Her withdrawal coincided with the building of a railway along the coast, an area that had depended on her for service. In 1955 all sailings were cancelled during July and August due to a labour dispute and Lady Cynthia never sailed again. Bryant and Dola – all different types of vessel. Casualties during her 30-year career included collisions with Cowichan, Princeton No.1, A. among other landings serviced by her “sister” ship. In summer of 1925 Lady Cynthia sailed from Montrose to Canada via the Panama Canal and on 20 th August arrived at the Union Pier in Vancouver where she was greeted by the clamour of whistles and bells from ships and factories.ĭuring the summer months, ports of call included Bowen Island, Anvil Island, Porteau, Britannia, Woodfibre and Squamish etc. The former vessel was fitted with twin Ross & Duncan triple expansion engines and two boilers manufactured by Galloways Ltd. Both ships were 949-ton gross with a length of 219 feet. Lady Cynthia was “born” out of HMS Barnstaple in 1924-25 while Lady Cecilia was converted from HMS Swindon around the same period. Her career was somewhat blemished by a reputation for ramming and sinking other ships, with this habit probably befitting her Admiralty origins. The Lady Cynthia, the last of the Union Company’s day steamers to retire, served on the British Columbia coast from 1925-55. In order to provide the largest possible space for the accommodation of passengers and at the same time to give full protection to the vessels, which in service, called at a large number of ports where some of them had awkwardly situated landing stages, an unusual type of sponson was fitted on the sides of the ships. on Rossie Island, Montrose for the coastal services of the Union Steamship Company of British Columbia Ltd. They were completely refitted at the yard of the Coaster Construction Co. with Yard Numbers 298 and 299.įinished too late to serve the purpose for which they had originally been designed, it was decided to sell them off and convert them into passenger day steamers. They were products of Ardrossan Dockyard Ltd.

At the naming of a passenger day steamer converted from a World War One minesweeper, the main speaker at the ceremony quoted the Biblical phrase describing the ship Lady Cynthia and her “sister” Lady Cecilia, as having, “turned swords into ploughshares.” It was felt the saying to be appropriate as both vessels had been built and completed in 1919 as twin-screw minesweepers of the “Town” class, namely HMS Barnstaple and HMS Swindon.

Origin of minesweeper