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 Place Names (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 538.