47 Ripple Rock a Bit of History

Schematic of Ripple Rock

Of the known marine hazards probably the most notorious on the BC coast or anywhere for that matter would be Ripple Rock.  It was described by the explorer George Vancouver as "one of vilest stretches of water in the world."  Mention Ripple Rock to anyone in BC and they would immediately know all about it and add their two cents worth to the discussion.

To travel Seymour Narrows safely a ship’s captain could only travel through the narrows during high or low slack when the narrows was calm with no currant.  During maximum tide flow the narrows would run up to 18 nauts, with large whirl pools that could easily pull a ship onto the dreaded rock.  The whirl pools the rock created could even pull a log or a small boat down and capsize it.

With almost certain peril to crew and ship many impatient captains would try to enter the narrows when the tide was running faster then the capability of the ship and get swept upon the dreaded rock. The first ship to succumb to the rock was the side-wheel steamer the Saranac.  From 1875 to 1958 twenty large ships and 100 smaller vessels were badly damaged or sunk because of the rock. Over the next 83 years 110 people were drowned by the rock.

The first two attempts to remove the rock were unsuccessful as it was undertaken from above with the drill rigs held in place by cables that continually snapped because of the 18 nauts tide that sweep through Seymour Narrows during maximum tide flow.  It was the 1955 attempt which culminated in the April 5,1958, explosion that blew the top off the rock and lowered the reef to 14 meters clearance at low tide. This was accomplished after a study commissioned by NRC Canada recommended drilling down from Maude Island, and under the sea floor to the reef.  From there two shafts were drilled upwards into each of its twin peaks, which were filled with explosives.

This was the largest none nuclear explosion in the world up to that time, and the first live coast-to-coast television coverage of an event in Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police cleared the area within 3 miles of the explosion, and the engineers and TV crews that witnessed the explosion were housed in a bunker.

One event from the Ripple Rock saga that stays with me to this day is the time I flew over Ripple Rock on my way back to boarding school. It was quite by chance that Thomas Widowson and I had caught the same plane over to Campbell River during the final construction of the tunnels leading into the rock.  As I was quite fascinated with the mystery of the rock and the process leading up to its demise this gave me a unique opportunity to view the operation from the air as the plane circled on landing to drop the workman off at the site. This small thing in a way connected me to an event that helped to define who I was and where I had come from and in my mind tied me to a part of BC history.  How trivial this might have been I nevertheless considered it my fortune.

It was then on to Campbell River and boarding school, but I continued to follow the story until the big day of the explosion and the pictures of that event made it into Life Magazine, the definitive recorder of important events during that era.

The blowing up of Ripple Rock