Vancouver Maritime Museum

Ship Name: Sea Lion

Vital Statistics:
Length: 39.6 m (130’) Beam: 7 m (23’) Draft: 5.2 m (17’) Tonnage: 221 t
Hull: carvel 10 cm (4”) thick fir
Power source: original engine (1905) McKie and Baxter triple expansion marine steam engine, 52 HP; current engine (installed 1953) Enterprise 8 cylinder 800 HP
Built: Charles Robertson’s Shipyard, Vancouver, 1905

Charles Robertson’s shipyard, at the foot of Cardero Street (now the site of the Bayshore), launched Sea Lion into the waters of Vancouver’s Coal Harbour on May 25, 1905. Her keel, a one-piece, cut from a 120-foot long fir log, had been curing on the ways since 1904. Robertson built the tug for Captain George H. French, the first independent log tower to operate out of Vancouver.

What is the significance of Sea Lion?

First tug in BC to have ship-to-shore radio and a searchlight
Played a role in the dramatic story of the immigrant ship Komagata Maru
Made the first tow of a ‘Davis raft’ in BC
Struck a rock in the Yaculta Rapids (1930). The rock (Sea Lion Rocks) is named in memory of the event
Its whistle had a sliding scale, on which the crew could play songs
Still active 100 years after it was built

What was the Komagata Maru incident?
In May 1914, a group of 376 passengers - 340 Sikhs, 12 Hindus, and 24 Muslims, organized specifically to test Canada’s “colour bar” of exclusionary immigration policies, sailed from the Orient for Vancouver on the freighter Komagata Maru. The ship, chartered for the voyage, had been specially fitted out to accommodate passengers instead of her usual coal cargoes. Arriving in English Bay on May 23, 1914, Komagata Maru and her passengers were caught in a tug-of-war between the vessel’s organizers and the Canadian government, who refused to let them land. “We are British citizens and we consider we have a right to visit any part of the Empire,” said organizer Gurdit Singh. “We are determined to make this a test case and if we are refused entrance into your country, the matter will not end here.”

While hired immigration boats with armed guards – including Sea Lion - circled Komagata Maru, battles in the courts and the pages of the newspapers played out for more than two months. In the early morning hours of July 19, 1914, Sea Lion, with 35 specially deputized immigration officers, armed with rifles borrowed from the Seaforth Highlanders, and 125 Vancouver Police officers, approached Komagata Maru to force the vessel from Vancouver harbour. The enraged passengers aboard Komagata Maru resisted any effort to board their ship. Manning the rail, an armed group shouted and threatened to board the tug if she made fast. Nonetheless, Sea Lion’s captain brought her in close, grappled and then tied on to Komagata Maru. Passengers and police then battled as one man with an axe chopped at Sea Lion’s line. Finally, as a gunman aboard the ship opened fire on the tug, the line was cut and the tug retreated “looking as if it had run under a coal chute.”

The government’s answer was to send in the naval vessel HMCS Rainbow to evict Komagata Maru from the harbour at gunpoint. The ship finally sailed on July 23, escorted out by Rainbow and Sea Lion. The handling of the Komagata Maru affair was a major embarrassment for the Canadian government, as well as a cause celebre for the Indian community and India itself. The inequality of Canada’s immigration system, demonstrated by the voyage of the Komagata Maru, took many decades to be redressed.

What is a Davis raft?
Davis rafts enable a single tug to move a very large quantity of logs. During World War I, British Canadian Lumber Company introduced the concept of large log rafts, which was an innovation in towing that had first made its appearance on the east coast. These first rafts, known as “Davis rafts,” as they were built to the specifications of Bert Davis, superintendent of British Canadian’s Vancouver Island camp on the west coast of the island, were made in 1916. They were generally between 150 to 250 feet long, and were made “by weaving a mat of logs, chains and cables” into which loose logs were piled, and then the entire mass was cinched up tight and cabled into a cigar-shaped bundle that could be as long as 500 feet with 2.5 million board feet of lumber in them. Sea Lion is said to have made the first tow of a Davis raft from Quatsino Sound in 1916 – with Davis aboard to supervise.

Where is Sea Lion now?
The tug was modernized in 1957 when it went into Burrard Drydock for a refit and the replacement of the original steam plant with an 800-horsepower Enterprise diesel engine. In 1969, Sea Lion was converted into a private yacht and was later sold (1972) to Sea Lion Charters. Since then the tug has passed through several hands, working both fishing and oceanographic research charters. In late 2000 after undergoing extensive upgrading and refurbishing, Sea Lion grounded in Port Neville. Apparently going adrift from a float while moored, but still anchored, it sank when its bow grounded on the beach and it rolled over at low tide. The vessel was raised within 24 hours, but the flooding with seawater and diesel fuel had saturated the interior. The tug was sold at auction to the current owner, Living Planet Experiences, Un-Limited, of Calgary. Sea Lion can be seen at the Vancouver Maritime Museum’s Heritage Harbour.

For more information:
All about Sikhs http://allaboutsikhs.com/events/komagatu.htm
Johnston, Hugh J.M. The Voyage of the Komagata Maru: the Sikh Challenge to Canada's Colour Bar. Delhi: Oxford University Press. 1979.

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