Story is everywhere
Not so long ago…finding ways to tell story…a journey across Saanich Inlet.
(P. Ferguson image, February 2020)
Yesterday
It seems an hour plus more of feeling through articles of history, sensing the writers’ directions, passions and dedications has come to a close for this time. I wander to the deck and stand before the behemoth twins. As the starboard bow opens…its wheel provides the sharp but not unpleasant tones of the skakuhachi. Seconds pass before the port bow begins its motion, the wheel’s sound of a leisurely creature rolling upon a dock as the aged wood structure absorbs the new balance.
These are familiar sounds to this single audience. These sound observations are soon dashed from behind as Peterbilt or Kenworth disturbs my study…we have docked as the fading ocarinas of Totoros float gently within the rain, below the sounds and weather lost to much of history.
Not so long ago
…a week plus some days there was another journey northwards along a familiar road to a familiar place. Coffee and morning munching…with family and friend. There was a plan this day but instead we venture from our familiar towards another dock…another watery tide from bay to bay aboard the M.V. Klitsa (Kleet-sah). It is while aboard the open deck vessel that my girl Rosemary begins voicing her own history, searching for landscapes once traveled, landmarks once familiar and of sails filled with the gentle wind of the day with family and friend. One wonders what sounds, what day was given to her that these memories have long lastingly endured?
Sailing across Saanich Inlet aboard M.V. Klitsa.
(P. Ferguson image, February 2020)
As I step across the deck, with my slight explorations, I find vantage points for the active shutter. Across the deck, the bow, towards the sun, colour and contrast…images for the day. As I step across the sill into the passenger’s lounge…the background wall is home to story…
The Start of an Era
The SS Cascade, built in 1906 as a 95-foot tramp steamer, was initially employed as a coastal freighter. In 1919 the Cascade was sold to five Royal Navy officers from H.M.S. Avoca who formed the Cascade Freighting and Towing Company and used Cascade to transport coal, between Union Bay, Nanaimo and Seattle and at other times to haul dynamite to James Island for Canadian Industries Limited (C.I.L.). In 1924 Cascade’s life changed when, at Yarrows Shipyards, Victoria it underwent a refit being converted from freighter to ferry. Its inaugural voyage taking place 6 October 1924.
Story is everywhere
I return to the deck to see Rosemary still at the port bow, her mind filled with her own times of not so long ago. There is story everywhere of self and place beneath today’s gentle sun. As the vessel courses across Saanich Inlet I know I will remember this day by finding the right words and connections – together with the vessel’s wake and flags, Rosemary’s voice, “their” voice amidst the sounds and weather of history.
Not so long ago…finding ways to tell story…a journey across Saanich Inlet.
(P. Ferguson image, February 2020)
About The Author
Comments