Raincoast Chronicles 18

Where land meets sea, strange things happen, and most of them end up as stories. Like new driftlogs on a gravel beach, nine of the best are gathered here in issue number eighteen of the bestselling Raincoast Chronicles series. From a study of log barging on the BC coast to a controversial essay on who really shelled the Cape Estevan lighthouse in 1942, this latest compilation delivers an interesting and compelling portrait of BC's maritime history. Meet Al Trice, Don Sorte and Mack Thomson - three eccentric scuba divers who can't or won't recognize an impossible task when they see one - who succeed in building one of the world's first commercial mini-subs with no capital and even less experience in the back of a mushroom warehouse; Claus Botel, who arrived with his family at their preemption on the remote northern end of Vancouver Island from Germany in 1913, with no idea of the incredible hardships that lay ahead; gyppo logger "Svendson" who artfully dodges a cadaverous tax collector in 1919; Hal Dahlie, who at sixteen decided to take a summer job at the coast's most isolated light station with an old keeper who was more than a little strange; and fisherman Hank McBride who recalls the 1930s and '40s at Namu where romances blossomed, booze flowed and fighting was an integral part of life during the golden days of the mid-coast canneries. Edited by publisher and writer Howard White, with stories by Tom Henry, Vickie Jensen, David Conn, Michael Skog, Dick Hammond and many others, Raincoast Chronicles Eighteen continues the series' twenty-five-year legacy of entertaining and delighting readers everywhere with its eclectic variety of west coast lore.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Howard White Pisces Ascending: The Little Sub that Could Tom Henry and Ken Dinsley In the early 1960s, when Al Trice, Don Sorte and Mack Thomson went shopping for a submersible for their seat-of-the-pants diving and salvage business, they discovered that corporate giants like Grumman, Lockheed, Westinghouse Electric and General Dynamics were spending millions to develop commercial subs, but none was close to being on the market. With no capital and less experience, Trice, Sorte and Thomson's answer was to build their own. Svendson and the Tax Man Dick Hammond In about 1919, when an official of the federal government arrives in Pender Harbour looking to collect taxes from an A-frame logger, he gets a lot more than he bargained for. More gumboot hijinks from master storyteller Dick Hammond, author of Tales From Hidden Basin. Who Shot Estevan Light? A Traditionalist Returns Fire Douglas Hamilton There is no doubt that someone shelled BC's tallest lighthouse in 1942. Some say it was a Japanese submarine. Others suggest it was a covert operation undertaken by the federal government to unite Canada behind the war effort. Lasqueti Island writer Douglas Hamilton says they're all wet. Light at the End of the World: Cape St. James, 1941 Hallvard Dahlie For sixteen-year-old Hal Dahlie, it was either stay in town and scrape barnacles or take a stint at the coast's most isolated light station with an old keeper who was more than a little strange. Dahlie chose the light and is still talking about it 50 years later. Claus Carl Daniel Botel, West Coast Patriarch Ruth Botel Claus Botel found things very different than advertised when he arrived at his homestead on northern Vancouver Island in 1913, with his wife, nine children (one a newborn infant) and all their belongings. Booting the Big Ones Home: Log Barging on the BC Coast, 1922-1998 David R. Conn For years, rough seas kept coastal loggers from getting some of the best wood to the mills. But gradually, they found a way. His World Turned Upside-Down Duane Noyes "The rusty iron crypt in which he was imprisoned now lay fifty feet deep in the frigid waters of Neroutsos Inlet, and the only way out - if there was a way out - was down." A survivor's account of what it feels like to have a 2,200-ton log barge turn over on top of you. They Don't Make 'Em Any More Department: Fisherman Hank McBride Michael Skog McBride recalls the 1930s and '40s at Namu where romances blossomed, booze flowed, and fighting was an integral part of life during the golden days of the mid-coast canneries. Under Fire and Under Pressure: West Coast Shipbuilders in World War II Vickie Jensen with Arthur McLaren The steel shipbuilding industry in British Columbia has undergone plenty of ups and downs, but the most powerful impact on the industry was World War 11. In 1941, Arthur McLaren went to work at West Coast Shipbuilders in False Creek. He was one of 25,000 British Columbians involved in building 225 10,000 ton steel "Fort" and "Park" freighters for the war effort. He recalls those days in this collaborative work with marine writer Vickie Jensen.

About the Author :
Howard White was born in 1945 in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He was raised in a series of camps and settlements on the BC coast and never got over it. He is still to be found stuck barnacle-like to the shore at Pender Harbour, BC. He started Raincoast Chronicles and Harbour Publishing in the early 1970s and his own books include A Hard Man to Beat (bio), The Men There Were Then (poems), Spilsbury's Coast (bio), The Accidental Airline (bio), Patrick and the Backhoe (childrens'), Writing in the Rain (anthology) and The Sunshine Coast (travel). He was awarded the Canadian Historical Association's Career Award for Regional History in 1989. In 2000, he completed a ten-year project, The Encyclopedia of British Columbia. He has been awarded the Order of BC, the Canadian Historical Association's Career Award for Regional History, the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, the Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award and a Honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from the University of Victoria. In 2007, White was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has twice been runner-up in the Whisky Slough Putty Man Triathlon.