Tall ship Robertson II runs aground

by Oak Bay News & Sail-World on 7 Jul 2007 The Robertson II, a Nova Scotia Dory fishing schooner, a 130-foot ship well-known in the waters around Victoria, Canada ran aground on a reef at Winter Cove on the northwest edge of the island last Saturday. By July 4, the ship was still on the rocks waiting to be saved.

The crew of the Robertson II was planning to have a festive Canada Day celebration. They were going to the annual lamb bake on Saturna Island, a celebration which draws hundreds of visitors to the southeastern Gulf Island.
Instead, they ran aground.

'We were devastated,' said Shelagh Guild. 'The Robertson II is such a fixture of this coast.'

Guild was nearby, aboard her partner’s 40-foot power boat, when the schooner went ground. Guild’s partner Luke Wedge woke up around 2 a.m. on the Sunday morning to get a glass of water.

A former ferry captain, Wedge noticed some disconcerting sounds across the water. A boat engine was revving and it sounded like it was trying to reverse. It was dark, but when Wedge peered across the water he could see the lights of a ship in the same area as a well-known, dangerous reef. It was high tide.

In the light of dawn, it was clear the ship had not made it off the reef. It was tipped slightly on its side. By the time the tide was out, the ship was completely on its side and taking on water.

It was also clear the troubled vessel was the Robertson II – Guild and Wedge knew it well.

The Oak Bay couple first heard about the old sailing ship in the mid-1970s when it came to Victoria from the East Coast. Guild says many kids learned how to sail on the Robertson while it was owned by the Sail and Life Training Society in Victoria, better known as S.A.L.T.S.

S.A.L.T.S operated the Robertson II from 1974 to 1995 when she was retired from service as a sail training vessel and sold to Atlantic and Pacific Fisheries. restoration work

Luke Wedge’s son, Bruce Damer, was also aboard on Sunday morning. He met two crew members from the Robertson as they were bringing wet gear on to the wharf at Winter Cove around 10 or 11 a.m. The crew told Damer that just before the accident they realized the ship was on the wrong side of the harbour. The captain was turning the boat around when they struck the reef, Damer was told.

'They were pretty depressed,' he said.

By that time, the coast guard and RCMP were on the scene. Also a seiner with a crane was trying to help the Robertson get off the rocks.

'The deck seemed to be warped, which suggests structural damage,' said Damer.

There’s still hope the ship will be floated out, said Don Bate, communication officer for the Canadian Coast Guard. The ship’s owner is working with the coast guard, and they are still assessing the damage.

The Robertson II will have to be patched up, Bate said, adding everyone involved right now is of the opinion 'it will not be sunk.'