Before it was a problem boat with fuel leaks and popped planks, the Western Star was the oldest working fishing boat in B.C.
Launched in the winter of 1912, the same year the Titanic sank, it was originally called the Chief Zibassa. Together with its sister ship, Chief Skugaid, it was built at the Vancouver Shipyards as a halibut schooner for the brand-new Canfisco fish-packing plant in Prince Rupert.
In June of 1916, the Prince Rupert Journal reported that the Zibassa unloaded some 55,000 lbs of halibut after only nine days out. The story ran below the headlines “Russia is Swamping Austrians in Big Drive” and “Roosevelt Will Not Likely Be the Republican Nominee.”
Over the course of her 112 years at sea, the Western Star was owned by seven fishing companies, most recently the Frederick Sound Fishing Company. It was renamed in 1933.
As recently as 2016, the Western Star was in good enough shape to be boarded by curious visitors at the Richmond Maritime Festival.
Last year, its sister ship Chief Skugaid suffered a similarly sad end when it sank into the Fraser River. David Cobb, its last owner, struggled to repair the boat or find a legal moorage.
Chief Skugaid famously served as a mother ship for rum-runners for most of the U.S. Prohibition era (1920-1933), and was never caught. Today its name lives on as a cocktail — a Chief Skugaid includes a rum-tea tincture mixed with orange peels, syrup, and more rum.