The EX-FOREST SERVICE VESSELS

From workboat to recreational craft

By Marianne Scott

It’s rare that we think of boats and forestry as being intertwined. But in British Columbia, with its vast forests, islands aplenty and lengthy coastline, the provincial Forest Branch became a boat owner and boatbuilder over a century ago.

At the 2022 (Labour Day) Classic Boat Festival, held in Victoria after a two-year pandemic-triggered gap, six members of the Ex-Forest Service Vessel Squadron showed their vintage pedigrees, putting on last year’s “live exhibit” to promote knowledge of our province’s storied marine/forestry history.

The Ex-Forest Service vessels may resemble other classic wooden boats, but their numbers—about 200 served for more than 50 years—formed a cohesive group of vessels and rangers that constitute an important part of BC’s shared forest and maritime history. An estimated 39 vessels survive.

In 1912, the BC government created the Forest Branch, designed to bring order to— and consistent revenue from—the province’s forests. According to historian Thomas Roach, the Forest Branch was to be the “Steward of the People’s Wealth.” Before 1912, he wrote, BC’s “few public foresters exerted little control over cutting on crown lands” and “revealed a sordid tale of overcutting, erosion and fire… as well as skulduggery in the laying out of timber lease boundaries.”

The first chief forester was Harvey Reginald MacMillan (later of MacMillan Bloedel fame), who established a head office in Victoria, with 11 districts covering the province. A management plan and licensing practices were created over the following years. Timber cruising, defined as “the process of measuring the volume and quality of standing and down timber before it has been harvested,” was carried out by rangers and assistant rangers—some of them reluctant mariners. They also watched over the Canada-US border to prevent the illegal export of logs. It’s estimated that about 30 boats would be patrolling at any one time.

IN THE EARLY days, rangers travelled the mainland’s forests mostly on horseback. But to monitor logging operations on BC’s coast, the renamed Forest Service needed a fleet of ranger launches. Some early launches began as yachts and were converted to workboats; later, the Forest Service commissioned various boatbuilders to produce vessels; eventually the service launched its own boatyard.

After first establishing a small boatbuilding venture at Quadra Island’s Heriot Bay, they switched to Sonora Island’s Thurston Bay in 1914, where they constructed and maintained their launches. They also built bunkhouses, a marine ways and float homes for the workers and their families. But 27 years later, the remote location and what we’d now call “supply chain” and “worker recruitment” issues led the service to move the yard to the Fraser River’s North Arm. Their last boat, the 48-foot Coast Ranger, was completed in 1966, although the yard continued to maintain the fleet.

BOATS WERE BUILT in various sizes and to different designs. They offered rangers a place to live for weeks, as offices for record keeping, as transporters of equipment and tree saplings, as assessors of timber stumpage, as fire detectors and for bringing much appreciated news to isolated loggers.

As the aging wooden vessels grew more difficult to service and technologies changed, fibreglass and aluminum hulls began to replace them. The Forest Branch auctioned some of their vintage boats in 1974 and sold the last batch by 1985.

In 1992, owners created the Ex-BC Forest Service Vessel Squadron and held the first rendezvous; the organization now counts 16 active members. In 2012, they all received badges commemorating the 100-year-old Forest Service formation and added them to the old, logoed plaques on their vessels.

THE SIX BOATS that participated in 2022’s Classic Boat Show all have dedicated owners who revere their vessels’ history. Doug Mitchell, who owns Forest Ranger II, stated emphatically that the ex-forest launches are not yachts. “We own former workboats that never reach yacht status,” he said. “We feel an obligation to the old girls.

We use paint, not varnish. They’re workboats we are proud to maintain. They’re workboats with a new life, a second life which adds another dimension to boating.”

His 45-footer was constructed in 1953, and like most service launches, is powered by a GM (Jimmy) diesel engine, which he has rebuilt. The 3-71, 4-71, 6-71, and 8-71 two-stroke diesel engines were basic and popular due to their rugged construction, reliability and their widespread use in other equipment, making parts easy to find. That said, the engines are noisy and are sometimes called, “screaming Jimmys.”

Now 69 years old, Forest Ranger II previously hosted a crew of three (ranger/skipper, cook/deckhand and engineer). She served in the Bute and Knight Inlet areas, then was stationed in Campbell River until being auctioned off in 1985. Mitchell has owned her for the past 30 years and has continually repaired and improved her. Despite the vessel’s non-yacht status, after chipping out rot, he finished his main cabin’s walls with sapele, an African mahogany-type wood often used in glitzy mega-yachts. He put epoxy resin on the decks to forestall water intrusion, replaced galvanized tanks with stainless, added a holding tank and AIS. Based in Sidney, she’s made voyages to Haida Gwaii and around Vancouver Island. “We have a love of old boats,” said Mitchell. “We are the custodians who have an obligation to look after the vessels and keep them going.”

SOOKE-BASED CHRIS West owns Dean Ranger, a 48-footer designed by Robert Allen and constructed in 1957. Once a Games Protection patrol vessel, she spent most of her Forest Service life in the areas around Ocean Falls and Kitimat. Auctioned off in 1984, the vessel is constructed of yellow cedar planking on oak frames, with a fir keel, teak and gumwood brightwork and the standard Jimmy engine. “These engines were used in the landing craft on the Normandy beaches,” West said. “My boat’s Jimmy 6-71 is reliable and I can get filters anywhere.

“I bought my ‘retired workboat’ in 2001,” West continued. “She carried some steel stabilizer arrangement on the sides that pinned down the boat and solidified her in the water at speed. They’re called ‘batwings.’ I cleaned and painted them for the first couple of years, then removed them, gained a knot or so, reduced my electrolysis issues as well as my bill for zincs!”

As in other vintage wooden boats, West has continually upgraded her to contemporary standards, adding a holding tank and new water and wiring systems. A bow thruster makes her easier to dock. Two layers of treated, half-inch cedar-plywood make up the deck, which is finished with Deckote, an acrylic elastomeric coating.

“I see other old wooden boats,” said West. “They’re lovely but they just don’t have that history of serving on the coast. That’s what I like about my old ranger launch.”

MITCHELL WOLLASTON BROUGHT Forest Surveyor to Victoria Harbour from Seattle—at 65 feet she is the largest of the rendezvous vessels. She has a high bow and her wheelhouse sits atop the main cabin. Built in 1942, the octogenarian first served as a picket patrol boat during the Second World War. She was surplussed in 1973; then family disputes and the cost of maintenance led to a bank owning her. “I became a marina owner by accident,“ said Wollaston. “So I moor Forest Surveyor at my Ewing Street Marina amidst the houseboats and liveaboards. I just can’t stand seeing the old boats rotting away. So in 2015 and ‘16, I talked the bank into donating her to a museum I established—the Steam Engine Museum—and I maintain her.

He extensively refurbished Forest Surveyor’s wiring, plumbing, diesel engine (Detroit 8V-71) and transmission. “We found a whole lot of problems,” he said. ‘Extensive rot in the stern and planking. So we did a lot of replanking, caulking and painting.”

For Wollaston, his ex-forest boat isn’t just a museum piece. “I’ve taken her to Alaska,” he said, “and I offer rides on Puget Sound. And now I’ve brought her to Victoria. She continues to live.”

CHAD GIESBRECHT BOUGHT Silver Fir in 2012. “When I was growing up my dad used to point out the forest boats,” he told me. “We always had boats and did a lot of fishing. I went to what was the Silva Bay Shipyard School on Gabriola so that helped me decide to buy Silver Fir. She is one

of the “blimps.”

According to Michael Coney, who wrote Forest Ranger, Ahoy! (1983), a history of the forest fleet and its rangers, 11 of these 32 to 35-foot blimps were built in the 1920s. They had a nine-foot beam, drew only 2’ 9” and could thus access shallow waters. They sported a wheelhouse and a long, low coach roof. “We have to look back to the early days, when people realized that a secondary boat was needed,” Coney wrote. “A boat less than the lordly ranger launch yet more than a runabout.” They became the Forest Branch’s first launches built specifically for assistant rangers. Perhaps because of their long coach roofs, one ranger blurted out, “She looks like a bloody great blimp.” The name stuck. Once the early blimps succumbed to time, second versions emerged.”

Stroking his ample, reddish beard, Giesbrecht said, “Silver Fir was in dire need of cosmetics. Her previous owner hadn’t loved her for a few years.”

For the past few summers, Giesbrecht’s boat has recaptured the reason she was constructed. “I’ve served as fire warden, informing people that they cannot light fires during the dry season,” he said. “I’ve patrolled roughly from Gabriola to Salt Spring, building relationships with islanders, watching for fires.”

ABOARD CHERRY II, Bob Brereton said that his wife Kate and he wanted a wooden boat—a wooden boat with some coastal history. They found one at a cost of $12,000. A blimp like Silver Fir, she was built in 1946, served in

Campbell River and on various lakes. The Forest Service sold her in 1978, and after several owners, the Breretons bought her in 2006.

Cherry II is constructed of cedar and fir on oak, has a mahogany-plywood house, and measures almost 35 feet. “She was in rough shape and it took big bucks to seal the hull,” said Brereton, a former firefighter and 3rd engineer on a steamship. “I did the rest of the work myself including adding sound insulation to the GM engine compartment.”

“We love the boat,” Brereton continued. “We moor her on our private dock on the Gorge and we work to keep her afloat. Basically, these launches were well-built. Good sea boats that’ve stood the test of time.”

OAK II WAS the third blimp that attended the Classic Boat Festival. Constructed in 1952 at the North Vancouver Marine Station, the 34-footer’s hull is made of red cedar above the waterline, yellow cedar below the waterline and oak ribbing for support.

Sechelt-based owner Lorne Berman acquired Oak II in the late ‘70s and moors her in Secret Cove. “It took 16 hours to arrive in Victoria,” he said. “Oak II can run at eight knots, but this time I kept her down to six, taking my time. It gave me a quieter, smoother ride. And it saved me a huge amount of fuel—instead of two gallons an hour, I burned only 1.3 gallons.”

It was a tugboat captain that put Berman onto getting an Ex-Forest Service vessel. “He told me RivTow had bought several of them for resale,” said Berman. “I ran down to Vancouver and saw Oak II. When we took her out, she broke her mast against a bridge. They reduced the price by $100. I think I paid about $14,000 for her.”

Berman said he’d been looking for a slow and steady boat, not a flashy speed machine. “The tugboat captain told me these were well-built and well-maintained vessels. And so she has proved herself to be. I’ve always wanted to keep her going.”

Over the last 40-plus years, whenever Berman had to replace parts, he would copy the original. “Say, I had to change a rusty railing, the new, stainless railing would be designed to look the same,” he said. “I want to maintain the boat’s original character.”

THE EX-FOREST SERVICE vessels constitute an influential part of the province’s history—a tale of the forests’ timber and the boats made from that timber keeping track of our natural riches. Keep your eyes out for these maritime treasures as you cruise the Salish Sea this summer.