A Tale of Two Ships: The Inside Passage Then and Now

By Michael Olson

This richly illustrated travel book recounts two voyages that the author made along British Columbia's fabled Inside Passage; the first to Wales Island Cannery in the spring of 1947 on the Union Steamship Cardena, and the second in the fall of 2010 on the BC Ferry Northern Adventure. The book recreates both voyages in real time and compares and contrasts them. Reconstruction of the 1947 voyage is based on the Cardena's original pilot-house log books, found in the Provincial Archives permanent collection. Board the legendary Cardena now for a nostalgic, 60-hour journey in time as the ship travels up the rugged BC coast from Vancouver to the Nass River salmon cannery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Olson
• Release date: Jun 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301866229

Michael Olson

The author, now retired, was privileged to have grown up among the salmon canneries and gillnet camps that once flourished along the Nass and Skeena rivers on British Columbia's north coast. Forest, fish and the sea defined these remote communities, as did wooden boats, cedar cork-lines and the Easthope marine engine. To learn more about this vanished way of life, please visit my website: Porcher Island Cannery.

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A Tale of Two Ships: The Inside Passage Then and Now

Michael Olson

Published by Michael Olson at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Michael Olson. All rights reserved.

Original artwork copyright 2013 Michael Olson. All rights reserved.

Cover image: Northern Adventure in Tolmie Channel, Inside Passage

Image Credits:

British Columbia Ferry Services, Inc. BC Archives, Royal BC Museum Stephen Olson Cyril R. Littlebury

Images 2, 3, and 4 are the property of British Columbia Ferry Services, Inc. and are used with permission.

Images 5 and 6 are the property of BC Archives, Royal BC Museum and are used with permission.

Chart details are reproduced with the permission of the Canadian Hydrographic Service and are not for navigation.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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A Tale of Two Ships: The Inside Passage Then and Now

Early on a cold and dark November morning, I left Victoria for the seven-hour drive to Port Hardy, at the far end of Vancouver Island, where I had booked passage on the 6:00 pm sailing of the BC Ferry, Northern Adventure, to Prince Rupert and ports between.

A steady stream of commuter headlights lit my crossing of the winding Malahat Drive, but at that hour there was little northbound traffic on the road behind. Soon, the two-lane parkway became a four-lane freeway as I set the cruise control, turned up the music and sipped a lukewarm coffee. Passing between the familiar towns of Duncan and Ladysmith, a low mist hung over the farmland on both sides of the highway in the now grey light of dawn. Before long, I was skirting the city of Nanaimo, slowed