Welders have begun
sinking their torches into the Flamborough Head, an iconic piece of North
Vancouver’s wartime history, say heritage advocates who are still waiting to
see part of the ship preserved as a permanent monument.
City councillors
voted months ago to scrap the last remaining “Victory Ship” built at Burrard
Dry Dock during the Second World War, but Peter Miller, the president of the
North Shore Heritage Preservation Society, said the city is staying mum on what
it plans to spare from the scrapyard.
The relic was once
intended to be part of a proposed National Maritime Centre on the North Van
waterfront, but that project faded after the economic recession in 2008.
Despite a fight to save the stern - all that now remains of the Flamborough
Head - councillors determined salvaging the ship was too expensive.
“When we lost the
fight to keep the thing, we were promised that a section of it would be kept as
a permanent monument at the site and we see no indication of any particular
piece being kept,” said Miller.
He said he had
envisioned a section of the stern, the propellor and the deck housing being
saved so the Flamborough Head would still be somewhat recognizable in the
monument.
City staff did not
immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
A fact sheet from
the society said that North Van shipyards built most of the 255 Victory Ships
that were made in British Columbia during the Second World War. The Victory
Ships were built to replace Allied ships sunk by German submarines during the
Second World War.
The Flamborough
Head was launched from Burrard Dry Dock May 2, 1944, and used as a maintenance
ship by the British Navy. It was later sold back to the Royal Canadian Navy and
renamed the Cape Breton. It was 135 metres long, had a speed of 11 knots (20
kph) and a crew of 445.
Source: vancouver
sun. 20 June 2014.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Work+begins+scrapping+historic+North+Vancouver+ship+stern/9960821/story.html
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