Campbell River Maritime Heritage Centre
THE BCP 45 - A Brief History
The BCP 45 was built in 1927 as a table seiner by Vancouver's Burrard Shipyards for Packer's Steamship Co, better known as B.C. Packers. She was built with Douglas Fir planking, Oak gunnels and capping with cedar for top planking. It's 3-blade prop was originally powered by Yuba 50 HP (later a 80 HP Vivian replaced the Yuba which in turn was replaced by a 165 HP Detroit Diesel). The 45 was manually steered for her whole career. With a 47 foot keel and an overall length of 53 feet its carrying capacity was 5,000 sockeye. In the early days she had a 6-man crew. Later she was changed to a hydraulic boat and the crew was reduced to 5. She was capable of staying at sea for a 5 day troll or a 4 day seine in inside waters.
In the beginning, the BCP 45 was used for catching salmon from June until November, and herring from November to March. April and May were the months set aside for maintenance and refit. It spent half of its life in Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island as its homeport. The vessel fished from the Fraser River near Vancouver to the Alaska border.
The vessel rose to fame in 1958 when it was photographed during the Sockeye season near Ripple Point, located just north of Campbell River. The photograph appeared on the cover of the Toronto Star's Sunday magazine but rose to greater prominence when the Bank of Canada used the image on the back of the $5 bill between 1973 to 1986. The skipper at the time the photo was taken was the late Mel Assu with crew members Andy Dick, Fred Seville, Ron Forrest, Allen Chickite and Allen Mearns.
In 1986 the BCP 45 was invited to be a special guest of Expo 86 in Vancouver. Captain Allen "Ollie" Chickite brought her to this event and spent his days answering numerous questions about her past and his evenings sleeping on one of her cramped bunks. As one of 185 exhibits, thousands of people walked her decks and McLean's Magazine rated her #6 out of the 185 exhibits.
In 1996, representatives from HRDC, a branch of the Federal Government, walked her decks while they toured Discovery Passage. They visited the area to see if they could help displaced fishermen. At the end of the tour, Allen "Ollie" Chickite (the last captain) and Alvin "Bear" Scow (great nephew of the first captain, Chief Johnny Scow of Guilford Island) presented Marcel Nouveau and his Associates from Ottawa with three large framed pictures of the BCP 45 with the famous Five Dollar bill inserted.
After 68 years of service as a salmon seiner, troller, gillneter, beam trawller and tow-off for the winter herring, the BCP 45 was retired from industry in 1996. She was then donated to the BC Maritime Museum in Vancouver where she sat for 6 years. Thanks to the Daybreak Rotary Club of Campbell River, she then returned home on June 8, 2002 to the waters of Campbell River where she made her living and was immortalized in that historic photo. On October 24, 2002 the BCP 45 moved into its present location in the Campbell River Maritime Heritage Centre. She will settle into retirement as its centrepiece and will be restored to its 1958 configuration when the photo was taken.
Out of five identical table seiners built only two survive. One has been converted into a pleasure boat, three have sunk or been wrecked and the BCP 45 is located in the Maritime Heritage Centre.
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