City of Prince Rupert lowers Mariner's Park flags in memory of weekend fishing vessel victims

The fishing vessel Caledonian
capsized north of Tofino
on Saturday evening

The Prince Rupert Park dedicated to those that travel the on the water marked a tragic event from the weekend on Tuesday.

Yesterday,  city staff lowered the flags at Mariner's Park, the city's way of paying its respects to the families of those crew member that were drowned in a marine incident Saturday, 55 kilometres off the coast of Vancouver Island north of Tofino.

Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain outlined the nature of the City's gesture through his Facebook page yesterday, calling attention to the history of the vessel Caledonian, which once fished for the JS McMillan company on the North Coast, in recent years it had fished for a Port Hardy fishing company.

Flags at Mariner's Park flew at half staff on Tuesday, in memory
of three commercial fishermen who perished in a marine incident
over the weekend off of Vancouver Island
(photo from Mayor Brain's Facebook page)

The Caledonian was lost in the late evening period of Saturday, with the Canadian Coast Guard first notified of the incident at 10 PM and dispatching three vessels and an aircraft to look for survivors of the incident.

Sadly three of the crew perished as a result of the capsizing, with the Coast Guard rescuing a fourth.

The surviving crew member was first taken to a Cruise ship which had medical facilities onboard, after which he was transferred to a Victoria area hospital.

The three bodies of the remaining crew members were recovered by the Coast Guard on Sunday.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has deployed an investigator to review the events surrounding the weekend incident.

Some of the background related to the Coast Guard efforts over the weekend can be reviewed below:


Global TV -- Commercial fisherman remembers 3 colleagues who died when their boat capsized
Victoria Times Colonist -- Three drown, one rescued in capsizing of fishing boat off Tofino
CBC News -- Fishing boat capsizes north of Tofnio leaving 3 dead
CHEK TV -- Three crew members dead, one saved, after fishing boat sinks north of Tofino
CKNW News -- Three dead after fishing boat capsizes near Tofino
CTV News -- Three dead after commercial fishing boat capsizes off Tofino