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The C.S.S. William J. Stewart – iconic survey ship

by Mike Ball 2016

William J. Stewart

Alongside at Patricia Bay BC March 1973 (Photo from the Mike Ball collection. )

During the early to mid 1970s, the ship was usually laid up each winter and reactivated in April or May, as the surveying was done during the summer months when good weather could be expected. In 1971, when I joined her for the first time (starting as an Engine Room Day–man and later becoming a Fireman, operating the boilers), the ship was reactivated early, in January, and sailed in late February / early March for the west coast of Vancouver Island and Barkley Sound. This trip was a training run for new Hydrographers. Up until that year I believe the custom had been for the new Hydrographers to do their training on the east coast, around Bermuda or in the Caribbean. I don’t know if the West Coast training was repeated the following year or not as I left the ship in April, but I suspect it was a onetime arrangement.

In 1973 I rejoined the ship as an Oiler, working in the engine room. For the 1974 and 1975 seasons I sailed as the Junior Engineer.

William J. Stewart

Anchored near Atrevida Reef and Scuttle Bay March 1973 (Photo from the Mike Ball collection. )

Most of the survey work was done from survey launches. Each launch carried an Hydrographer, a Coxswain and Bowman (seaman). Working from day marks temporarily erected on shore in each survey area, the launches ran survey lines, taking soundings at frequent intervals, which at the end of each day were added to the data base on board. Sounding charts were then worked up from this data. It is my understanding that the Hydrographers then spent the winter using all this information to create new charts. I don’t recall the sequence of the areas that we surveyed in 1973 and 1974, but during those seasons we surveyed in Howe Sound, along the Sunshine Coast (around Powell River), Jervis Inlet, the mouth of the Skeena River and in Barkley Sound. During 1975 we carried out ship soundings off the west coast of Vancouver Island and then launch surveying in Barkley Sound.

Due to budgetary constraints for the Hydrographic Department in 1975, the survey season was cut short by one month, and the ship left Barkley Sound for Victoria in mid to late September instead of October.

William J. Stewart

The hydrographic survey launches are in the water alongside and represent two eras – the older wooden launches (the smaller boats), and the newer fiberglass launches. I am not certain but I think the fiberglass launches may have been built by Canoe Cove Boat Builders Ltd. (Photo from the Mike Ball collection. )

She remained alongside at the Victoria base until the next year when she was taken to Patricia Bay (Pat Bay) and used as an office while the new Institute of Ocean Sciences was being completed. I believe she remained berthed there until her sale to the Oak Bay Group in 1979.


To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John M. (2016) The C.S.S. William J. Stewart - iconic survey ship Nauticapedia.ca 2016. http://www.nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Wm_J_Stewart.php

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