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The Harmac Spruce

by John MacFarlane 2022

The Harmac Spruce (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

The Harmac Spruce was built in 1964 at New Westminster BC Canada by the John Manley Ltd. (later Spruce Lane then Spruce I. This tug was 59.9’ x 19.3’ x 11.5’ (18.26m x 5.88m x 3.47m) steel hulled 81.71gt 13.4rt. She was powered by a 750hp diesel engine by Stork–Werkspoor AG with a Kort Nozzle. She was apparently later repowered with a 850bhp diesel engine. In 1964 she was designed as a sister ship to the tug Harmac Pine.

In 1964–1993 she was owned by Kingcome Navigation Co., Vancouver BC. In 1994–1999 she was owned by Royal Bank Leasing Ltd., Vancouver BC. In 2001–2004 she was owned by Mariner Towing Ltd., North Vancouver BC. In 2009–2014 she was owned by Pacific Towing Services Ltd., North Vancouver BC. In 2017–2022 she was owned by Sentry Marine Towing Ltd., Nanaimo BC.

This photograph was part of a small horde of prints and negatives recovered by Bob Fiorello that appear to have come from the closure of the John Manly Shipyard in New Westminster BC Canada. They had been commissioned as part of the vessel construction process and were created by photographic contractors – the Stride Studios (Charles E. Stride). I am grateful to have been gifted these images which filled so many gaps in the Nauticapedia database. This collection has been now donated to the Vancouver Maritime Museum for their permanent collection.

To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John (2022) The Harmac Spruce. Nauticapedia.ca 2022. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Harmac_Spruce.php

Site News: May 07, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 92,798 vessel histories (with 15,646 images and 13,431 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.

Also my special thanks to my volunteer content accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who has proofread thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 11,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.

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