Excerpted from The Uchuck Years by David Esson Young...
"Found syrup is too cold for stars tonight." This reminded me that we had been practicing taking star sights with a sextant but were having difficulty because we were at the wharf in Zeballos where we had no horizon to work with. To make an artificial horizon, we tried using a pan of water, but because the surface rippled in the slight breeze, we couldn't see the reflection of the star. Then we tried corn syrup, but it was too cold that night and the syrup wouldn't level itself properly.
About 'The Uchuck Years"...
On the wild west coast of Vancouver Island, those days still exist, as
this book reveals in vivid detail. Relating the trials and tribulations
of what surely must be the last of Canada's historic coastal shipping
lines, The Uchuck Years is a rare first-person account by an old salt
who owned and captained his own vessels. Enduring for sixty-five years,
the company that came to be known as Nootka Sound Service Limited is
still in operation to this day, though David Young no longer owns it and
has recently sworn off serving as skipper even in a relief capacity.
Initially serving the communities of Ucluelet and Bamfield, the company
refocused its efforts when Highway 28 was punched through the mountains
from Campbell River to Gold River in 1959. Logging and mining camp
bosses farther up coast in the Nootka Sound and Kyuquot areas were
convinced of the company's usefulness, allowing it to move its service
farther north along the remote West Coast. The four company vessels--all
named Uchuck--have hauled passengers and freight ranging from the more
usual outpost supplies to broken aircraft, totem poles and, more
recently, kayaks and camping gear for eco-touring expeditions. Every day
is an adventure on the Uchuck and the ships have been called upon
countless times to perform boat rescue and other emergency support.
Young's gripping first-hand accounts of stormy passages through waters
once known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific" are interspersed with his
anecdotes about the colourful boss loggers and hermits who make this
storm-tossed but incredibly scenic wilderness one of coastal BC's most
fascinating places. The Uchuck Years is transportation history par
excellence, a great seafaring yarn and an important history of one of
BC's most charismatic regions.
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