The Union Steamship Company served communities along the West Coast up until they were supplanted by airplanes and small motor boats in 1956. Few would have guessed that as little as a generation earlier, when they were still the main way of transporting people and supplies. In the conclusion of her segment about the Union Steamship company, Lynne Jordan talks about the company’s twilight years.
Continue reading Twilight of the Union SteamshipsWhen the Union Steamship company started operations, in 1889, there was a single ship servicing Burrard Inlet. Three years later they expanded their market to include the canneries, logging camps and small communities springing up along the coast. The first reference to a ship stopping in Whaletown is found in an 1899 edition of the VANCOUVER PROVINCE.
Continue reading The Union Steamships arrive in Whaletown
National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
It’s marvellously symbolic that Nick the humpback whale returns year after year with her offspring to the waters surrounding the Discovery Islands, wedged between B.C.’s remote central coast and Vancouver Island.
She frequents the waters off Cortes Island near Whaletown — once a whaling station and rendering plant set up in 1868 as part of a colonial industry that eradicated humpbacks in the waters off eastern Vancouver Island by the early 20th century.
Continue reading Discovery Islands surfacing as a humpback hot spotBC Ferries has announced that, thanks to $1.5 million in funding from provincial government grant, they have been able to provide WiFi in an additinal 14 small terminals. Whaletown and Heriot Bay are among them.
Daniel McIntosh, Communications manager with BC Ferries explained, “Now they will be able to access WiFI at the terminal. Previously they would have had to either pick up a signal from somewhere or use the roaming feature. So now when folks are waiting at the terminal, they should be able to access WiFi at that terminal free of charge.”
Continue reading BC Ferries provides WiFi Access at Whaletown and Heriot Bay terminals
Cortes Kayaks bioluminescence tours have been setting out from Mansons Lagoon every Friday and Saturday for the past month.
There were about a dozen people in our group, which was mostly composed of off islanders from Vancouver, Victoria or the Cowichan Valley. The only experienced kayakers were our guides, Jolaine Boucher and Maria Francis. However most of the group had some experience and the only rookie was me.
Continue reading Experiencing Bioluminescence with Cortes Kayaks
