Seymour Narrows
Map
Seymour Narrows is a precarious body of water that flows with tidal rushes up to 16 knots (30 kmh) between Vancouver Island's central east coast and Quadra Island, which Vancouver called one of the vilest stretches of water in the world, perhaps, because the infamous Ripple Rock lurked just below the surface.1
By the mid-20th century this vilified twin-peaked rock damaged and sunk 119 vessels until, in 1958, it was packed with dynamite and decapitated in the world's largest non-nuclear peacetime explosion.2
Seymour Narrows was named after Rear Admiral George Francis Seymour (1787-1870), who was commander of the Pacific Station, from 1844-88, while the Station was located at Valparaiso, Chile.3
  • 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 538.
  • 2. B.C.'s Deadly Ripple Rock Blown Up, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Digital Archives.
  • 3. Scott, Raincoast Placenames, 538.
Mentions of this place in the documents
The Colonial Despatches Team. Seymour Narrows. The Colonial Despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871, Edition 2.0, ed. The Colonial Despatches Team. Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria. https://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/seymour_narrows.html.

Last modified: 2020-03-30 13:22:16 -0700 (Mon, 30 Mar 2020) (SVN revision: 4193)