Eyesore or tourist draw?

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This article was published 27/12/2010 (5613 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MISSION, B.C. — Six derelict and decrepit vessels on the Fraser River in Mission, B.C., perform double duty as both a gritty movie set and an immovable eyesore along the banks of one of Canada’s most travelled waterways.

Producers pay up to $2,500 a day to film here, for such projects as the Flash Gordon TV series and an action flick starring ex-wrestler Steve Austin.

For some, however, this place — about 70 kilometres east on the Fraser River from Vancouver — is more of a reality horror show.

“You want it?” asks Mike Younie, manager of environmental services for the District of Mission. “It’s quite a scene, no kidding. We’d like to get rid of them, that’s the bottom line.”

The 102-metre Queen of Sidney — one of the first BC Ferries in 1960, retired in 2000 — is among the half-dozen commercial vessels at the site, along with a barge, a derelict fishboat and two tugs.

Also notable is the 70-metre steam ferry San Mateo, which had a storied career in Washington state between 1947 and 1969. It sits on its side, partly flooded, its wooden parts rotting.

The principal keepers of this graveyard are packrats Gerald Tapp, 73, and his brother, Bob, 71, ex-loggers from Aldergrove, B.C., who say they are the victims of government harassment.

“Mission told me to move this and I told them where to go,” said the unrepentant Gerald Tapp. “The municipality doesn’t have jurisdiction.”

The graveyard is located behind no-trespassing signs in the rural Silverdale neighbourhood — the same area where Billy Miner committed Canada’s first railway robbery in 1904.

The Tapp brothers have gradually collected the vessels since buying the four-hectare property in 1996, taking possession of some after the owners walked away.

Looking at the crumpled remains of the San Mateo, Bob Tapp says: “It was down in Whonnock, (B.C.) and they wanted it moved, so I said, ‘Bring it up here.’

“A guy was going to restore it. He parked it here and gave up and left it here.”

As for the Queen of Sidney, BC Ferries sold the ship for $100,000 in 2002 to Rainy River Cedar Ltd. of Roberts Creek, B.C. “We have had no responsibility for the ship since then,” ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said.

Rainy River’s Brad Boser said he bought the ferry with the intention of “stripping it down and selling the components,” but instead sold it soon after for the same price to Art Klassen, who works at a cedar shake mill in Abbotsford, B.C.

Klassen describes ownership of the Queen of Sidney as a “great adventure, one hell of a project.

“Anything I got out of it, I worked hard for. That old girl, she doesn’t give anything up easily, believe me.”

He removed the copper wiring, benefiting from a sharp spike in copper prices, and auctioned off the generators.

He even sold some parts such as the scuppers, the drains on the car decks, back to BC Ferries.

Did he earn back his $100,000 investment?

“Yes and no. If I had to hire someone to do it, no. I was there on weekends, all my spare hours. I paid myself a good wage doing it, but that’s all I did.

“I always thought I would hit a motherlode with it. I thought someone in Texas would pay me $300,000 for one of those… engines, but I never did hit the motherlode.”

Klassen said there were some wild rumours flying during his ownership of the Queen of Sidney.

One suggested there was enough fuel left on board to more than cover the cost of purchasing the ferry. “If they’d had a fuel gauge, it would read empty,” he said.

In response to another rumour that he planned to convert the ferry into a marijuana-growing operation, he drove to the RCMP station in Mission to tell them they could drop by any time to see he wasn’t involved in criminal activity.

Klassen said he figures the ferry should be scrapped for steel, although he warned: “If I had a dollar for every time the Chinese were gonna buy that ferry off me and take it to China and scrap it I wouldn’t be out here working tonight.”

The Queen of Sidney arrived at Silverdale in 2002 and the brothers took possession in 2006. They’d prefer not to say what they paid, but it’s in the range of a decent used car.

The original lifeboats, with a limit of 53 persons, are still hoisted and ready for service, although there is no rescuing the ferry itself. At low water, it sits on the river bottom at an angle.

The car decks are jammed with old cars, trucks, campers, lawn mowers, chainsaws — you name it — much of it other people’s stuff that the brothers have allowed to be stored here.

There are small plastic pellets on the ground, evidence of a sport called “airsoft,” which is similar to paintball and took place on the ferry until a year ago. “It makes a mess,” Bob Tapp says.

He complains that “river rats” are forever pilfering stuff from the ferry, “Leave a pump out and it goes. It’s sad really.”

Of the vessel, he says: “We’ll probably end up scrapping it.”

Mission wrote a letter on Dec. 17, 2009, seeking help from various government agencies: federally, Fisheries and Oceans, Environment Canada and Transport Canada; provincially, WorkSafeBC, the Ministry of Environment and the Integrated Land Management Bureau.

The district raised concerns such as damage to the riverbank, the potential for the vessels to float away in a flood, the “probable release of untreated sewage to the river,” the use of electrical and gas pumps, and occupational health and safety issues related to movie filming.

Younie said only WorkSafeBC responded in “any material way” and visited the site and said it would try to show up when films are being shot.

He said bylaw officers visit the site regularly and have achieved some success with cleaning up scrap metal on the land portion, but lack authority over the water.

Younie added there are “no obvious environmental issues going on. It’s not like there is oil leaking all over the place.” The Vancouver Sun spotted a small oily sheen on the water during a recent visit.

Transport Canada spokeswoman Jillian Glover said the derelict vessels “do not pose a threat to navigation or the environment, but we will continue to monitor the situation… Transport Canada has no legal grounds to take action against a vessel based solely on esthetics.”

Colin Grewar, spokesman for B.C.’s Ministry of Environment, said there is no provincial foreshore tenure on the site and the “owner currently continues to have a certificate of title, even over the portions covered by water.”

He said that waste discharges from vessels and damage to river habitat are federally regulated under the Canada Shipping Act and Federal Fisheries Act. The province is working with Ottawa to “seek solutions to deal with the derelict vessel issue around the province,” he said.

In the meantime, some are trying to turn a profit off the collection of forlorn vessels.

Tourism BC’s official website for Mission states: “Another way to experience the Fraser River is on a boat tour… watching out for everything from bald eagles and bears to old quarries and derelict ferries.”

Rob Chadwick of Fraser River Safari in Mission takes hundreds of guests every year past the vessels on sightseeing jet-boat tours, largely for bald eagles at this time of year.

“There are so many rules on the river, how do they get away with that?” he asked, speculating no one wants to assume liability for the site. “The problem is everyone is passing the buck.”

Chadwick describes the site to guests as an “old ship graveyard” and observes that the image of the derelict ferries against a mountainous backdrop makes for interesting photographs.

“It’s quite picturesque,” he concluded. “And bizarre.”

— Postmedia News