Winter 2024 | Issue No.10
qMAS Quarterly A quarterly newsletter with updates on museum going-ons and history tidbits!
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Hulks: The Concrete Ships - 2 Meet the Team - 4 Website Spotlight - 5 Featured Books - 6 A Poem from the Archives - 7 The Collection Project - 8 Upcoming at qMAS - 9
Welcome to the Re-Brand Last year in August, we announced something huge: the qathet Museum would be getting a new logo. It had been on our to-do list for a while - ever since we’d been renamed in 2022 - and it was finally happening. We really wanted the public to be a part of this process, so we invited the public to submit design ideas, and to vote on which one they liked best. After an exciting voting period in November, the public had spoken and the choice was made. A few little tweaks had to be made to make the new logo perfect, and early 2024 is when the reveal will occur. It’s hugely exciting, and we have to thank Grant Hooper for designing it.
To stay up to date, follow us @qathetMuseum on
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Hulks: The Concrete Ships Ships for War and a Breakwater by Devan Gillard, Reception and Administrative Assistant The Hulks are a known presence on the horizon of Powell River, but why were they brought here? The breakwater was put in place to form the log pond. These ships were seen as hardier for the weather of the mill’s location and cheaper than a rock breakwater (Campbell, 5-6), but there’s more to the story than that.
Drifting Concrete In 1930, the first of the Hulks arrived in Powell River after the Powell River Company took possession of two decommissioned World War I vessels, the Charleston and Huron (Campbell, 12-13). These first two ships had steel hulls, but four concrete freighters were added in 1944. These four ships were nicknamed “the freaks” (Hacking). During the First World War, the Portland Cement Association marketed the benefits of concrete ships as fireproof, rat proof, rust proof, easier to maintain, and cheaper than steel, according to their pamphlet (Campbell, 49). A steel shortage during the war also made it economical to explore the possibility of concrete ships (Campbell, 48). These concrete ships were produced en masse during both WWI and WWII. Despite the claims of the concrete companies, during the Second World War
Aerial view of breakwater | 2007.50.13066
Postcard of breakwater from 1942 | PC000162
concrete vessels proved to more difficult and less efficient to build than traditional steel. It was then decided that, while the ships had a place in war when steel was in short supply, they would never truly replace steel ships (Rowland, 77). Concrete ships were then deemed a war-time experiment and while suitable for maritime conflict, their weight in relation to their size made them inefficient over steel ships, a fact that made them excellent breakwaters (Campbell, 5-6).
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Raising of the Malaspina circa 1951 | 2007.50.N09930
Cement anchors being placed into the log pond circa 1945 | 2007.50.07845
The Test of Time Over the years, there have been a total of 19 ships making up the floating breakwater for the mill. The nine ships that remain today have been there for over 75 years. As the vessels got older, the Powell River Company did frequent maintenance on the boats. Tony Taulbut recollected in People of the White City that in the summer the yard crew used to swap the
water ballasting the boats, and complete fixes on the hulls. “[We’d] pump it out of the ballast tank into another, and maybe overboard, some of it [to get the hulks] floating just right… We did patchwork on the hulks too… If [the damage] was inside, we went in and the carpenters came and put some forms in and we’d pour cement in there and patch it all up.” (People of the White City, p. 143). In 1949 one of the ships, the steel ship the Malaspina, sunk in its spot right by the dock. It was refloated in 1951 (Campbell, 40). The remaining Hulks now show evidence of their exposure to the elements for those long decades. They are covered in rust and some have their reinforcing bar exposed; some have moss, grass, and small bushes growing on their decks. One solution to the breakwater is to recycle the remaining ships into an artificial reef. Four of the ships were selected as potentials for reefing and one of the hulks, YoGN-82, was sunk in front of Willingdon Beach on June 23rd 2018 (Artificial Reef Society). The sinking was completed by the Artificial Reef Society of BC and has become a diving attraction on the sea floor. With the Mill closed the future of the Hulks remains uncertain, but for now they are a popular kayaking attraction and a reminder of times past.
Sources on Page 7.
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qMAS’ New Reception & Admin Assistant Devan Gillard
In December, qMAS welcomed a new Reception and Admin. Assistant, Devan Gillard. A little bit about Devan… Devan grew up on Vancouver Island spending her early childhood in Port Hardy before moving to Courtenay. Devan later moved to Victoria and earned a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in History and English at UVic, graduating in 2020. Prior to moving to Powell River, Devan had several retail jobs including being a manager at the Home Depot in Courtenay. Devan also spent six months as a Collections Assistant at the Rossland Museum and Discovery Centre.
Devan pictured in front of the British Museum in August of 2022
She is particularly interested in expanding local and tourist interest in the museum and working with local businesses and artists to create a gift shop reflective of the qathet region. Currently, Devan is working on the ongoing collections project and is helping get the museum ready to be opened come spring. Devan enjoys travelling, photography, and plays hockey. Devan spent her summers growing up on the Sunshine Coast and looks forward to learning more about the qathet region.
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Website Spotlight by Mary Williams, Assistant Curator
Going Live on January 15th, 2023
A website is crucial to connecting with visitors, to helping people find everything they could need to know about the qathet Museum. There is a fine line that must be walked. An unfriendly website would be nothing more than a quagmire of information users must struggle to wade through. Our website, while welcoming and informative, has always contained more information than meets the eye. Users have missed resources. Staff have definitely bemoaned the restrictions our host, Weebly, enforced. The dream of having the gift shop online was forced to forever be a dream. But not anymore. The qathet Museum & Archives is happy to launch their new website. It’s still the same URL, qathetmuseum.ca, but it’s got a whole new look and a whole new basket of functionality. Some things might still be changed here and there, and we’re definitely open to user feedback on how it can be even better. The new website is sleek, stylish, and full of great information about qathet’s history.
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Featured Books Memories of the Mill A Memoir Anthology
$35.00 This anthology was created in partnership with the Powell River Public Library and First Credit Union. It records a number of stories and memories from former Mill employees, written in their own words. This book is a limited run, so once all copies are sold, they're gone!
Texada Tapestry Heather Harbord $24.95 Texada is the largest island in the Strait of Georgia, a long strip of richly mineralized granite and limestone dividing the upper gulf. Travel time from Vancouver is six hours via three ferries. A newcomer's first impression is of an idyllic place with a big sandy beach, a Sunday farmer's market and a scant population of aging loggers, miners, pot-growers and other retirees, but this belies Texada's intriguing history.
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A Poem from the Archives . . . 1987.164.2903.c
This is a framed poem written by Lucy Young.
“To Goldie” Mountain flowers so cool and sweet Stays so calm in summer’s heat. So fragile, yet to have the strength, To also endure the winter’s length. It seems a mystery that you do, And I am always pleased to gaze upon you. The birds that come seem to have no fear, From those who choose to wander here. Your beauty will grace the mountainside, For by the rules of nature you abide.
ARTICLE SOURCES Campbell, John A. Hulks: The Breakwater Ships of Powell River. Works Publishing, 2003. Hacking, Norm. “Old Ships Still Serve- as Breakwaters.” On the Waterfront . Levez, Emma. People of the White City: Stories from the Powell River Mill. NorskeCanada, Powell River Division, 2002. Rowland, Dorthy Anne. “THE HISTORY OF GALVESTON’S CONCRETE SHIPS.” Texas A&M University, 2018, p. 77. “Yogn-82.” Artificial Reefs ARSBC, artificialreefsocietybc.ca/yogn-82.html. Accessed 18 Jan. 2024.
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The Collection Project By Assistant Curators Mary & Ava As of January 1st, 2024, we closed our doors to the public temporarily until further notice. This wasn’t an easy choice for staff to make, but it was a necessary one. The project to re-organize the collection and install mobile shelving had a slow start. A very slow start. In the first month, staff had only managed to pack and move 2% of the collection. As we have a fixed deadline for when we have to be back in our collection room with the new shelving installed, we knew we had to make some changes. It was going to take a massive number of man hours to get it done. Additional help was hired to help speed things up. Thanks so much to extra project staff Graeme, Paul, Iftach, Brandon, Heidi, and volunteer Rita. Even with the packing phase now complete, there is still much to be done. As running the museum, planning programs, and keeping up an online presence all requires a lot of staff time, we had to face reality. Something had to give. This is what led staff to the decision to close to the public (and cancel programs) starting in January 2024.
It’s hoped that we’ll be able to open up again in a few months, but for now we’re not making any promises and keeping closed.
Background Our collection hit over capacity in 2021, and years of rotating staff led to some discontinuity in collections organization, a common challenge for most museums. By doing this massive project, not only will we be gaining more usable storage space in our collection room, but we’ll also be able address preservation and storage needs for each artifact one at a time. By the end of the project, our artifacts will be receiving excellent care, and our database records will be so thorough we’ll know everything (or almost everything) there is to know about each item. Staff looks forward to the more efficient workflow they’ll get, and the public should look forward to the exciting ideas we have for programming and display once everything is done.
Upcoming at qMAS TDB - Logo Unveiling Party TBD - Museum Reopening to the Public TBD - Special Collection Event TBD - Summer Program Guide Released
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info@qathetmuseum.ca 604-485-2222 www.qathetmuseum.ca