Jervis King, Jervis Chief and Jervis Mist

Today as I was unwrapping a new roll of toilet paper, I remembered I planned to write about the Jervis King, Jervis Chief and the Jervis Mist.

We were cod fishing, aboard the Jervis Mist, in the Skookumchuck Narrows when we first saw the two “muscle” tugs, the Jervis King and the Jervis Chief, with their large log boom under tow. They appeared to be waiting on the inside of the Narrows for slack tide. Slack tide that day lasted only about 5 minutes, so the skippers were likely timing their window of opportunity to the second, to tow the log boom through this turbulant area.

The boom looked to be made up of about 38 sections with upwards of 9 bundles per section. Each bundle may have contained 20 - 25 logs. The hemlock logs are bundled together with fir and cedar in order to keep the hemlock logs from sinking.

The Skookumchuck Narrows is a dangerous stretch of water to traverse in any size boat and wary boaters use caution and have a great deal of respect for the “Chuck”. The current can run upwards of 16 1/2 knots on a big run in and 16 knots on a run out. Huge whirlpools form, large drop-offs occur and the raging water is always unpredictable. Tourists come from all over the world to walk the Skookumchuck Trail to view the impressive force of a large amount of ocean water being pushed through a narrow, rocky area.

As the rising tide lessened toward slack, we watched the two tugs begin to tow their boom against the current and as the chuck went slack they herded the boom through the narrowest, difficult section, winding between the kelp beds, islands and various boats. The Jervis King was towing the boom and the Jervis Chief was steering it and pushing it sideways to keep it all together.

We were well out of their way as the tide began to turn and wash them outwards toward Egmont. Perhaps a boom chain broke or pulled through it’s hole in a boomstick but as we watched the boomsticks holding the bundles parted and four large bundles of logs were left behind in the centre of the chuck. The tugs moved the main boom into centre channel and quickly started rounding up the wayward bundles. The skippers used the big tugs like dozer boats, parting the boom and pushing one bundle at a time into the centre.

An agile crew member leapt onto the boom with his pike pole and started pushing, pulling and securing the bundles back into place as the tugs worked them closer.

Remember, this was just outside the Skookumchuck Rapids, which can be a frightening enough place, without standing on a log with caulk boots on your feet and a 15 foot long pole in hand. We could see this “boomman” wore a life vest, but still if he’d slipped and fallen in between the logs he would have to rely solely on his own strength and determination to get back out of the water before the logs crushed him or the current swept him under the boom.

The tugs worked back and forth at full power, with the exhaust pouring out as they reversed and forwarded as quickly as possible, pushing huge amounts of water and bundled logs through the rapidly increasing current, which was sweeping them along at 3 knots.

They managed to contain the bundles and took the boom under tow once more. Two hours and two miles down the channel they let the boom go adrift again to do more repair work to be sure it was seaworthy. As the Jervis King took the boom in tow, heading South down Agamemnon Channel, the Jervis Chief headed off toward Saltery Bay.

Meanwhile the Jervis Mist skipper and crew had a great day. Kent, Sean, Kaia, Crystal, Jim and I caught 3 nice big Ling Cod and 4 Rock Cod in the Skookumchuck. We ate the freshest fried ling cod for lunch, then spent the rest of the day enjoying the sun and sea on the boat.

Eight hours later we heard the Jervis King call Comox Traffic on VHF channel 71. He reported he was entering the Traffic Management Zone at Pearson Island, just outside the entrance to Pender Harbour. It took him all day to traverse a very short distance, towing that huge boom, working against Mother Nature, in order to supply you and I with a load of wood-be (pun intended) plywood, lumber, newspaper, pulp and paper.

I now have much more appreciation for my roll of toilet paper after watching just one segment of the logging industry on which our beautiful Province of British Columbia was founded.