Hauling logs and lumber via ship in the Alberni Inlet has not been without its mishaps over the past century.
Sometime around 1930 the S.S. City of Victoria, fully loaded with lumber, heeled over to its port side while in the Alberni Harbour. The incident was captured on film by community photographer Joseph Clegg.
The S.S. City of Victoria was a cargo vessel built in 1920 by J. Coughlin and Sons Ltd., and owned and operated by British Columbia Steamships Ltd.
The ship crossed the Pacific to Japan via Portland and Astoria, returning to the port of Vancouver. There are logbooks from one such trip between January and April 1922 that are preserved at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.
The S.S. City of Victoria’s service as a cargo vessel ended in the summer of 1935, according to records with the Vancouver Maritime Museum: the ship was stranded at Yerimo Zaki, Hokkaido Island, Japan.
Clegg’s black and white photo of the ship listing to port is one of 24,000 contained in the Alberni Valley Museum’s digital archives. To search photos of iconic and everyday scenes from the past century, go online to https://portalberni.pastperfectonline.com.