Nauticapedia Project

01/06/2026

Nauticapeda 2025 Year End
Total Vessel Names Represented: 98,475
Unlike library stacks or shelves of artifacts the database holdings are not transparent, so I have compiled some statistics to give a glimpse of the rich diversity of records held in the Nauticapedia.
Total Shipwrecks and Disasters Recorded: 17,655 records
Total Images on site: 18,920 from 1,297 different donor sources
Full-rigged Ships – 550 records
Barks – 990 records
Barkentines - 220 records
Brigs - 330 records
Brigantines – 165 records
Schooners – 3,740 records
Tugs – 10,950 records
Fishboats – 23,815 records
Yachts – 21,340 records
Passenger Vessels – 4,345 records
Work Boats – 3,905 records

Try typing in a name or keyword such as - Princess, or Princess Maquinna (the more you type in the more narrow the search results will be) - and follow one of the links for details. (Try different spellings for greater success.)

01/06/2026

https://nauticapedia.ca/dbase/Query/dbsubmit_Vessel.php

Nauticapeda 2025 Year End

Total Vessel Names Represented: 98,475

Unlike library stacks or shelves of artifacts the database holdings are not transparent, so I have compiled some statistics to give a glimpse of the rich diversity of records held in the Nauticapedia.

Total Shipwrecks and Disasters Recorded: 17,655 records

Total Images on site: 18,920 from 1,297 different donor sources

Full-rigged Ships – 550 records
Barks – 990 records
Barkentines - 220 records
Brigs - 330 records
Brigantines – 165 records
Schooners – 3,740 records
Tugs – 10,950 records
Fishboats – 23,815 records
Yachts – 21,340 records
Passenger Vessels – 4,345 records
Work Boats – 3,905 records

Try typing in a name or keyword such as - Princess, or Princess Maquinna (the more you type in the more narrow the search results will be) - and follow one of the links for details. (Try different spellings for greater success.)

11/03/2025

This is a naval unit that originated in Victoria BC as a reaction against the unpreparedness of Canada for a naval contribution to the First World War. There was no naval reserve prior to this unit - actually a unit of the Royal Navy. It is often confused with the RCNVR - which was not formed until 1923.

There is no publicly available nominal list of the personnel who served in the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve (RNCVR). This is a ’work in progress‘ that is continuously being updated. It currently contains more than 7,300 names and it is hoped that eventually it will be more or less comp...

11/03/2025

Introduction to the Nominal List of Members of the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve

There is no publicly available nominal list of the personnel who served in the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve (RNCVR). This is a ’work in progress‘ that is continuously being updated. It currently contains more than 7,300 names and it is hoped that eventually it will be more or less complete.

There is no publicly available nominal list of the personnel who served in the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve (RNCVR). This is a ’work in progress‘ that is continuously being updated. It currently contains more than 7,300 names and it is hoped that eventually it will be more or less comp...

10/02/2025

Southpaw X
Nautical photographer Ray Warren captured a great photo of a new vessel on the coast - the Southpaw X

09/04/2025

NAUTICAPEDIA New Milestone Reached - 96,000 vessels
Adding new vessels to the list has slowed as the list starts to become more populated. I just hit 96,000 this morning. My main focus now is re-visiting each record and updating/completing/correcting each one. I have already completed 35,000 reviews working alphabetically - and am just completing the letter "H". I reckon I will be finished this review next December. I am using the Libraries and Archives Canada database that Don Feltmate and I convinced them to create to bring the records up to date in 1984. That still leaves 40 years of records to somehow finish off after that. (But thats a whole other story.)

08/21/2025

Confusing Ship Names
There must be a story behind the misnaming of the Sansum Point! The builder seems to have painted on Samsum Point - but that's not the official name. I have found many similar cases where the owner gave their vessel a long name which was later found to be cumbersome - or expensive to have painted on the vessel. Sometimes they make unofficial name changes which don't correspond to the official record. It can make for confusion in the historical record! See

08/21/2025

Vessels Built by Harris Built Products Ltd.
A lesser known builder located in Lantzville, Harris Built Products created a line of small boom tugs. Capturing these more obscure stories has always been a goal of The Nauticapedia. They are just as interesting - and sometimes more so than the big companies. See

Roberta Eisler recalls "Harris Built Products Ltd. was founded in 1965 in Lantzville, BC by my Dad, Sheldon J. Harris. The plant was located in the Metromart Industrial Village (8 miles north of Nanaimo on Island Highway) at Lantzville BC. He had the company until he retired in 2007. He started out....

08/20/2025

Wreck of the Full-rigged Ship Hartfield

I was able to find an image of the Hartfield which was wrecked off the west coast of Vancouver Island. On February 5, 1908 all hope was given up for this overdue ship at Victoria BC Canada. This vessel was 104 days out from Valparaiso Chile en route to Tacoma WA USA and had a crew of 26, all presumed lost. This vessel is thought to have capsized after her cargo shifted off the west coast of Vancouver Island, where wreckage was later found.

See

08/14/2025

Freshwater Fleet in Manitoba
The Nauticapedia covers the vessels of western Canada in detail - and I received input from a reader from Manitoba that reminds us that there is also a significant freshwater fleet in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Johnny Saunders sent me images of the cra/passenger ferry Joe Keeper at the York Factory First Nation. See

08/13/2025

Can You Use These Reference Books?
When I was doing my research for the Nauticapedia I used a set of volumes of Lloyd's Register - one set from each of 6 decades which effectively gave me instant lookup for bigger ships. I am ready to give these to a reader who can use them - and who will come and pick them up. If that is you - please PM me direct - don't reply to this posting - and we will make arrangements.

08/11/2025

Ex-RCN Vessels as Yachts
The Barmar was taken up by the RCN as a Harbour Craft - and after the war was sold out of service - becoming a power yacht - the Clavella - that only went out of service before the Covid emergency.