Home
John MacFarlane is the coordinator of the Nauticapedia Project. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, (London U.K.) in 1994. He is the Curator Emeritus of the Maritime Museum of British Columbia in Victoria BC. He is the author of numerous books and articles including Canada's Admirals & Commodores; Canada's Naval Aviators and the Official Guide to Pacific Rim National Park.
His The Nauticapedia List of British Columbia's Floating Heritage represents the most complete inventory of floating heritage in British Columbia published to date. It recognizes older floating vessels built before 1960 as an intrinsic component of British Columbia's nautical heritage.
The list of 1,170 vessels is intended to serve as a handy reference for ship watchers, historians, casual observers, and armchair explorers. The pedigree of each vessel provides a snapshot of the nautical and industrial history of the province. These boats/vessels or their pedigrees are exemplars of the designer's vision, the builder's craftsmanship, the activities of the owners who used them, and the functions and events to which they are tied.
Three more volumes covering the vessels built before 1975 are anticipated with Volume Two coming out at the end of June. Each of these volumes will contain the histories of about 1,200 vessels each.
With Lynn J. Salmon, Macfarlane has co-written an updated history of Captain John Voss and his remarkable journey from Vancouver Island to London, England, between 1901 and 1904, in a Nuu-chah-nulth dugout canoe, Around the World in a Dugout Canoe (Harbour 2019). See below. This book won a John Lyman Book Award for best book published in the category of "Canadian Naval and Maritime History" in 2020.
Paddlewheelers of Western Canada and the USA (Self-published $37.05) is MacFarlane's curated and illustrated collection of more than 2,100 histories of the sternwheelers and sidewheelers that served in waters of the Pacific and Arctic watersheds of western North America. He has assembled detailed accounts in an easy–to–read, easy–to–access book for casual readers as well as nautical historians. These magnificent vessels are most often associated with the waters of the Mississippi River. But they were also an integral part of the development of the west until the completion of the construction of railways and roads that made them obsolete. So quickly did they disappear that they have become largely forgotten. The romance associated with these vessels is a throwback to an era which is remembered with nostalgia. This encyclopedic work is a glimpse into river and lake travel in the era of steam with 441 pages and 66 illustrations.
BOOKS:
The Nauticapedia List of British Columbia's Floating Heritage (Volume 1) www.nauticapedia.ca $25 978-0-9936954-0-7
Around the World in a Dugout Canoe (Harbour Publishing, 2019) $29.95 978-1-55017-879-1. Co-writer, Lynn J. Salmon.
Shipwreck! A Chronicle of British Columbia Marine Disasters and Shipwrecks (Self-published, 2021) $29.95 9780993695483
Paddlewheelers of Western Canada and the USA (Self-published, 2021) $37.05 978-0993695476
[BCBW 2021]
***
Around the World in a Dugout Canoe by John MacFarlane and Lynn J. Salmon
(Harbour Publishing $29.95)
Review by Alan Twigg (BCBW 2019)
You have likely heard about the voyage of Thor Heyerdahl and his Kon-Tiki raft, but unless you own a copy of The Encyclopedia of B.C., the prolonged voyage of Captain John Voss and the Tilikum probably hasn't hit home. That's why John MacFarlane and Lynn J. Salmon have teamed up for Around the World in a Dugout Canoe (Harbour $29.95). Voss remarkably sailed from Vancouver Island to London, England, between 1901 and 1904, in a Nuu-chah-nulth dugout canoe, and they claim his oft-maligned character deserves a far more sympathetic portrayal.
The true story of Danish-born "Captain" Voss starts when he was mismanaging some hotels and bars in Victoria. A former mariner, he had gained a shady reputation for alleged involvements with 'Shanghi' -- that time-honoured British practice of doping unsuspecting barroom patrons who would wake the next morning with a terrible hang-over, miles away, at sea, forced to earn their keep as a sailor.
One winter afternoon in 1900, over soup, Voss boasted to a young journalist named Norman Luxton that he could 'best' the achievements of Joshua Slocum, a Nova Scotian-born sailor who, in a tiny yawl named the Spray, had recently sailed 46,000 miles around the world and made a small fortune by writing Sailing Alone Around the World.
Luxton, who had known Voss for two years, was frustrated writing articles about Victoria's small elite. Keen for adventure, he told Voss he had worked on sealing vessels on the Bering Sea, so the duo hatched a daring plan to out-do Slocum: They would acquire a large First Nations dugout canoe and sail it to London after outfitting it with home-made sails.
Voss's choice was a large whaling canoe, of the type used by the Nuu-chah-nulth, carved from a solid red cedar tree. Exact details of how or where Voss purchased this dugout on Vancouver Island are murky. There are six origin stories explored in MacFarlane and Salmon's book. Ironically, as it turned out, they named it Tilikum, a word meaning friend in the Chinook language.
Conversion of the Tilikum into an ocean-going vessel was completed at Spotlight Cove on Galiano Island by shipwright Harry Vollmers, carpenter John Shaw and Voss. The traditional lines of the 38-foot long dugout canoe were decked-over, the sides built up by a half-foot, with a small cabin fixed on top.
Three masts with a full set of sails were sewn by the shipwright's wife, nearly 400-lbs of lead weight were bolted to the keel for ballast and a newly carved figure-head by Luxton (his only contribution to the conversion) completed the work.
One man would sail while the other man rested. Voss would be captain. Luxton reserved the literary rights of the adventure and would serve as mate. The pair agreed to a half interest each so long as they maintained a position on the boat. They would split any profits made through static display, lectures or publications about their journey. These terms would prove highly contentious.
Voss and Luxton embarked on the Tilikum from Oak Bay near Victoria on May 21, 1901. With only a few miles under their keel, battling the currents and winds at the entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait, they were forced to take refuge in Sooke Harbour.
It was fortuitous. They discovered and repaired leaks for five weeks, embarking for a second time on July 6th. Voss soon discovered Luxton had fibbed about his abilities as a sailor. He would have to teach Luxton how to handle the Tilikum for the two men to maintain a proper watch.
Tight living quarters, unvaried diet and the clash of two strong personalities made for a perilous voyage for 58 days -- until Luxton abandoned ship in Sydney, Australia, and never saw Voss again.
John Voss developed a showman's skills and became a keen promoter of his venture, attracting hundreds of curious citizens wherever he went, generating excitement and sparking the imagination and courage in others -- many who either joined him as mate or embarked on their own sea adventures.
At the end of the voyage, concluding in Margate, England, after nearly four years away, Voss was not greatly celebrated. He inexplicably abandoned the Tilikum and found his way back to Victoria. He resumed his hotel business briefly, worked as coxswain of the Quadra lifeboat, headed to Japan to take part in the fur seal-trade until it ended, found adventure with the Sea Queen and proceeded with the little-known voyage of the Tilikum II.
Back in Canada, Voss begun organizing his notes and even wrote to Luxton, asking if he could contribute his photographs from the trip, as well as supplying a portrait of himself. There is no record of a reply. When The Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss finally did appear in 1913, it did not contain any image of Luxton.
Voss settled in Tracy, California, and died in obscurity in 1922.
During the winter of 1927-28, Luxton sat down to write his account 'in answer' to Voss’ book, with an eye to correcting Voss's 'lies and deceptions.' He made it clear there was no intent to have his story published; rather, he was recording his side of the story for the sake of his daughter, Eleanor Georgina Luxton who would eventually edit his notes and photographs, adding biographical sketches, and publish Tilikum: Luxton's Pacific Crossing (Gray's Publishing, 1971).
This latter account produced the loathsome characterization of Captain Voss -- and his villainy -- often referenced today: Voss is described as murderous, violent, drunken and pathetic.
Norman Luxton returned to Canada, married, and managed several businesses in Banff, as well as buying the Crag and Canyon newspaper. He became well-known amongst the Stoney Indians and was often hailed as 'Mr. Banff' in recognition of his entrepreneurial endeavours. He died in 1962.
According to Around the World in a Dugout Canoe, neither man recorded the journey faithfully. They conclude Voss's account (including details of voyages undertaken in two other craft -- the Xora and the Sea Queen) was likely the work of a ghost-writer or a very involved editor, so much so that much of the original language and flavour of Voss's own version (from a copy of his original manuscript -- and not the version that is widely published) had been altered and 'gentrified.'
They claim the original version -- the main source of much of Around the World in a Dugout Canoe -- is much more interesting and colourful. Further clues as to the real characters of Voss and Luxton are provided by newspaper accounts from around the world, letters to the editor and personal journals.
The Tilikum was sold several times to a variety of interesting characters but was ultimately left to decay on the muddy flats of Bugby's Hole near East Greenwich. Through a series of remarkable connections and coincidences, the Tilikum was finally retrieved from England in 1928 by the Vancouver Island Publicity Bureau and was partially restored through the combined efforts of the Thermopylae Club and the Victoria Chamber of Commerce.
After many years of open display at Thunderbird Park in Victoria, a more permanent -- and controversial --exhibit was established inside the Maritime Museum of British Columbia in 1965. People have since traveled from around the world to view the sturdy dugout canoe that eventually completed -- albeit in the cargo hold of the freighter Pacific Ranger -- a round-the-world voyage.
The intent of Around the World in a Dugout Canoe is to set the record straight so that Voss, Luxton and the Tilikum can take their rightful place among the great seafaring stories of B.C.'s marine history alongside the Beaver and the St. Roch.
978-1-55017-879-1
Alan Twigg is a Vancouver freelance writer.
***
His The Nauticapedia List of British Columbia's Floating Heritage represents the most complete inventory of floating heritage in British Columbia published to date. It recognizes older floating vessels built before 1960 as an intrinsic component of British Columbia's nautical heritage.
The list of 1,170 vessels is intended to serve as a handy reference for ship watchers, historians, casual observers, and armchair explorers. The pedigree of each vessel provides a snapshot of the nautical and industrial history of the province. These boats/vessels or their pedigrees are exemplars of the designer's vision, the builder's craftsmanship, the activities of the owners who used them, and the functions and events to which they are tied.
Three more volumes covering the vessels built before 1975 are anticipated with Volume Two coming out at the end of June. Each of these volumes will contain the histories of about 1,200 vessels each.
With Lynn J. Salmon, Macfarlane has co-written an updated history of Captain John Voss and his remarkable journey from Vancouver Island to London, England, between 1901 and 1904, in a Nuu-chah-nulth dugout canoe, Around the World in a Dugout Canoe (Harbour 2019). See below. This book won a John Lyman Book Award for best book published in the category of "Canadian Naval and Maritime History" in 2020.
Paddlewheelers of Western Canada and the USA (Self-published $37.05) is MacFarlane's curated and illustrated collection of more than 2,100 histories of the sternwheelers and sidewheelers that served in waters of the Pacific and Arctic watersheds of western North America. He has assembled detailed accounts in an easy–to–read, easy–to–access book for casual readers as well as nautical historians. These magnificent vessels are most often associated with the waters of the Mississippi River. But they were also an integral part of the development of the west until the completion of the construction of railways and roads that made them obsolete. So quickly did they disappear that they have become largely forgotten. The romance associated with these vessels is a throwback to an era which is remembered with nostalgia. This encyclopedic work is a glimpse into river and lake travel in the era of steam with 441 pages and 66 illustrations.
BOOKS:
The Nauticapedia List of British Columbia's Floating Heritage (Volume 1) www.nauticapedia.ca $25 978-0-9936954-0-7
Around the World in a Dugout Canoe (Harbour Publishing, 2019) $29.95 978-1-55017-879-1. Co-writer, Lynn J. Salmon.
Shipwreck! A Chronicle of British Columbia Marine Disasters and Shipwrecks (Self-published, 2021) $29.95 9780993695483
Paddlewheelers of Western Canada and the USA (Self-published, 2021) $37.05 978-0993695476
[BCBW 2021]
***
Review
Around the World in a Dugout Canoe by John MacFarlane and Lynn J. Salmon
(Harbour Publishing $29.95)
Review by Alan Twigg (BCBW 2019)
You have likely heard about the voyage of Thor Heyerdahl and his Kon-Tiki raft, but unless you own a copy of The Encyclopedia of B.C., the prolonged voyage of Captain John Voss and the Tilikum probably hasn't hit home. That's why John MacFarlane and Lynn J. Salmon have teamed up for Around the World in a Dugout Canoe (Harbour $29.95). Voss remarkably sailed from Vancouver Island to London, England, between 1901 and 1904, in a Nuu-chah-nulth dugout canoe, and they claim his oft-maligned character deserves a far more sympathetic portrayal.
The true story of Danish-born "Captain" Voss starts when he was mismanaging some hotels and bars in Victoria. A former mariner, he had gained a shady reputation for alleged involvements with 'Shanghi' -- that time-honoured British practice of doping unsuspecting barroom patrons who would wake the next morning with a terrible hang-over, miles away, at sea, forced to earn their keep as a sailor.
One winter afternoon in 1900, over soup, Voss boasted to a young journalist named Norman Luxton that he could 'best' the achievements of Joshua Slocum, a Nova Scotian-born sailor who, in a tiny yawl named the Spray, had recently sailed 46,000 miles around the world and made a small fortune by writing Sailing Alone Around the World.
Luxton, who had known Voss for two years, was frustrated writing articles about Victoria's small elite. Keen for adventure, he told Voss he had worked on sealing vessels on the Bering Sea, so the duo hatched a daring plan to out-do Slocum: They would acquire a large First Nations dugout canoe and sail it to London after outfitting it with home-made sails.
Voss's choice was a large whaling canoe, of the type used by the Nuu-chah-nulth, carved from a solid red cedar tree. Exact details of how or where Voss purchased this dugout on Vancouver Island are murky. There are six origin stories explored in MacFarlane and Salmon's book. Ironically, as it turned out, they named it Tilikum, a word meaning friend in the Chinook language.
Conversion of the Tilikum into an ocean-going vessel was completed at Spotlight Cove on Galiano Island by shipwright Harry Vollmers, carpenter John Shaw and Voss. The traditional lines of the 38-foot long dugout canoe were decked-over, the sides built up by a half-foot, with a small cabin fixed on top.
Three masts with a full set of sails were sewn by the shipwright's wife, nearly 400-lbs of lead weight were bolted to the keel for ballast and a newly carved figure-head by Luxton (his only contribution to the conversion) completed the work.
One man would sail while the other man rested. Voss would be captain. Luxton reserved the literary rights of the adventure and would serve as mate. The pair agreed to a half interest each so long as they maintained a position on the boat. They would split any profits made through static display, lectures or publications about their journey. These terms would prove highly contentious.
Voss and Luxton embarked on the Tilikum from Oak Bay near Victoria on May 21, 1901. With only a few miles under their keel, battling the currents and winds at the entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait, they were forced to take refuge in Sooke Harbour.
It was fortuitous. They discovered and repaired leaks for five weeks, embarking for a second time on July 6th. Voss soon discovered Luxton had fibbed about his abilities as a sailor. He would have to teach Luxton how to handle the Tilikum for the two men to maintain a proper watch.
Tight living quarters, unvaried diet and the clash of two strong personalities made for a perilous voyage for 58 days -- until Luxton abandoned ship in Sydney, Australia, and never saw Voss again.
John Voss developed a showman's skills and became a keen promoter of his venture, attracting hundreds of curious citizens wherever he went, generating excitement and sparking the imagination and courage in others -- many who either joined him as mate or embarked on their own sea adventures.
At the end of the voyage, concluding in Margate, England, after nearly four years away, Voss was not greatly celebrated. He inexplicably abandoned the Tilikum and found his way back to Victoria. He resumed his hotel business briefly, worked as coxswain of the Quadra lifeboat, headed to Japan to take part in the fur seal-trade until it ended, found adventure with the Sea Queen and proceeded with the little-known voyage of the Tilikum II.
Back in Canada, Voss begun organizing his notes and even wrote to Luxton, asking if he could contribute his photographs from the trip, as well as supplying a portrait of himself. There is no record of a reply. When The Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss finally did appear in 1913, it did not contain any image of Luxton.
Voss settled in Tracy, California, and died in obscurity in 1922.
During the winter of 1927-28, Luxton sat down to write his account 'in answer' to Voss’ book, with an eye to correcting Voss's 'lies and deceptions.' He made it clear there was no intent to have his story published; rather, he was recording his side of the story for the sake of his daughter, Eleanor Georgina Luxton who would eventually edit his notes and photographs, adding biographical sketches, and publish Tilikum: Luxton's Pacific Crossing (Gray's Publishing, 1971).
This latter account produced the loathsome characterization of Captain Voss -- and his villainy -- often referenced today: Voss is described as murderous, violent, drunken and pathetic.
Norman Luxton returned to Canada, married, and managed several businesses in Banff, as well as buying the Crag and Canyon newspaper. He became well-known amongst the Stoney Indians and was often hailed as 'Mr. Banff' in recognition of his entrepreneurial endeavours. He died in 1962.
According to Around the World in a Dugout Canoe, neither man recorded the journey faithfully. They conclude Voss's account (including details of voyages undertaken in two other craft -- the Xora and the Sea Queen) was likely the work of a ghost-writer or a very involved editor, so much so that much of the original language and flavour of Voss's own version (from a copy of his original manuscript -- and not the version that is widely published) had been altered and 'gentrified.'
They claim the original version -- the main source of much of Around the World in a Dugout Canoe -- is much more interesting and colourful. Further clues as to the real characters of Voss and Luxton are provided by newspaper accounts from around the world, letters to the editor and personal journals.
The Tilikum was sold several times to a variety of interesting characters but was ultimately left to decay on the muddy flats of Bugby's Hole near East Greenwich. Through a series of remarkable connections and coincidences, the Tilikum was finally retrieved from England in 1928 by the Vancouver Island Publicity Bureau and was partially restored through the combined efforts of the Thermopylae Club and the Victoria Chamber of Commerce.
After many years of open display at Thunderbird Park in Victoria, a more permanent -- and controversial --exhibit was established inside the Maritime Museum of British Columbia in 1965. People have since traveled from around the world to view the sturdy dugout canoe that eventually completed -- albeit in the cargo hold of the freighter Pacific Ranger -- a round-the-world voyage.
The intent of Around the World in a Dugout Canoe is to set the record straight so that Voss, Luxton and the Tilikum can take their rightful place among the great seafaring stories of B.C.'s marine history alongside the Beaver and the St. Roch.
978-1-55017-879-1
Alan Twigg is a Vancouver freelance writer.
***
