A Joint UASBC/SREU Project.

Construction

In 1890 the Strand Slipway Company, of Sunderland England, launched a ship named the Amur.  She was a steel, steam-screw, freighter that was 216’ long, 28’ wide and 21’ from keel to the main deck.  She displaced 907 tons gross - 570 tons net.  The single propeller produced a top speed of 12 knots.  This top speed was achieved by a triple compound steam engine which produced 170 nominal horsepower and a Scotch boiler rated for 160 pounds pressure.  The Amur was equipped with three masts, electric light, three cemented bulkheads, a water ballast system incorporating fore and aft peak tanks, and a double bottom divided into cells.    

History

The Amur was first registered in London by the Amur Steam Ship Company Ltd and later by the Lombard Steam Ship Company.  The 216’ steamer had a colourful history and travelled over much of the world’s waterways.  She visited the Amur River in eastern Siberia.  She worked the coast of China.  She also served as a transport during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895.  In 1898 the Amur crossed the Pacific via Borneo and Honolulu finally reaching Victoria, B.C. 

In British Columbia the Amur’s new owner was the Klondyke Mining , Trading and Transportation Company.  The ship was quickly fitted with a new pilothouse and temporary accommodations for 200 passengers.  She was to run supplies and ferry miners to the Gold Rush of ’98.  A notable event in her service to the Gold Rush was her rescuing of passengers and crew from the sternwheeler Iskoot, which had stranded near Skeena River.  When the Gold Rush wound down, the Amur went on the block.

In 1899 the ship was briefly registered in the fleet of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC).  In the latter part of the year the HBC joined with some competitors to form the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company (CPN).  The Amur served the CPN on routes to Alaska, the west coast of Vancouver Island, and the Queen Charlotte Islands.   In 1901 the CPN fleet was bought by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) but very little changed for the steamer Amur.  In 1906 the ship took medical personnel and tons of relief supplies to the victims of the San Francisco earthquake.  In 1912 the Amur was sold to the Coastwise Steamship and Barge Company.  She was refitted in Tacoma and spent the next dozen years transporting ore from Britannia Beach and Anyox. 

Accidents were common in the history of the Amur.  She recorded no fewer than ten accidents in her storied career.  September 19, 1908 was a particularly bad day for the Amur.  She collided with the steamer Vadso, then she stranded.  On February 8, 1924 the Amur was seriously damaged when she collided into Whytecliff Island.  Her Vancouver, B.C. registry was closed and her name was given to another ship.  She was once again on the block later that year.

The Amur was bought by Captain Albert Berquist and given a new and fitting name, the Famous.  She was used for general cargo service out of Vancouver and in the pilchard oil trade on west Vancouver Island.  The tired steamer wrecked for the final time on April 4, 1926 on Louise Rick in the Skeena River.  Around 1928 she was sold to Leith , Murray and Company.  Her brass and steel were salvaged and her hulk was beached at Bedwell Bay.

The eyesore that was once the Amur drew complaints from cottagers and the Vancouver Port Authority ordered her removed.  The Famous, nee Amur, received an unfitting end to such a colourful career.  On September 6, 1932 the remains of the old steamer were scuttled in deep water in Indian Arm, near Bedwell Bay.        

Search and Discovery

Fast forward 65 years.  In 2007 the Canadian Hydrographic Service provided the Underwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia with a sonar image of a wreck site believed to be the Famous.  On September 22, 2007 the UASBC sent downs a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) contributed and run by member Mike Clement.  Visibility was only a few meters, but steel frames and other vertical structures were evident.  The hull plating seemed largely gone, but there was more wood than expected.  It was impossible to distinguish the bow from stern from the ROV footage, as the ship was well covered in Plumose Anemones.  The wreck lies on a flat silt bottom not far from shore in 230’, on a bearing of 034/214.  In October of 2009, the UASBC board confirmed support for a joint project with The DIR Project’s SREU that will have technical divers visit the wreck of the Famous. 

Dive Objectives

The primary objectives of the project are:

1. To determine the level of underwater archaeology recording that can be accomplished using DIR diving techniques and expertise on a shipwreck in 240' of water.  
2. To further develop the SREU's Standard Operating Procedures and to continue to develop our ability to work as a cohesive team.  

 Specific project objectives include: 

• To locate the wreck site from the surface and establish a continuous line from the surface to the wreck.
• To establish a baseline down the center of the wreck for use as reference for additional measurements and video work.
• Use the baseline to undertake video documentation of the deck at centerline.
• Use video to document the extant bow and stern features.
• Confirm the length and beam of the ship using the baseline and datum offsets.
• To create a short video of the project.
• Complete a Documenting Shipwrecks form
• To input all relevant data and facts into the SREU database.

Personnel 

Surface Manager

• Jeremy Hoey

Support Divers

• Dave Healey 
• Richard Parker

Gas Divers

• Mark Gottfried
• Guy Shockey
• Alan Johnson
• Kim Anderson
• Chris Fenton

Project Logistics

March 13, 2010 - 9:30am meet at Seycove Marina, 2890 Panorama Drive, North Vancouver (Parking $5 in $1-$2 coins)

March 14, 2010 - 9:30am meet at Seycove Marina, 2890 Panorama Drive, North Vancouver (Parking $5 in $1-$2 coins)

Support/Filling facility - International Diving Center, 2572 Arbutus Street, Vancouver

Dive Charter - Cheers Scuba Divng and Eco Tours, Captain Shay

References

Stone, David Leigh, Historic Shipwrecks of the Lowers Mainland of British Columbia, UASBC, Vancouver, 2007.

 

For more information contact Chris Fenton at cfenton@thedirproject.com.