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Vessels Built by Dawe Shipyards Ltd.
compiled by John M. MacFarlane and Bruce Dawe 2016
Samuel Dawe ("Big Sam") was instrumental in establishing ship building companies at Queensborough during the period 1910–1936. (Photo from the Arthur and Bruce Dawe collection.)
Samuel Dawe was born in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland in 1860 and learned his trade working for his father in the C. & A. Dawe shipyard in the town. He, along with his brother Albert James Dawe and Noah Spracklin Mosdell left Bay Roberts and arrived in New Westminster in 1890. His father Samuel ("Norand Sam") and mother joined the brothers the following year. Samuel and Albert, were both Master Mariners, and quickly found work with the many canneries on the Fraser River. Sam and Albert were skilled mariners and carpenters and found themselves doing what came easy for them. Sam was promoted to Net Boss for a cannery during this time. Their first shipbuilding enterprise was the Westminster Marine Railway Company in Queensborough established around 1909.
Throughout the Company’s history, it was managed by up to five partners. They were, we believe: Samuel Dawe, his brother Albert James Dawe, brother–in–law Noah Spracklin Mosdell, George Blakeley, and Samuel’s cousin Samuel Dawe (also known as "Little Sam").
Captain Albert Dawe was the brother of Samuel’s wife Emma Patience Daw. He came to New Westminster and Vancouver around 1890 with his young family. As far as we know, he never took part in the Dawe shipbuilding operations. We believe that Albert never had a business relationship with his brother–in–law Samuel Dawe. The family settled in Vancouver while Samuel and Emma raised their family in New Westminster. The "Daw" spelling of his name is our accepted version. He was born "Daw" but appears to have adopted the "Dawe" spelling later in life. He was well known as the Master of the Canadian Government steam dredge Mastodon.
In 1924 at the Westminster Marine Railway Company, Limited, Sam Dawe and his partners built the D.B.M. a 102 ton steam tug at their yard in New Westminster. She was fitted with the boiler and engine from the old Howe Sound excursion steamer Britannia.
The Dawe Family believe that Westminster Marine Railway Company, Ltd. built the 60–foot full diesel powered tug Radius for Captain J.A. Cates in 1923. A wooden tanker, the Armac followed in 1927 powered by a 180hp Washington–Estep diesel engine for A.M. & O. Transportation Co. The company was sold to Star Shipyards (Mercer), Ltd. ca 1936.
The chronology of the development of the business was:
- –Westminster Marine Railway Company (WMRC) 1910 – 8 March 1919
- –Westminster Marine Railway Company, Limited (WMRCL) 21 March 1919 – 9 March 1927
- –New Westminster Shipbuilding & Engineering – (NWS&E) (Poplar Island Shipyards) April 1918 – September 1919 (approximate dates) A separate company with Big Sam as foreman.
- –Dawe Shipyards, Limited (DSYL) incorporated 10 March 1927 – sold ca 1936 to Star Shipyards (Mercer), Ltd. ca 1936
Articles of Incorporation for Westminster Marine Railway Company (21 March 1919) (Photo from the Arthur and Bruce Dawe collection.)
Sometime prior to the launch of the Columbia Coast Mission’s ship Columbia II at the Westminster Marine Railway Company’s yard at Queensborough in 1910. Bruce Dawe’s great grandfather Samuel "Big Sam" Dawe is standing second from the left and his son Arthur Wilfred Dawe, his grandfather, is sitting in the middle of a group of three next to the hull. (Photo from the Bruce Dawe collection.)
Vessels Built by Dawe Shipyards Ltd.
Advertisement from Harbour and Shipping Magazine 1925 (Photo from the Frank Clapp collection.)
Vessels Built by Westminster Marine Railway Co. Ltd.
73 matches. 2 pages. Max 50 records per page.Page # 2
| Name | Registration | Vessel Type | Year Built |
|---|---|---|---|
| McE. and W. No. 1 | 153339 (Canada) | Scow | 1926 |
| Monarch II | 130499 (Canada) | Tug | 1912 |
| Moresby (I) | 141171 (Canada) | Tug | 1918 |
| Prestige (I) | 150873 (Canada) | Tug | 1923 |
| Prestige II (I) | 150873 (Canada) | Tug | 1923 |
| Queen (III) | 134285 (Canada) | Tug | 1914 |
| R.F. 11 | 152687 (Canada) | Barge | 1924 |
| Robert Preston | 150873 (Canada) | Tug | 1923 |
| S. and R. No. 4 | 153331 (Canada) | Scow | 1926 |
| Seritone | 152798 (Canada) | Fishboat, general | 1925 |
| Straits No. 1 | 153333 (Canada) | Scow | 1926 |
| Straits No. 78 | 152763 (Canada) | Scow | 1925 |
| Straits No. 93 | 150880 (Canada) | Barge | 1923 |
| Timberland No. 1 | 151068 (Canada) | Barge | 1923 |
| Timberland No. 3 | 152689 (Canada) | Barge | 1925 |
| Timberland No. 4 | 152683 (Canada) | Scow | 1924 |
| Trojan II | 141539 (Canada) | Tug | 1920 |
| V.P.D. 3 | 150879 (Canada) | Barge | 1923 |
| Vansort 26 | 152687 (Canada) | Barge | 1924 |
| Wayward Lady | 126899 (Canada) | Work Boat | 1910 |
| Westminster Boy | 150515 (Canada) | Tug | 1922 |
| Westminster Monarch | 130499 (Canada) | Tug | 1912 |
| YC-1223 | 837214 (Canada) | Barge | (nk) |
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Author’s Notes: This is a partial list (work in progress). Co–author Bruce Dawe is the great grandson of Captain Samuel Dawe, the company founder.
Vessel Images: Can you help us fill gaps in the vessel images in the database? If you have pictures of missing vessels that you have taken and would be willing to contribute to the database to make it more complete all our users would be very grateful. Please send them to admin(at)nauticapedia.ca
Note to Reader: Vessel names containing Roman numerals in parentheses (e.g. Floater (II)) indicates more than one vessel in the database with the same name. The numerals in parentheses are NOT part of the vessel name but are used to distinguish one vessel from another in the database.
To quote from this article please cite:
MacFarlane, John M. (2015) Vessels Built by Dawe Shipyards Ltd. Nauticapedia.ca 2016. http://www.nauticapedia.ca/Articles/Vessel_Builders_Dawe_Shipyard.php?Page=2
Site News: May 06, 2024
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 92,780 vessel histories (with 15,646 images and 13,413 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,616 entries (with 4,013 images).
In 2023 the Nauticapedia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of it’s original inception in 1973 (initially it was on 3" x 5" file cards). It has developed, expanded, digitized and enlarged in those ensuing years to what it is now online. If it was printed out it would fill more than 300,000 pages!
My special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into a semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.
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