Queen of the North
 The Queen of the North in May 1980
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The Queen of the North was a ferry of the Canadian shipping company BC Ferries , which was in service on the coast of British Columbia between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert . The ferry was built in 1969 as Stena Danica in the AG Weser shipyard in Bremerhaven and then went into service for the Swedish Stena Line before it went to BC Ferries as Queen of Surrey in 1974 . The name was changed to Queen of the North in 1980.
On the night of March 21-22, 2006, the Queen of the North ran aground off Gil Island with 101 people on board and sank. Two passengers were killed in the accident.
history
Stena Danica (1969–1974)
The Stena Danica was built under construction number 934 in the AG Weser shipyard in Bremerhaven and was launched on February 16, 1969. After the takeover by Stena Line on June 28, 1969, the ship was officially christened on June 30 by Inger Nilsson in her role as Pippi Longstocking and used on July 1 on the route from Gothenburg to Frederikshavn .
Queen of Surrey (1974-1980)
The Stena Danica spent almost five years in the service of the Stena Line before she was sold in April 1974 as Queen of Surrey to the Canadian shipping company BC Ferries for use in the Strait of Georgia . On August 1, 1974, the ship began service between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo .
After the service between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo had proven uneconomical for the Queen of Surrey , it was launched in 1975 . After five years of unused lay time, the ship was converted and from then on had cabins for up to 208 people. However, the ferry never got back under its old name. On its old route, a new building was put into service in May 1981, which was also named Queen of Surrey .
Queen of the North (1980-2006)
In May 1980, the Queen of Surrey was renamed Queen of the North and from then on she was deployed annually from spring to autumn in the Inside Passage between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert. If necessary, the ship also served the route from Prince Rupert to the small Haida community of Skidegate on Graham Island . The main route of the Queen of the North in the Inside Passage was especially popular with tourists during the summer months.
2001 the ship received a modernization in Vancouver .
Downfall
In the late evening hours of March 21, 2006, the Queen of the North was on another crossing off Gil Island, about 135 nautical miles from Port Rupert. With 101 people on board, the ship ran aground while changing course and sank stern first about an hour after the collision in the early morning of the following day. The exact time of the sinking is controversial and is given both as 12:25 a.m. and 12:43 a.m. local time.
99 passengers and crew members were able to be brought to safety with the lifeboats and with the help of ships and helicopters of the Canadian Coast Guard . Two passengers were killed in the sinking, their bodies were not found. The wreck of the Queen of the North is in position 53 ° 20 ' N , 129 ° 15' W .
The cause of the sinking was found to be human error due to a navigation error. Several officers and the Queen of the North's helmsman on watch have been released or sentenced to prison terms.
Web links
- Course of the accident on popularmechanics.com (English)
- Entry about the ship in the German blog of Stena Line
- the ship on faktaomfartyg.se (Swedish)
Individual evidence
- ^ Ian Boyle: Stena Danica. In: simplonpc.co.uk. Retrieved April 26, 2019 .
- ↑ John Hammersmark: Queen of the North. In: westcoastferries.ca. March 12, 2008, accessed April 26, 2019 .