Dominion I rests between tug and barge – Cowichan Bay
Update: June 15 2013:
New reports indicate that the tow is scheduled to leave Cowichan Bay around midnight Friday June 21.
—
Read the Saga of the Dominion I here.
—
There’s a big tugboat in the bay today and it’s possibly here to take one of our nautical landmarks away for good.
The Dominion I, the vessel everyone has either tried to love, hate or ignore entirely has been moved from it’s old spot on the loading pier and now sits alongside the large ex-military tug.
The tug belongs to an American businessman who, if memory serves, intends to tow the former fishing factory ship to Mexico for dismantling. There is also a former US Marines work shop barge in the bay, and a former tourist vessel and replica of the steamship “Beaver”, these apparently also to be put on the towline and headed to the same scrapyard.
Of course we have heard this sort of thing before. Previous potential purchasers, one who suggested the vessel might serve as a pocket freighter in European waters, have made plans and then abandoned them. Still, the vessel has actually been taken in hand as it were and work appears to be ongoing.
Rumor has it that the entire project is operating on a margin of just 4 cents a pound, that being the difference between making money on the scrap steel and failing to do so.
Thank you for the up-date, we were wondering what all the floating things were doing here. If scrap steel prices are so low, no wonder there are rusty old boats floating in the waters. We enjoy watching the activity in the bay, so we will coming watching.