366_Michael-Ireland_Ripple-Rock-Discovery-Fiction-Demise_2008.mp3

otter.ai

12.02.2024

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Outline

The history of Vancouver Island's Ripple Rock.
• Michael Layland, a mapping expert and historian, discusses Vancouver Island's Ripple Rock and its history.

Pacific Northwest coastal hazards and navigation.
• Mariners face hazardous conditions in Pacific Northwest, but Inside Passage provides shelter.
• James Johnson master of the Royal Navy observed the double tidal surge pattern in Menzies Bay, providing evidence of the island's insularity.
• Zachary Mudge's watercolor of the Discovery's grounding shows a tiny figure on the captain's cabin, awaiting the next high tide.

Naming and Charting Seymour Narrows in 19th Century British Columbia.
• Commander George Gordon reported naming Seymour Narrows as Sir George Seamos Narrows, but the Admiralty did not update the chart.
• Richards charts BC coast, promotes Pender, and retains interest in progress.
• Pender discovers dangerous rock in Burrard Inlet, prompting urgent hydrographic notice.

A dangerous underwater rock formation in British Columbia.
• Ripple Rock, a hazardous rock formation in the Inside Passage, was accurately charted and warned about for mariners starting in 1866.
• Captain of USS Saranac risked it all in Seymour Narrows, resulting in shipwreck and loss of life.

Removing hazardous rock formation in waterways during WWII.
• Algeria's eight ships boats include a larger one with detailed in-water measurements showing a systematic pattern of soundings throughout the Narrows.

• Canadian hydrographic survey ship, William J.
Stewart, grazed ripple rock in 1944, but managed to keep afloat.
• Canadian Hydrographic Service used radar and echo sounding to create charts, then resurrected tunneling to place explosives deep within Twin Peaks.

Removing hazardous rock formations in Seymour Narrows.
• Engineers successfully detonated explosives to remove 700,000 tons of rock from double Pinnacle, without injury or damage.
• Seymour Narrows' navigational hazards persist despite mining project, claiming smaller vessels.
• Sundancer sank after sideswiping an island, damaging a dock and causing total write-offs.

Speaker 1 0:00
Michael Layland was born in Britain. His career was in mapping, cartography, military and commercial mapping use. And much of it, he worked in the developing world. Now he retires he continues a lifelong interest in the history of exploration and mapping. He is currently writing a book on this topic focus on Vancouver Island. As part of his research, he has studied the story of ripple rock, how it was found, charted and eliminated with local legends and some stories about the ships that came to grief on the rock. Michael recently served for three years as president of the Victoria Historical Society. He will also be presenting his talk to the museum at Campbell River for the day of commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the explosion that eliminated this notorious hazard, which was April the fifth 1958. Michael has a sister Susan on salt spray and other relatives who live here and he is a frequent visitor. Michael's illustrated talk is entitled rip a rock is discovery, depiction and demise so I'd like to welcome Michael to our program this afternoon.

Speaker 2 1:13
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and everybody. Good afternoon. The Pacific Northwest Coast can be a temperamental, hazardous and unforgiving place for seafarers, particularly for those under sail. It lies on the receiving end of westerly oceanic weather systems, and for many months of the year, this pattern creates that situation dreaded by mariners, one long Lee shore. This is the weather map for the night of 15th of December two years ago the storm that wreaked such devastation in Stanley Park. Fortunately, a protected navigable route, known as the Inside Passage provides respite for most of the fury of the open Pacific. That channel snakes for 1200 miles from Tacoma, at the foot of Puget Sound

Speaker 2 2:16
all the way through the Skagway high in the Alaskan Panhandle for most small and medium sized vessels, the Inside Passage of his welcome shelter 1000s of ships a year transit this waterway. And the middle reaches for the Inside Passage are protected by

Speaker 2 2:41
or protected by Vancouver Island, some 300 miles long. Midway along the Island lies the most constricted section of the whole route. Seymour narrows only one and a half miles in length, and at one point less than half a mile wide. The local tidal patterns are complex. along the eastern waters of Vancouver Island, there are four changes of tide every day. These tidal surges support a flourishing oceanic food chain. And for millennia before the European contact, the bounty of these waters permitted the densest human population anywhere in the Americas. Many of the beings in the local mythologies are associated with marine counterparts. For the quack quack quack people, one of those protected spirits is Nam shallick. You but atomic giant halibut. The flapping of whose tail creates turbulence, canoes swamping maelstroms and standing waves and one such spirit dwelt still dwells in Seymour narrows. The spirit has been also identified as Marty, the spitting horse clan, or a huge skate. The Coast Salish name for the narrows is shrim quo or fast waters. Seymour narrows on a modern chart, it lies between mod Island and Wilfred point and then Menzies Bay is just here. To the west. Seymour narrows looking from the south side of Menzies Bay. It is here that the two tidal surges arriving from opposite ends of the island meet and conflict. And this double title pattern provided the evidence to the first European navigators to sail these waters that the channels from the north and the south entrances connected to create a large island. In 1792 James Johnson master Royal Navy was exploring the channels of the archipelago and he noted that the flooding tide now came from the north, not as previously his leader George Vancouver, proved the insularity by sailing through same on arrows and circumnavigating the island that would bear his name. Vancouver recorded in his log as he transmitted and then hours that the tide setting to the southward. Through this confined passage, rushes with such immense impetuosity, as to reduce the appearance of falls considerably high, although not the least obstruction of either rocks or sounds. So far as we had the opportunity of examining it appeared to exist. Subsurface rocks and reefs and sand banks were, of course major hazards for explorers of uncharted waters. And three weeks after transiting the Narrows, Discovery did run aground on a hidden shore. Vancouver's first left tenant of the discovery was Zachary Mudge, his watercolor of the situation contains a word of whimsical detail on on the tip of the half submerged captain's cabin, sits a tiny figure. My guess is that it shows the artist himself commonly awaiting the next high tide. Zachary has patience was rewarded discovery refloated without serious damage. The Klingons that steward up in the Alaskan Panhandle greets Vancouver's two ships discovery and Chatham during the Second World War, many surveying techniques technologies underwent a major development and one of those was photogrammetry. Subsequently, war surplus aircraft and cameras and mapping machines and demobilize technicians all became available. The immediate benefit to the hydrographic charting came in the form of complete, detailed and accurate shorelines. And the results of their photos also recorded the surface patterns of the ripples themselves at different states of the tide and wind. In 1846, the coal fired steam sloop HMS cormorant of the Royal Navy sent to check into reports of coal seams found at the north end of the island pass through discovery passage. Comments log makes no mention of the Narrows. But commander George Gordon did report to his local superior that he had named them Sir George seamos narrows. Vice Admiral Seymour was at the time commanding British naval forces on the Pacific Ocean. And the next chart of the region issued by the Admiralty was just an update of the Vancouver chart published 50 years earlier. It did not note that the feature had been named Seymour narrows while it showed a few soundings in discovery passage and associated topographical map by the official cartographer, Aerosmith did indicate clearly but quite wrongly that the clearance along the length of Seymour narrows was 50 fathoms. In 1849, King the proclamation of the Crown colony of Vancouver Island and for the next 60 years, the Royal Navy kept at least one warship in the area. As well as showing the flag they gave priority to systematically charting the coastline of the surrounding waters. And the first dedicated hydrographic ship on station was HMS plumper. From 1860 Captain George Richards Royal Navy chartered charted the waters of the eastern shores of Vancouver Island. Note the surveying part is setting out in ships, boats, and also at work on shore. Richards log record several transits through Seymour narrows, usually noting the strong title races, but not once did he suspect that they concealed an extreme hazard lurking just beneath the surface of the turbulent waters. This is the title legend from 1861 chart that incorporated plumpers work. And that Seymour narrows on that same 1861 plumper chart. Note the Fisher figures 17 mid channel just there. Between more Island and Wilfred point 17 fathoms is just over 100 feet deep at the lowest tide, indicating that there was ample room for any any sample clearance for any ship of the era. Now the manuscript copy of the plumper chart held in the Hydrographic Office in Taunton in England As an intriguing annotation in the middle of the Narrows, someone has written in green, the word ripple. We'll be hearing more about this later. In 1861 plumper was replaced by the larger, more powerful HMS Hekate. With Richards and his crew transferring to the new vessel. The next year, Richards applied hicketts power and sea worthiness to charting the stormy west coast of the island. However, there remained work to be done on the more protected reaches of the Inside Passage. So Richards charted the SSB Eva from the Hudson's Bay Company recommissioning, the aging paddlewheeler as HMS viva, under the command of his protege, Daniel Pender, Master Royal Navy. And the year after that, Richardson, the Hekate returned to Britain. While still at sea, he learned that he'd been promoted to Rear Admiral and appointed the hydrographer. As such, he would be responsible for worldwide operations. But Richards retained a personal interest in the progress of charting the coast of British Columbia. And one of the first publications on his watch was the first edition 1860 for the Vancouver Island pilot and sailing directions to include the waters north of the Gulf of Georgia. And the entry for Seymour narrows reads the shores on both sides are highly rugged and steep to in consequence of the contraction in breadth of the discovery passage, the tide rushes through these narrows with great velocity, nearly nine knots at springs, and flood and upstream run for nearly equal intervals of six hours. Very short period of slack water intervening between them. It is recommended to choose the early part of a favorable tide to pass through these narrows for during the greatest strength, a boiling race extends across and steerage becomes difficult. In early July 1866, Pender rushed an excited personal letter to his mentor, Admiral Richards you will see the rockin Seymour narrows only fancy we had great trouble to find it, anchored in plumper Bay and searched at SAC water in boats. Also, I was very glad to find it plot north of the old 17 phantoms. My attention was first call to it by a trading schooner and I think in a matter of congratulation, to have settled the question, three and a half fattens at low water being just enough to finish the subtle edge. That was the battleship on station at the time. Pen his excitement is clear and fully justified. He had been most fortunate to manage to sounded this artist's impression of George Vancouver surveying Burrard Inlet shows how hydrography was carried out even by Penders days. 70 years later, the techniques had not changed much. With no power other than the shoulders of his crew, Pender had to roll out to the apex of the Maelstrom to arrive at exactly slack water and that was difficult to predict and if it happened at all, of brief duration. Once there have his Boson he the lead line to land on the summit of the underwater peak. While he took angles with his sextant to record the boats position they will get but was single shot at it until the next slackwater low in 12 hours that they managed to do so pays great credit to both their seamanship, and the courage. Richards recognize that once the significance of pendants discovery, it represented a great parallel to shipping in an already hazardous passage. So within a few weeks, he published an urgent hydrographic notice number four and distributed it to everyone who held copies of the two relevant charts and the sailing directions. A dangerous rock with as little as three and a half patterns on it has been discovered almost in the center of similar narrows, but rather on the western side, between mod Island and Wilfred point. The passage is therefore dangerous for large vessels during the strength of either stream and it is recommended to enter it, especially from the south at the slack water. The peril even merited its own separate chart. November 1866 saw the publication of the first edition of chart number 538 Seymour narrows that incorporated Penders fortuitous finding the chart gave it the name ripple rock. This was a classic example of Royal Naval understatement. The ripples referred to were a time standing waves to In feet high with multiple vortex is over 30 feet across that vessel, oops sorry. The standing wave 10 feet high that vessel steaming by sometime in the early 1900s is the union steamship Kadena 225 feet overall. At the start of the next survey season, Pender again took soundings over the minutes. This time he found even less low water clearance than before, and the position differed from the one he had measured earlier. So an amendment to the previous notice was again rushed into print. The wording of the warnings was similar, but the position of the hazard was changed. Chart 538 was also corrected and reissued. But in fact, as we shall see, Penders to opera opera observations were both correct. Later that year, during yet a third for a to sound rock, PENTA discovered that the hazard was double headed, a twin thank monster chart 538 was a once more amended and reissued.

Speaker 2 16:20
These are the three published versions of tender soundings for comparison. From 1866 Onward, the position of rubber or river rock was adequately charted and appropriate warnings issued to mariners. Nonetheless, it remained a potent threat to all vessels navigating the Inside Passage. But not everyone considered the rock to be a device of the devil that Dr. William Fraser Tomi, a physician, expert farmer, and all around nanoscience, but also a most devout individual wrote in 1870, making the case for a railway link between the to the mainland and the rest of Canada that it was as if God and nature had expressly provided for a communication link. At this point. A rock known as the rippled rock is visible at Low Water in the middle of the Narrows, forming the best known natural foundation for a pier to support a pitch. In common with most Vancouver Island as of the day, Dr. Tommy wanted that promised railway link. In 1876, the USS Saranac the 233 foot warship sailed from San Francisco, north down to Alaska. It was on a mission for the Smithsonian. Passing through Seymour narrows, the captain is alleged to have overruled the pilots advice to wait for two hours for the next leg water. The combined tidal stream and sarnax puddles would have carried the ship through the narrows at almost 14 knots. He decided to risk it. But even steam power proved no match for the maelstroms created by ripple rock. One of the crew recorded that containing currents take the vessel by the nose and swinger from port to starboard, and from Starbuck to port as a terrier shakes a rat. Saranac was spun sideways onto one of the jagged hidden peaks, ripping open the port side. The captain use the last of the power to steer the stricken Saranac into a notch in the Rocky bluff of the western shore. Horse was run ashore, all crew and passengers managed to disembark safely. Saranac settled by the stern tore out the mooring lines and slipped to the bottom 380 feet below. The survivors waited on this rock until locals came to their rescue during the 83 years following the Saranac incident Nam shahada, you legendary halibut, continued active directly attributable to the dangerous submarine peak and the attendant cross currents, at least two dozen large vessels and barges and well over 100 smaller craft were lost or severely damaged. 114 people perished. There was even an aircraft accident, closely linked to ripple rock. Charts produced by the surveys of Richardson Pender served well until the last few years of the century. By then steam had replaced sail as the main method of maritime propulsion. charts that had been suitable for vessels under sail were no longer adequate for those with power to steer courses closer to the shore. In 1898, the hydrographer sent her Her Majesty's surveying ship Algeria to the Pacific Ocean, charged mainly with re surveying. And after two years Algeria had reached and re charted discovery passage including Seymour narrows. Note that Algeria carries eight ships boats, and particularly interesting is the larger largest one. We can see more detail once it's in the water. The advent of inboard engines for ships boats had brought significant advantages for sounding operations. Such launches could now keep to a planned course while taking measurements and will less affected by adverse currents to officers are reading their substance while in the bow. The Boson heaves the lead line. And the resultant chart shows a systematic pattern of soundings throughout the Narrows and with greater increased density around and over the ripple rock. This is the compilation metric manuscript of the survey. But for the published version, the redundant redundant soundings are removed. It now becomes clear that the twin headed submarine peak was another bustled plug of an old volcano, similar to several visible nearby in addition to the increased detail about the topography of the seafloor oops, there we are. There's the there's the submarine peak. A warning is added to a jury as chart. Position of river rock is indicated by the tide race and Eddie's over it, except for a short time it's like water. During the full strength of either stream the tide is in the narrows are very heavy, and no large vessel should attempt the passage. With fresh northerly, or southerly winds, the races and eddies become very dangerous for boats and small vessels. Notwithstanding such dire warnings, the ships navigating the Inside Passage continued to strike ripple rock, the United States pressed a reluctant Canada to remove the hazard. lobby groups on Vancouver Island oppose that idea. They still wanted their long promised railing. Some even growled threats of secession. Upon their joining the Second World War, American pressure increased. They were building the Alaska Highway, and we're shipping arms equipment, men and material via the Inside Passage. This time, Canada agreed and ordered the ripple rock be removed. funding would come out of the war vote budget. attempts in 1943. To anchor a drill barge over ripple rock failed. The power of the tidal currents snapped three inch steel hoses and the strongest anchor cables. Two years later, another technique was tried

Speaker 2 23:12
that have high lines between mod Island and Wilfred point with tethers to another drill barge. This tool was abandoned after the standing waves swamped a crew change launch with the loss of nine lives. It was a year after that, that even the Canadian hydrographic survey ship, the William J. Stewart came to grief named for Canada's first Chief hydrographer The 1300 tonnes Stewart was the pride of the survey fleet. In June 1944. Stewart had just finished it filled it's called bunkers at Union Bay. They departed northbound on an extended charting voyage, steaming confidently into discovery passage discovery passage, perhaps over confidently for failing to give wide enough birth to ripple rock. The steward grazed it and was hauled the crew managed to keep the vessel afloat until they reached and sank in the shallows of plumper vein. Fortunately, there were no casualties. The salvage crew patched and refloated and towed the steward to Victoria. In the following season, he was back at work to continue survey duties for another 30 years. Two other surveying techniques experienced the boosts during the Second World War. They were those of echo sounding and positioning fixing position fixing by radar. Both of these innovations were employed by the Canadian Hydrographic Service for their charts number 3465. Using data collected in 1944, that was published in 1953. That same year, and by then, having spoken having spent almost $1 million attempting drilled from above, it was clear that another solution was needed. Earlier, a method used in the Goldfields of South Africa had been considered but dismissed hardrock tunneling would enable the explosives to be positioned deep within the Twin Peaks. Originally, this would seem more expensive than by drilling downwards from above, but in the light of hot experience, tunneling was now resurrected. They would first drill a 570 foot vertical shaft on more Island, and the drilling site is ringed. Note the condition of the narrows behind we can see better if we zoom in. This shot was taken close to maximum flow northwards, we can see clearly the huge standing waves and the infamous whirlpools rather seems to be a curious dark mass. Just upstream of the waves, could that be the snout of a huge halibut. But I digress back to the mining engineers from the bottom of the shaft from the bottom of the shaft 2400 foot horizontal tunnel led directly beneath the peaks, then two raises to within 40 feet of each summit would be engineered. And from these raises bouquets of minor shafts, called coyotes would be drilled to hold the explosives. A contract was awarded for the tunneling work with almost $3 million. Plus of course the various studies in the supervision by the National Research Council and other federal departments. Removing the hazard a ripple rock was proving expensive. Three shifts of skilled miners worked around the clock and it would take them 28 months to tunnel and position the charges they needed to shatter and disperse enough rock to leave at least 40 feet clear at Lewis tide. To do this, they calculated they would need almost 2.8 million pounds of DuPont nitrile mix to h n a force set the engineers to launch them the Empire State Building vertically one mile. Once the exposes are in place, the tunnels and shafts were backfield at 931 On the morning of April the fifth 1958 PCs centennial year, Dr. Victor dodge, the senior consulting engineer pressed the button to detonate the largest non nuclear engineer explosion in history. Live on TV, coast to coast and watched by millions. The cloud of steam and rock reached 1000 feet before subsiding. Incidentally, both the Russians and the Chinese have disputed our claim to the biggest explosion. But let's not dwell on that. This was the last set of soundings run just prior to the blast. And immediately afterwards, a hydrographic vessel was again dispatched to run the echo sounder over river rock. There was now a minimum depth of water of 69 feet over the northern Pinnacle and 47 feet over the southern one. The explosion had been successful. Over 700,000 tons of rock had been removed from the double Pinnacle and without personal injury or damage to property. edition six of the BC pilot and sailing directions published the year after the demolition read. This hit the two dangerous Shoal with two heads lying north and south of each other. Nearly one cable apart in the southern part of Seymour narrows, was successfully blasted in April 1958 and has ceased to be a navigational hazard and our photo taken a few weeks after the event. We can see a flooding tide still creating turbulence downstream. Oops. Turbulence downstream. While significantly less than before the blast the hazard of Seymour narrows for shipping, but not yet eliminated. Many smaller vessels and especially those overladen fishing boats continued to come to grief. misjudging the back end is in whirlpools and not just watercraft. Before the mining project could begin electrical power was needed on one island. A 3000 foot span of high tension aerial power line had to be suspended from Wilfred point out Oh With a busy narrows, it had to leave 160 feet clear of for shipping at high water. Six attempts it took to toe the line across the turbulent waters. On the third. The towing had succeeded and the linesman started to winch the line taut, but suddenly

Speaker 2 30:24
beaver floatplane flying close to the mod Island shore hit the cable. It severed it before a crash landing in the water. The pilot and passenger fortunately, were rescued before the beaver sank. On their sixth try, the cable crew managed to winch the span up and taught. Despite the pruning of the Twin Fangs of ripple rock, and the Ministry of Tourism, declaring ripple rock to be just another roadside attraction. It's parallel persisted. Now I'm sure Halleck you still looked in the depths of Seymour narrows on the last day of June 1984. The 17,500 ton luxury cruise ship the Sundancer sailed from Vancouver, North bound to Alaska. Skirting mod Island at midnight on an ebbing tide. The pilot misjudged his course, the captain ordered the hem helms swung hard over to no avail. powerfeed powerful Eddie's swirling around rippled rock, forced the vessel to Sideswipe the islands. rocky shore. Sundancer was hauled amidships, listening and taking on water, the vessel managed to limp into Duncan Bay, and tie up to the wooden dock of a pulp mill.

Speaker 2 31:50
Under a falling tide, Sundancer sank, demolishing the dock in the process. All passengers and crew managed to disembark but the ship and the dock with total write ups. Last September, I took a mini cruise aboard the Columbia three and this was a digital GPS display in the wheelhouse just as we passed over a ripple rock and in close up. We then went ashore and climbed up mod Island and we discovered an old mineshaft and here I am pointing do west out across the narrows to Wilfred point and bringing the story of charting ripple rock bang up to date. This is a multibeam digital image of the Narrows. And today in the foyer of the Victoria conference center, there's a totem pole by quack quack quack cava and Robert hunt. At its base is a mythical halibut. It serves to remind us of the spirit of turbulent waters, that spirit spirit remains ready to mete out sudden punishment to the unaware to the careless or to those who might pass over its domain lacking respect. Maybe we have the light to please