BC Ferries' derelict ship graveyard near Mission (PHOTOS)
Hidden from sight from most Metro Vancouverities is a large boat graveyard in the community of Silverdale, just west of Mission and off Lougheed Highway.
A number of derelict ships are tethered together to the shores of the Fraser River and are quickly wasting away.
This includes the final resting place of what was once the flagship of the B.C. Ferries fleet – the 102-metre MV Queen of Sidney with a capacity for 989 passengers and 138 vehicles. The W.A.C. Bennett era vessel was the ferry company’s pioneering vessel and serviced the Vancouver to Victoria route in 1960 until it was decommissioned in 2000.
Other vessels that now accompany the rusting ferry are much smaller, including a pair of deteriorating fishing boats, several aging tugs, a barge, and a partially submerged wooden ferry from San Francisco.
Over the years, the boat ‘graveyard’ site has been a popular location for film production shoots. However, there are concerns over public safety – whether fast flowing rainfall and snow melt waters on the Fraser River could break the vessels free from their moorings, sending a fleet of dilapidated boats floating downstream and possibly damaging vessels and infrastructure such as bridges.
No action is being taken to secure the vessels as provincial, federal and municipal authorities are at a jurisdictional disagreement over which party is responsible for the eyesore and riverbank threat.
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonothan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
Image: Yonathan Wezeli
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