In the spring of 1958, John Guzzwell became known as “the man who came back from the dead” after circumnavigating the globe in a 20-foot sailboat and surviving gales and a cyclone that other, larger, boats had been destroyed in. Guzzwell had launched Trekka from Victoria in 1954, after building it by hand in a rented shed behind Johnny Bell’s pizza shop on View Street.
After this, Trekka became famous for completing two more circumnavigational journeys before being abandoned in a scrapyard and left to succumb to the ravages of time. Eventually, Trekka was rescued and restored and is now within the care of the Maritime Museum of BC.
The Maritime Museum is hosting the Our Fleet: Small Craft with a Story exhibit, which shares the stories of three little BC boats with huge history: Trekka, Tilikum, and Dorothy. The exhibit also displays several large models of noteworthy boats with a breathtaking level of detail and craftsmanship.
Maritime Museum executive director Brittany Vis says that most of these are called “builder’s models,” which were built by the actual ship manufacturer, and therefore are the most accurate and detailed representations of these boats available. Vis says that while the 38-foot Tilikum did not completely circumnavigate the world, it still had a robust history, launching from Oak Bay in 1901 and travelling across the Pacific to Australia, New Zealand, and England.
“Tilikum is definitely a unique one in that she was a dugout canoe that was converted into a sailboat,” says Vis. “A lot of people, when they set out, did not expect the boat to get very far, so family and friends were waving off [captain John] Voss and [Norman] Luxton, kind of expecting that was the last they’d see of them, completely underestimating how seaworthy dugout canoes really are.”
Visitors will also learn about Dorothy, a luxury yacht renowned for its beauty that also experienced many hardships and triumphs since its launch from Victoria’s Inner Harbour in 1897. Vis hopes that visitors of the exhibit will be inspired by its many incredible tales, and she believes that this sort of history emphasizes human connections.
“I just think it’s really interesting to hear the human stories behind these vessels, and the travels they went through,” she says. “We’ve also got a variety of materials from these vessels, and some of these objects are quite old and significant, so hopefully people will learn the story, and maybe even be inspired to go see it themselves.”
The Maritime Museum of BC strives to preserve and present a seafaring history that many landlubbers could never imagine, and Vis says that she hopes the Our Fleet exhibit will educate people on the robust maritime history of the region.
“A lot of people will think of the sailing culture on the east coast, but there’s a huge sailing culture here in BC as well,” she says. “Hopefully people will understand a little bit more about that through the stories of these three boats.”
Our Fleet: Small Craft with a Story
Until Saturday, May 14
Maritime Museum of BC
mmbc.bc.ca