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ABOVE: CHIEF SKUGAID in 1960, after unloading a big catch of Bering Sea halibut at the Vancouver docks. LEFT: CHIEF SKUGAID in 1930, before unloading a big cargo of liquor from Vancouver in California waters.
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RESCUED!
CHIEF SKUGAID FINDS MOORAGE
On the Fraser River near Fort Langley, BC, Canada.
WEBSITE PROBLEM SOLVED, BUT...
Update details lost in cyberspace, soon to be recovered and restored. Thanks for for your appreciation and support!
--THE CHIEF
12 Nov 2013
Wednesday, 27 March 2013:
100th ANNIVERSARY OF CHIEF SKUGAID'S REGISTRATION
On March 27th, 1913, a handwritten Chief Skugaid entry was recorded in the big leather-bound Canadian Register of Vessels for 1913, photographed in 2012 at Library & Archives Canada.
"March 27, 1913" is handwritten at lower left in the 2nd photo......
100th ANNIVERSARY OF CHIEF SKUGAID'S REGISTRATION
On March 27th, 1913, a handwritten Chief Skugaid entry was recorded in the big leather-bound Canadian Register of Vessels for 1913, photographed in 2012 at Library & Archives Canada.
"March 27, 1913" is handwritten at lower left in the 2nd photo......
____________________
Welcome to the Centenary website of "The Chief"
LAUNCHED in 1913 as halibut schooners, Chief Skugaid and sister-ship Chief Zibassa are the oldest working fishboats on the British Columbia coast. Only the Chief kept her original name.
Both
were commissioned in 1912, and two 'keels were laid' in the shipyard
of Irishman William Watts in Coal Harbour, Vancouver BC, Canada. Chief
Zibassa (her name was changed to Western Star) was launched that year. Chief Skugaid
went 'down the skidway' a few months later in 1913, and has kept her original
name for 100 years. Amazingly, both vessels are still active to the
present day!
Chief Skugaid in the 1930's, Vancouver Area. Wheelhouse modified from 1913 original.
-- Photo courtesy of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, Chung Library and Archives.
BELOW: The Chief Skugaid in 2012, courtesy Rob Mackenzie.
VANCOUVER MARITIME HISTORY The Chief on Facebook
Halibut Schooner & RumRunner
NAVIGATE the menu-bar and discover the Chief Skugaid's early days as
a halibut mothership for two-man dories hand-lining in the north
Pacific. The
Chief sailed from Vancouver as far as the Bering Sea, 1913 to 1973 (save for the rumrunning years), in winter storms of ice-laden wind... dories
lost... crewmen swept overboard... Click on "Films" to see halibut dory-fishing in a 1920 documentary, also a 1970's home movie of longlinining in the Aleutians.
Then... rum-running on the high seas during US Prohibition, 1920-33, illustrated here with documentary film footage, this time taken from the deck of a Victoria rumrunner in 1932. The Chief Skugaid helped to supply illegal (in the States) liquor to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hollywood, and San Diego... as well as sailing down to Mexico and Hawaii. She was an active rumrunner longer than any other Canadian vessel on east or west coast: eleven years without getting caught or seriously damaged. As part of the fabled "Rum Row" network of vessels in the Pacific, she delivered to bigger warehouse vessels like the famous five-masted schooner Malahat. She also trans-shipped cargo to smalller high-speed 'contact boats' that were both fast and 'shoal-draught' for landing at shallow-water docks and jetties.
Then... rum-running on the high seas during US Prohibition, 1920-33, illustrated here with documentary film footage, this time taken from the deck of a Victoria rumrunner in 1932. The Chief Skugaid helped to supply illegal (in the States) liquor to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hollywood, and San Diego... as well as sailing down to Mexico and Hawaii. She was an active rumrunner longer than any other Canadian vessel on east or west coast: eleven years without getting caught or seriously damaged. As part of the fabled "Rum Row" network of vessels in the Pacific, she delivered to bigger warehouse vessels like the famous five-masted schooner Malahat. She also trans-shipped cargo to smalller high-speed 'contact boats' that were both fast and 'shoal-draught' for landing at shallow-water docks and jetties.
Excerpt from Chief Skugaid's log for a 1932 winter voyage, Vancouver BC to "Ensenada, Mexico," where RumRow motherships were stationed 12-plus miles off the Mexican coast, beyond the US Coast Guard's jurisdiction. Being positioned south of the Mexican border, also helped. The Chief's captain is "Master" Sidney Burridge, 31, born London UK, of 3256 West 3rd Ave, Vancouver. Burridge and his five-man crew of young adventurers and veteran fishermen are smuggling Canadian liquor into US waters for transfer to 'shore boats." Log book made available for photography by the City of Vancouver Archives.
Return to Fishing
After Prohibition, the Chief returned to the halibut fishery as a diesel powered long-liner, sailing to the Aleutians and back to the Vancouver docks into the 1970's. Later she was also a fishpacker for the salmon and herring fleets, and a cannery supply-vessel "up the Inlets" as far as Alaska, towing camp barges and fish scows in heavy seas....all the while as 'fleet tender' in the halibut fishery.
Finally... for the last 40 years, a fishpacker and 'cash-buyer' all over the BC coast, buying-in halibut, salmon, and herring and steaming back to the canneries in the Lower Mainland.
CLICK-ON photos to see her then-and-now-- first as a halibut "stay-sail schooner," then smuggling spiritous liquors to foreign ports as part of the rumrunner network-- then again delivering halibut to the docks in Vancouver harbour. Navigate through the many 'stills' that chronicle one hundred years sailing, Baja to the Bering Sea!
As you meander through this website, you will begin to appreciate the exciting, colourful and chequered career of this most venerable of vessels....and perhaps find yourself dreamily speculating as to how you, too, might participate in......THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS!
Enjoy the voyage...
Yours truly,
After Prohibition, the Chief returned to the halibut fishery as a diesel powered long-liner, sailing to the Aleutians and back to the Vancouver docks into the 1970's. Later she was also a fishpacker for the salmon and herring fleets, and a cannery supply-vessel "up the Inlets" as far as Alaska, towing camp barges and fish scows in heavy seas....all the while as 'fleet tender' in the halibut fishery.
Finally... for the last 40 years, a fishpacker and 'cash-buyer' all over the BC coast, buying-in halibut, salmon, and herring and steaming back to the canneries in the Lower Mainland.
CLICK-ON photos to see her then-and-now-- first as a halibut "stay-sail schooner," then smuggling spiritous liquors to foreign ports as part of the rumrunner network-- then again delivering halibut to the docks in Vancouver harbour. Navigate through the many 'stills' that chronicle one hundred years sailing, Baja to the Bering Sea!
As you meander through this website, you will begin to appreciate the exciting, colourful and chequered career of this most venerable of vessels....and perhaps find yourself dreamily speculating as to how you, too, might participate in......THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS!
Enjoy the voyage...
Yours truly,
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CHIEF SKUGAID superstructure in 2011: wheelhouse over galley, modern nav-aids, cranes and winches. Here, the Chief is moored in the Fraser River at New Westminster, BC, Canada. For two years, July 2011 to August 2013, she tied up among tugboats and other working vessels at the wharf-parking lot beside New Westminster's 'Discovery Quay.' The Quay is a celebration of the Fraser River and its commercial and transportation role for Salish First Nations and later for the city of New Westminster-- British Columbia's first capital.
