The Van Anda Cairn

The cairn overlooking Van Anda Bay that commemorates the sinking

of the Union Steamship Cheslakee at the Van Anda Wharf in 1913.

For those with eyesight like mine, the plaque reads as below :

UNION STEAMSHIP CHESLAKEE TRAGEDY

Here the Union Steamship Cheslakee docked in the early hours of January 7, 1913. She started out for Powell River but fierce southeast winds made her list, causing deck cargo to shift and seas to enter open midship ports. Captain John Cockle returned to the wharf and put 90 people ashore, some heroically rescued by himself. The ship sank rapidly, drowning the cook, two loggers, a mother and her child, and two schoolteachers who would not leave their cabin improperly dressed. Some believe that anonymous loggers were also drowned, confined below deck.

The Cheslakee was salvaged and become the first west coast vessel to be “stretched” with a new centre section. It was renamed Union Steamship Cheakamus, served as a troop transport in W.W.II, and was scrapped in the late 1940’s.