The Union Steamship Story
The legendary Union Steam Ship Company (USSCo.) operated up and down the BC coast between 1889 and 1959. For hundreds of people living along the coast of BC, the USSCo was one of the only links to the outside world. It was an essential part of BC life during the late 1800s and early 1900s and was truly the lifeline of the coast.
Before Highway 101 connected the communities along the coast, boats were the transportation of choice. Each community had a wharf and was thus able to receive people and supplies via boats. Union Steamships started serving the Sunshine Coast about 1891 with the S.S. Comox making the run across Howe Sound. The first SS Capilano, built in the same year, was another ship that serviced the Sunshine Coast. After the first was wrecked near Savary Island in 1915, a second Capilano operated for another twenty years.
SCMA Photo#893 - The S.S. Comox tied up at Gonzales and Dames floats at Irvine's Landing, Pender Harbour, 1911.
SCMA Photo #1221 - The S.S. Capilano at Keats Island, 1930. Helen McCall photograph.
One of the best known steamers that plied the Sunshine Coast was the S.S. Catala. The 218-foot ship was launched in 1925 in Montrose, Scotland, and carried coastal freight and passengers from Vancouver to southeast Alaska. The name Catala derives from the Roman Catholic missionary Father Magin Catala who came to Santa Cruz de Nootka on Vancouver Island in 1793.
SCMA Photo #156 - S.S. Catala in Graham Reach, 1927.
The S.S. Chasina was built in 1881 in Glasgow as the steam yacht Santa Cecilia for the Marquis of Anglesea. She was renamed the Selma in 1917 and operated on the Vancouver to Powell River route before being purchased by Union Steamships in 1917. She was then renamed the Chasina after the policy of the time to use west coast Indian names beginning with the letter c.
The Lady Pam was also a distinctive ship with its clipper bow. She was launched in 1883 in Glasgow, as the Santa Maria and arrived on the west coast in 1914 to be placed on the Vancouver-Powell River route.
SCMA Photo #1362 - The Lady Pam at Irvine's Landing, Pender Harbour. Built in Scotland and later purchased by the All Red Line in 1904, she was sold to the USSCo in 1917 and renamed the S.S. Chilco. When she was rebuilt in 1935 she was renamed once again, as the Lady Pam. This photo was taken by Gilbert Lee in 1925, when the vessel would have been known as the S.S. Chilco.
In 1924 Union Steamships launched a vessel configured and licensed such that she was the largest capacity excursion ship north of San Francisco, the Lady Alexandra which made many summertime calls to Gibsons Landing. By the mid-1930s Union Steamships offered one-day cruises aboard the Lady Cecilia to Sechelt and Pender Harbour area, also known as the “Gulf Coast Riviera.” They could also call in enroute to Roberts Creek, Selma Park, Half Moon Bay, Buccaneer Bay, Vaucroft Beach, and other destinations. One could also cruise for a day on Howe Sound around Anvil Island, Gambier Island, and returning around Keats and Bowen Islands.
Many of the Union Steamships had mishaps on B.C.’s rugged coast. The Lady Cynthia was a former minesweeper purchased from the British Admiralty in 1925. On her first trip to Powell River in 1925 she had an accident off Sechelt when she collided with the Cowichan which sank but with no loss of life.
The Catala ran aground on Sparrowhawk Reef near Prince Rupert in 1927. The Lady Cecilia ran aground at Pender Harbour on Christmas Eve, 1940. Later she collided with a freighter off Point Atkinson near Vancouver in 1944. The Catala ended her career with the USSCo. in April 1959 and was to be turned into a fish-buying ship when developers refurbished it as a floating hotel on the Seattle waterfront for the 1962 World's Fair. Upon being moved on New Year's Day, 1965, a storm with 70 mph winds and high seas tipped the Catala 30 degrees on its side in the sand near Ocean Shores, Washington and it could not be righted.
The Sunshine Coast Museum & Archives has a significant collection of artifacts including USSCo dinnerware, a deckchair, life preservers from the S.S. Catala and Lady Cynthia, a compass, and a captain’s hat.
