Happy ending for CN Tugboat No. 6

A rescue mission of sorts played out today on the Penticton waterfront as divers and an environmental response company came to the aid of one of the region's most famous watercraft.

Canadian National Tugboat No. 6, one of two tugs situated adjacent to the sternwheeler SS Sicamous and the only one of the three that's actually still in the water, had taken on damage.

Indeed, the boat, which typically floats in approximately seven feet of water, was resting on the lake bottom as the operation began today.

On site was Chris Schmidt of the City of Penticton, who filled us in on the situation.

"We suspect that during that winter cold snap," he explained, "the ice built up around this side of the hull and froze one of the waterlines going to the cooling system. Then when it thawed a bit, it opened up, the ice melted, and then we had water come into the hull."

Schmidt estimated that 40,000 litres had ultimately made its way inside the ship. There, it mixed with oily substances to become what Schmidt described as "effluent."

"The reason I say it's effluent is that it's like bilge water. There's some oily stuff in there, there's a diesel motor in there."

Fortunately, added Schmidt, today's efforts -- a veteran two-person dive team with Inland Divers worked with Ram Environmental Response throughout the morning -- contained the effluent "100% in the hull."

"It's now starting to float again too, so that's also a good sign," said Schmidt just before noon today.

Today's apparently happy ending is the latest chapter in a long and notable history for a boat that played an important role in the development of the Okanagan.

For a quarter century from 1948 onward, Tugboat No. 6 worked the waters of Okanagan Lake, fulfilling a critical role pushing and towing railway barges loaded with crops between Kelowna and Penticton.

By the 1970s, the Okanagan road network had evolved and the days of moving fruit and veggies by water had come to an end. So the made-in-England Tug No. 6 was retired in 1973 and ultimately moved to Penticton 34 years later.

It's lived a peaceful existence since adjacent to the Sicamous and the Naramata in the SS Sicamous Heritage Park. It recently even had a coffee brand named after it.

The operation will finish by Friday, said Schmidt, adding that the group in charge of the ship, the SS Sicamous Society, will "have shore power to the boat and have a heat source on board to make sure this doesn't happen again."