s Outer Harbour, is a doubleheader. It commemorates not one but two Hudson’s Bay Company governors, Joseph Berens and Henry Hulse Berens respectively. That’s about it as far as their personal involvement with British Columbia goes, but it was enough for Capt. Henry Kellett, RN, to honour this nondescript rock with their names in 1846. After all, there were so many landmarks to identify–and existing Native names were so hard to pronounce let alone spell. But there’s more to Berens Island than this if you like a rousing tale of shipwreck and heroism. Late in 1874, construction of a lighthouse was begun on the islet to help mariners navigate Victoria Harbour’s oft-befogged outer reaches. (Today, both sides of the harbour are ablaze with city lights and it takes...
Read MoreSCOTTIE CREEK’S JACK ROWLANDS HAD KING MIDAS TOUCH
Here’s a great story that I didn’t use in my newest book, Treasure Lost & Found in British Columbia… http://T.W. Paterson’s latest: Treasure Lost & Found In British Columbia The Rowlands saga began about 1880, when Jack, also known as Sam, decided to seek his fortune in booming British Columbia. He crossed the border, according to one account, just ahead of an angry American posse. Why his presence was so urgently desired by a sheriff on the other side isn’t given, although spunky old Rowlands’ later exploits might provide a clue. Whatever, once over the line, Jack seems to have settled down to the less demanding trade of prospecting. He followed this pursuit, with little apparent success, for the next 12 years. If he didn’t make his fortune, he did not earn a reputation for being industrious, unassuming and...
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My Memories of Childhood Christmases Resonate Stronger Today
Is it just me or was Christmas really better in ‘the good old days’? Mind you, I was younger then, and more impressionable. They weren’t any whiter in Victoria (Saanich, really) than they are now, with the rarest of exceptions. It did happen though, before global warming and all that. One of the best photos my father ever took is of skaters on what we called the ‘Overflow,’ Swan Lake’s annual flooding of farmers’ fields. It was good enough that he made an enlargement and framed it; today it’s not only a family keepsake but, after our mostly mild winters of recent years, a collector’s item. But back to Christmas. Yes, the merchants still decorate their stores, people do up their homes, and there are colourful street lights. But nothing like the front windows of Eaton’s in Victoria. They...
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