The Noble Lady is safe and sound following last weekend’s storm, which caused the vessel to break free from her mooring near Gibsons Harbour and enjoy a wild ride before ending up beached.
Owner Tom Stenner said the main cable to the buoy broke due to the storm, which included extreme winds and astronomical tides.
“It went up on the beach, just past Armours Beach and then we had to just leave it there for then,” said Stenner. “The next morning, on the next high tide, we took it off and took it away.”
Ian Winn, Area F resident, said if it wasn’t for the fact the wind died down and the tide changed directions, the ship could have done some serious damage to a house located on that beach.
Winn said a friend who lives on Armours Beach watched as the Noble Lady came closer and closer to his home, while being pushed by the wind and waves.
“I'd heard about this big ship that was right outside his window… so we went over to have a look at it. And yeah, there was a lot of concern initially,” said Winn. “I said to [my friend], what did you think when you saw it approaching? He said, 'I just hope it stops, that’s all you can hope for at that point.' And, fortunately, it did.”
Winn says had the wind and storm surges continued, it could have been a very different outcome. He notes through his volunteer work, he’s been involved with abandoned and derelict vessels for about 10 years now.
“So, I can well appreciate that if it hadn't been able to be removed early that Sunday morning on a high tide, then it quite likely would have ended up sitting there for a long period of time waiting for the right tide conditions,” said Winn. "And then you run the problem of it breaking up and it becomes a huge mess of marine debris and you can't refloat it. So, they're always a challenge.”
But, Stenner said, he was able to move the Noble Lady successfully.
“The next morning, on the next high tide, we took it off and took it away.”
Stenner said instead of returning the Noble Lady to Gibsons, she was moved to a different location in Howe Sound.
As previously reported in Coast Reporter, the vessel has a storied history on the Sunshine Coast. Originally registered as the MV Machigonne, the ship was a passenger-only ferry providing service between Gibsons and Horseshoe Bay between 1948 and 1951, before Black Ball Ferries took over.
Stenner, the owner of Active Marine Towing, purchased the former ferry in June 2022, because of its history. Although Stenner was born three years after the Machigonne retired from ferry service, his parents would have travelled aboard her after they moved to the Sunshine Coast in 1947. His father, Fred Stenner, was the manager of the liquor store that would eventually become Molly’s Reach.
When a friend came across the vessel for sale in Campbell River in 2022, Stenner’s interest was piqued.
The Machigonne has been renamed several times, from the Gulf Trader to Coast Ranger and Saracen III, then Lahaina Lady — the name currently painted on a life ring seen onboard — and the Noble Lady. Nonetheless, the vessel is registered with Transport Canada as the Machigonne, but insured as the Noble Lady.
“I'm trying to figure out exactly what her name is. The registered name is Machigonne, but someone also said they called it the Noble Lady,” Stenner told Coast Reporter earlier this week. “I call her the Noble Lady.”
The vessel was built on the West Coast for the Royal Canadian Navy in 1941 to serve in the Second World War, according to Nauticapedia. After the build was completed by Star Shipyard (Mercer’s) Ltd. in New Westminster, she was launched on Sept. 17, 1941.
From 1942 through the war years, she patrolled out of Esquimalt through the Juan de Fuca Strait and was then known as HMC ML Q-070. Stenner said it was assigned during the war as an escort boat to the U.S. Navy. After 1945, she was sold and renamed the MV Machigonne.
Before BC Ferries and even before Black Ball Ferries, Sea Bus Lines transported walk-on passengers to and from the Coast. The MV Machigonne was part of that fleet, and carried up to 140 passengers between Gibsons and Horseshoe Bay until 1951, when it was acquired and replaced by Black Ball’s first vehicle-loading ferry.
By 1993, the Noble Lady had not moved under her own power for 21 years, when owners Jim and Betty Lou Hunt fixed her up. Then in the early 2000s, the Noble Lady was purchased in Prince Rupert and became home to John and Karen Boyd in Campbell River for nearly two decades. In their hands, the vessel became a liveaboard and underwent extensive interior upgrades.
Stenner says he’s still considering several ideas for the future of the ship, including using her as a tour boat or bed and breakfast.
With files from Keili Bartlett.
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