❖ Tug LORNE's Career Ended ❖

The Marine Digest, September, 1937.

Tug LORNE

Marking the passing of another historic North Pacific vessel, the tug LORNE is in the hands of the wreckers at the B.C. Marine Engineering & Shipbuilding yards. She was purchased recently for scrapping by the Shaffer-Haggert Co. Built in Victoria, the LORNE was one of those vessels whose names became household words in Puget Sound and B. C.
      At one time the LORNE was a unit in the fleet of James Griffiths & Sons of Seattle.
      In her long career, the LORNE had few mishaps. Only one serious accident is recalled by old timers. That occurred on 14 August 1914, when the LORNE was towing the Griffiths barge  AMERICA from Seattle to Vancouver, B. C., the barge being loaded with coal brought here from the East. In a dense fog both vessels piled up on the rocks of Kanaka Bay [on San Juan Island, WA.] Later the LORNE was pulled off and repaired [1917.] The barge AMERICA was the former sailing ship AMERICA, once commanded by the late Capt. I. S. Gibson.
      Reviewing the long and useful career of the LORNE, the City of Vancouver, in a recent issue said:
"The LORNE, a wooden-hull vessel, 151-ft long, was built in Victoria in 1889 for the Dunsmuir interests. All her life she worked on the B. C./WA. coast. At the time of her launching she was the finest vessel ever built at Victoria, and her triple compound engines were the last word in power.
      "For nearly 50 years she has given fine service, being employed during the last decade as a unit of the Pacific (Coyle) Navigation Co. fleet.
      The LORNE's first master was Capt. James Christiansen of Victoria, historic figure in early development. He was a trader, scaler, tug master, and finally one of the first of the B. C. Coast pilots. He was succeeded as master of the tug by his son James who a few years later, when in command of the steamer ESTELLE, was lost with all hands in a gale off Cape Mudge.
      The roster of the commanders and deck officers of the LORNE would include the names of many of the finest of the veteran masters and pilots now employed on this coast.
      Her first engine-room lord was Chief Engineer James Fowler, later master mechanic for the Dunsmuir interests at the mines and on shore. Samuel Randall was once her master; Capt. L. P. Locke who was drowned with his command, the PRINCESS SOPHIA, served on her, in his time.
      But the LORNE is gone now––sold for scrapping.
      So drops the curtain on British Columbia's most famous towboat, a vessel known to thousands in Puget Sound. If the world's a stage, the LORNE is a vessel that played her part well and honorably."