Nidge Shipwreck

The Nidge was a steam tug built in Vancouver in 1906 or 07.  Her wooden hull was 63.7 ft. deep.  She displaced 57.91 tons gross, 39.38 tons registered.  She was screw propelled.   The tug was registered in Vancouver.  That did not change when the Vancouver Island Power Company Ltd bought her in 1910.  She became a familiar sight at her Johnson Street berth in Victoria.  Almost daily she ferried construction crews to and from Jordan River, where a dam was bright built.  Behind towed a scow loaded with freight and equipment.  Her master was Captain Stanley Fraser, certificate number 4023.

LOSS
December 15th, 1912, should have been a routine trip from Jordan River.  Six passengers, including 2 children, joined the tug’s five crewmen.

“We had perfect weather until we reached Albert Head”, reported Captain Fraser.  “It was dark and after 10 o’clock when a heavy south-easterly suddenly hit us.  In a matter of minutes, our decks were awash and the scow astern was waterlogged.  The, struggling along right in the teeth of the flake, our circulation pumps failed!”

Engineless, the tug and is tow drifted toward McAuley Point, on the west side of Victoria Harbour.  The anchor would not hold in those seas.  It was even too rough to launch the lifeboat.  Captain Fraser fired rockets to summon aid.  he cut loose the scow, which eventually floated undamaged into Esquimalt harbour.

Nidge struck about midnight.  The mate was washed overboard and disappeared………..

For more information on the Nidge and other shipwrecks of Southern Vancouver Island, go to: UASBC.Com. You can order the publication Historic Shipwrecks of Southern Vancouver Island from the Underwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia publications.

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