98 The Sergey Yesenin

One of the most scenic boat rides anywhere is the ferry ride from Vancouver to Victoria or what is commonly called the Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay run. On this particular day it was just another routine sailing for the ferry, the Queen of Victoria, a typical August afternoon back in ’70. This was soon to change, as events would soon take place that would stay in my memory for the rest of my life.

What appeared to be a normal crossing turned into a disaster. It seems there had been an accident in Active Pass between the Russian freighter, the Sergey Yesenin, and the ferry. The impact just about sliced the Queen of Victoria in half, as the Sergey Yesenin on rounding the corner into Active Pass plowed straight into the ferry’s port side.

When I arrived at the little Rest Haven Hospital to begin my six to eleven shift everyone was in a panic. The tragedy of what had happened at sea that afternoon was now continuing in the emergency room as I came on shift. Even now the doctors were frantically working to save a twenty-four year old mother who had been crushed by the freighter. She had just gone down to the car deck to nurse her small baby, unaware of what was about to happen minutes later as the freighter struck, instantly killing her nursing baby and crushing her liver. After working frantically for hours to keep her alive it was with sadness that they realized they were losing her. Blood was rushed out from Victoria in the hope of preventing the inevitable but it was with extreme sadness that they watched as the young mother slowly slipped away to join her baby.

The sadness of having to wheel her down from the OR to the temporary morgue at the hospital will always stay in my memory. All we can do for the present is wait for the time when such things will be no more than a distant memory.