old boatshop in Steveston

[ron david]

My dad built and repaired boats in Steveston, B.C. during and after the 2 war. the picture on the right is of a 9' clinker circa 48-49 at South beach-Pt Roberts, Wa I would have been about 3 or4 in that picture. the old man supposedly produced 3,000 of these between 7-14 ft in length. I haven't seen any that I know of from about 1952. I do have one hanging in my shop which was given to me a couple of years ago. the 1st picture is of 1 of 5 Bristol Bay boats that he had built that went to Bristol Bay, Alaska. I am told that they were the last 5 that were ever built for there. the 3rd is of an old letterhead. there will be more pictures to follow
ron

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[ron david]

here is a link from the archives of the Richmond Museum about the boatshop. it is by Allen Steves and interviewed by Harold Steves
https://www.richmond.ca/cityhall/arc...ries/steve.htm

ron

[TR]

Thanks for that Ron, nice to see this.

The Richmond link is a good read, some pretty funny stuff there......."And then when they finished up, I remember one Japanese, he gave every one of the boys that worked there a case of beer to take home."

[ron david]

He was the first to put this style of stern on in Steveston instead of a double ender
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ron

[ron david]

here is the 9' clinker that I have. There was a fellow that was moving off Saturna Is. and Gave it to Bob Bruce there. Bob was cleaning it up and saw the stamp. he called me up about it and gave it to me. one that wasn't turned into a flower planter
believe that the selling price for this boat was in the vicinity of $37.00 in the mid 40's
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ron

[ron david]

this was the boatshop at Gary Point
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ron

[ron david]

[IM 1st pict is the early sawmill while the 2nd is the rebuild
3rd pict is my mom 4th is my oldest sister Pat holding me and my brother Mike
5th is a little runabout this was situated on a boardwalk right on top of thedyke
between the boatshop and the house
6th another style with my mom Rose again
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[Stephen]

Thanks for sharing all this.
Stephen

[pcford]

Great pictures!!! Was at Steveston with Syrene for a Forest Service boat reunion a couple years ago.

Maybe that last picture will settle the reoccurring discussions about whether it is possible to put an air-cooled engine in a boat.

[ron david]

that site was all turned into a national park site. nothing left except for the Scotch Pond which was just like a ditch there originally .
here are a couple pictures from before my dad had it, when it was Atagi Boatworks.It was built I believe around 1905 around the same time that the Scottish-Canadian cannery was built just a little further out
ron
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these 2 pictures were borrowed from the Gulf of Georgia Cannery site

[ron david]

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ron

[Alex Low]

Cool. Did he always carve his builders tag in the same spot? I restored this boat with Trevor Henderson a while back, and it looks like a contender. It was all west coast woods - red and yellow cedar, fir... the oak deck was a later edition I believe. I think we determined the boat to be built around 1960...

The sheer seems similar to some of the boats in post #7. This one hangs out on the Fraser near Delta - owned by a Tug boat guy.

[James McMullen]

Loving the old pictures, Ron! Please keep posting as many as you've got!

[ron david]

Cool. Did he always carve his builders tag in the same spot? I restored this boat with Trevor Henderson a while back, and it looks like a contender. It was all west coast woods - red and yellow cedar, fir... the oak deck was a later edition I believe. I think we determined the boat to be built around 1960...

The sheer seems similar to some of the boats in post #7. This one hangs out on the Fraser near Delta - owned by a Tug boat guy.

i think that they were branded in on either side directly in front off the back seat. one of the fishing companies bought him out in 51
ron

[Garret]

Thanks for sharing these. Good stuff!

[ron david]

here is a tug that they did
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ron

[ron david]

here is 1 picture of where the old man was working up in Athabasca in the 20's building boats and assembling stern wheelers on the beach. there will be a series of these later on
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ron

[ron david]

one more for now. I did contact the archives in Athabasca about 5 years ago and told the lady there that I had these old pictures of boatbuilding up there and here reply was , "oh yeah" like it was another irritating call I had told here that there was a bridge in the b/ground and an old grain elevator in another. she said the bridge went in, in about 53. I did reply back that this was a train bridge and it went in around 1904 and that the grain elevator had "Midland-Pacific" on it and that name disappeared around 36 (I had done a little research). she did give me an email address so I send her the following picture and I got an immediate response,"we have never seen that, do you have any more"?
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is it getting a little more interesting?
ron

[chas]

Great photos, Ron! I was the last two years on Saturna and know Bob Bruce thru our boats. Having spent a couple of years around the junction of the Athabasca and Clearwater rivers I would also be interested in those photos. These are important rivers in the history and development of our north country. Tks for posting here. / Jim

[Duncan Gibbs]

Cool stuff Ron! Keep posting if you have more!

[TR]

Those are some very classy gillnetters. The black boat in front is perhaps a water taxi or maybe a police boat. And the little lapstrake power launch is a dandy.

With that fine stern the gillnetters would just slip along, unfortunately they (the stern shape) would also allow the net to be sucked into the wheel really quickly. Which is part of the reason gillnetters went to deep and square sterns with the prop well forward. The fancy enclosed drum drive is a modern innovation, I can remember guys welding a car transmission to half a rear differential to make the same thing, just not as pretty. Deck lights for picking the net at night...very nice. There is a bar right across the cockpit sole behind (aft of) the drum. Stepping on and off that bar kicked the drum in and out of gear, so both hands were free to hang on and pick the net as it came up through the stern rollers.

[ron david]

Those are some very classy gillnetters. The black boat in front is perhaps a water taxi or maybe a police boat. And the little lapstrake power launch is a dandy.

With that fine stern the gillnetters would just slip along, unfortunately they (the stern shape) would also allow the net to be sucked into the wheel really quickly. Which is part of the reason gillnetters went to deep and square sterns with the prop well forward. The fancy enclosed drum drive is a modern innovation, I can remember guys welding a car transmission to half a rear differential to make the same thing, just not as pretty. Deck lights for picking the net at night...very nice. There is a bar right across the cockpit sole behind (aft of) the drum. Stepping on and off that bar kicked the drum in and out of gear, so both hands were free to hang on and pick the net as it came up through the stern rollers.

they used the old ford(pre 48-split banjo housings) rear ends and can't remember whether or not the early ford trans. know that the old anglia-prefex trans was sought after for that job. just trying to remember who made those units up in Steveston
Can remember all the times that we went into Easthope's.
found out a few years ago that the old man never had a lathe. the rollers were always made by hand. corners sawn off the drawknife, spokeshave and hand plane
here is a link to some of the turned work that I do. I also build furniture and do restoration work(furniture)
ron
http://s908.photobucket.com/albums/a...urned%20works/

[ron david]

here is a tug that they did
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ron

the name of the tug was the "Delta Queen"
that is my oldest sister Pat on the right and one of the Jovich girls on the left
ron

[ron david]

this here is about the S.S.Chelosin. and if you read the link in nbr. 2 of this thread there will be mention of it. My uncle Victor David (David Neon was one of the 1st to bring colour neon into Vancouver ,B.C.) bought the salvage rights and then sucked the old man and his crew to get her afloat. the stories give Victor credit for it. doubt the old man ever got paid.
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Victor did end up going to jail in about 1957 on fraud charges over the ownership of the neon signs that he made and supplied. there were 10 kids born between 1885 and 1907 and they were all raised on Mayne Island(David Cove- just down from the lighthouse. house is still being lived in). they never went to school. it is amazing what some of them did.
ron.

[ron david]

uncle Prosper was a deckhand on the Iroquois when it sank off of Sidney back in 1911. he survived. most of them sailed(freighters) around the world during and after the first war. 3 or 4 of them also worked on the whaling ships off the b.c. coast at one time or another. pictures of that to follow when I get them dug out
ro

[ron david]

here was an ad from the Steveston paper in 1948 (pretty simple)
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ron

[ron david]

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ron

[johngsandusky]

Good stuff!

[ron david]

this here is about the S.S.Chelosin. and if you read the link in nbr. 2 of this thread there will be mention of it. My uncle Victor David (David Neon was one of the 1st to bring colour neon into Vancouver ,B.C.) bought the salvage rights and then sucked the old man and his crew to get her afloat. the stories give Victor credit for it. doubt the old man ever got paid.
[IMG][/IMG]
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Victor did end up going to jail in about 1957 on fraud charges over the ownership of the neon signs that he made and supplied. there were 10 kids born between 1885 and 1907 and they were all raised on Mayne Island(David Cove- just down from the lighthouse. house is still being lived in). they never went to school. it is amazing what some of them did.
ron.

here was Uncle Victors shop in the early thirty's on Main St. around 25th(Vancouver) I believe
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here is a little quip about my grandmother who raised those 10 heathens
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this was from the 1937 Province newspaper. when My great grandfather first came here in 1857 up on the Vedder(Chilliwack) there were no white women around so he married?? a local Sto-lo, Mary Muscle.,When Lizzie was three the old bastard booted her and broke her hip; she never walked. Tough old broad though to be that way and have 10 children
ron

[ron david]

Great pictures!!! Was at Steveston with Syrene for a Forest Service boat reunion a couple years ago.

Maybe that last picture will settle the reoccurring discussions about whether it is possible to put an air-cooled engine in a boat.

that was quite common here. mainly Briggs and Wisconsin engines
ron

[WX]

Great photos...and stories.

[ron david]

here are some of one on my brother's boat. he built it in 1970 and fished it until the mid 80's and I deckhanded on it in 74 on Halibut . these are newer pictures and the new owner changed the top of the bow; made it higher. I did talk to the new owner who is still using it. he said that there is no place on this coast that I can go that someone will not tell me a story about him. He said that when he first pulled into Naden Harbour on top of the Charlottes. they told him that my brother was tied up and there were 7 boats stacked up outside of him. they said that he got on his boat fired it up. took out his knife and just cut the lines to the 1st boat outside of him and let them drift. then untied his and just putted away. that told me that someone had done a dirty to him and it was just a little payback. there were a few people scrambling for their boats
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another time he took this boat into Nitnat inlet at low tide just show that he could do it.
it was just a bare 42' Canoe Cove hull that he started with
ron

[ron david]

one of the local fellows came into the shop about a year ago this time. H asked me if my dad's name was Mike and I replied so was my brother's. well then he said your dad built my dad a gilnetter called the "Tradewinds" back in 44-45. I thought that was sort of neat.
another time about 10 years ago I had this elderly lady in her high 80s come unto my shop> we got talking and I said that I was from Steveston. she said that she had 3 brothers that used to be in business in Steveston. I said then that you have to be an Easthope. I think that must have warmed her heart that someone remembered. use to go into Easthope''s quite often when I was a little kid with my dad when he was ordering or picking up an engine fpr onr of the boats.
ron

[Chris-on-the-Boat]

I love the detail of the picture of the tug on the ways. I've had several old trollers from the 1930's over the years and the charachter of those wheelhouse lines always makes me smile.

Thank you for sharing this, and for goodness sake don't stop posting now!

[ron david]

I love the detail of the picture of the tug on the ways. I've had several old trollers from the 1930's over the years and the charachter of those wheelhouse lines always makes me smile.

Thank you for sharing this, and for goodness sake don't stop posting now!

was thinking about that today. not to many people say much here except for the odd one like you. so one wonders if there is that much interest
thanks
ron