B.C. Marine Shipbuilders ~ Shipbuilding History

B.C. Marine Shipbuilders

Vancouver BC

Most recent update: July 16, 2021.

This shipyard was originally established in 1898 as a subsidiary of B.C. Marine Railway Co of Esquimalt. When that firm was sold to Sir Alfred Yarrow in 1914, the Vancouver operation became independent and carried on under the name B.C. Marine Ltd. It was primarily a repair facility, located at the north end of Victoria Drive, in Vancouver, but it did build two sizeable wooden-hulled vessels at the end of World War One and sporadically built a few barges and scows, primarily for its own use. It was reorganized in 1962 and renamed B. C. Marine Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd., to take advantage of new Government subsidies. It was acquired by its neighbor, RivTow Marine, in 1982, along with West Coast Salvage & Contracting and John Manly, Ltd., and all four operations were merged, using B.C. Marine's Victoria Drive location. The new company was called RivTow Industries, but was generally known as West Coast Manly Shipyards. See the site from the air on Google here.

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	O/N	Name	Customer	Type	GT	Built	Notes
Built by B.C. Marine Ltd
	141709	Capilano	Union Steamship Co.	passenger freighter	374	1920	later Bedwell 1949, scuttled 1951
	150428	Lady Kindersley	Hudsons Bay Co.	schooner	714	1920	abandoned in ice off Point Barrow 1924
Built by B.C. Marine Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd
1	320253	Georgia Straits	Straits Towing Co. Ltd.	tugboat	71	1963	later Island Navigator
2	320245	Haro Straits	Straits Towing Co. Ltd.	tugboat	71	1963	lost off Point Roberts 1970
3	322437	Malaspina Straits	Straits Towing Co. Ltd.	tugboat	71	1964
4	323209	Marion Rose II	Portland Canal Constn.	boom boat	3	1964	closed 2004
5	322507	S.L. No.1	Straits Towing Co. Ltd.	boom boat	3	1964	closed 1997
6	322508	S.L. No.2	Straits Towing Co. Ltd.	boom boat	3	1964	closed 1997
7	323263	Bering Straits	Straits Towing Co. Ltd.	tugboat	59	1965
8	326544	Captain Cook	Deeks McBride Co Ltd	tugboat	124	1966
9	325633	W.S.	B.C. Marine Shipbuilders	boom boat	3	1965
10	325610	Dolphin Straits	Rivtow Straits	tugboat	15	1965
11				boom boat	3	1966
12	327104	Island Rustler	Island Tug & barge	tugboat	40	1967	later Seaspan Rustler, Rustler II, Jervis Titan
14	328958	Gulf Bee	Gulf of Georgia Towing	tugboat	148	1968	later Seaspan Breeze 1980, Braveheart II
15	329465	Gulf Jean	Gulf of Georgia Towing	tugboat	147	1968	later Seaspan Navigator 1980, closed 2000
16	330364	Valerie L.	Lyttle Brothers Towing	tugboat	9	1968	suspended 2004
17	330366	Phyllis L	Lyttle Brothers Towing	tugboat	9	1968	later Saltspring Prince, Delta Prince
18	330867	Gulf Marjorie	Gulf of Georgia Towing	tugboat	146	1969	later Seaspan Wave 1980, scrapped 2000
19	331309	La Fleur	Vancouver Tug & Bargen	tugboat	74	1969	later Seaspan Charger, scrapped
20	331955	Evco Foam	Ocean Cement Ltd	tugboat	71	1970	later Seaspan Foam
23	344613	Swiftsure III	B.C. Forest Products Ltd.	tugboat	87	1970	later Race Point I
24	347770	Nimpkish	BC-Dept. of Highways	ferry	266	1973
25	347956	Edwin Lindberg	Arctic Nav. & Transportation	tugboat	331	1973	later Arctic Kugaluk
26	347818	Arcnav No.1	Adby Transportation	tank barge	808	1973	later Raven IV, closed 2008
27	347819	Arcnav No.2	Adby Transportation	tank barge	808	1973	later ITB 502, Boss 502
28	347820	Arcnav No.3	Arctic Nav. & Transportation	tank barge	808	1973
29	347821	Arcnav No.4	H.M. Trimble & Sons	tank barge	808	1973
30	347822	Arcnav No. 5	H.M. Trimble & Sons	tank barge	808	1973	later PB-10
31	347823	Arcnav No. 6	Mercury Tanklines	tank barge	808	1973
32	368712	Elliott Straits	Rivtow Straits Ltd.	tugboat	149	1974	later K. G. Hodder, D. D. Catherwood
33	369558	Ballantyne Straits	Rivtow Straits Ltd.	tugboat	149	1975
34	348889	Arctic Sun	Arctic Nav. & Transportation	tugboat	145	1974	closed 1998
35	348888	Ichabod	Arctic Nav. & Transportation	spud scow	479	1974
36	370187	Dawn Treader No. 1	D.L. Lansdowne	fishing boat	62	1975	later Dawn Treader III
37	368368	Canmar Barge No. 1	Canadian Marine Drilling	tank barge	1,789	1975	later Canmar Barge No. I
38	370748	Canmar Supplier V	Canadian Marine Drilling	AHTS	627	1976	later Anya, DF Discoverer (S. Africa) scrapped 2014
39	372628	Bundler No. 1	RSL Log Sorting Ltd.	barge	65	1977
40	383418	Rivtow 902	Rivtow Straits	barge	842	1978
41	383461	Pachena No. 1	Seaboard Trading Co.	fishing boat	95	1978
42	392754	Rivtow 903	Rivtow Straits	barge	842	1979
43	391844	Proud Canadian	John Manly Ltd	fishing boat	88	1979	hull only: completed as Manly's Hull 539
44	393479	B.C. Baron	John Manly Ltd	fishing boat	90	1979	hull only: completed as Manly's Hull 563
45	395400	Babine Itinerant	Babine Forest Products	passenger	294	1980
46	395909	Rivtow 904	Rivtow Straits	barge	891	1980
47	801015	Rivtow 1000	Rivtow Straits	barge	891	1981
48	801067	Rivtow 1001	Rivtow Straits	barge	891	1981
49	801524	Rivtow 1002	Rivtow Straits	barge	891	1982
50	802198	Rivtow 1003	Rivtow Straits	barge	891	1982
51	803635	Rivtow 1004	Rivtow Straits	barge	891	1983